One of the hottest stories on public markets and in supermarkets - and, on grills - has been the surge of substitute plant-based burgers, which helped propel Beyond Meat ($BYND) to the top IPO of the year.
But Beyond Meat has to slug it out with another competitor, with nearly $800 million socked away from boldface investors and has yet to IPO. According to Thinknum data, Beyond Meat is out to a big advantage: its products are sold in more than 45,000 stores - see our map below, which allows users to zoom in right down to a state, city or intersection to track product sales.
Impossible Foods ($PRIVATE:IMPOSSIBLE) hasn't gone public yet, but recently reeled in a $300 million financing round from investors including Temasek, Viking Global Investors, Google Ventures and a deep bench of celebrities like Jay-Z, Serena Williams, and NFL quarterback Kirk Cousins.
Right now, the natural plant-based burger war is dividing most retail storefronts into either "Impossible" or "Beyond" shops; zoom in on our map to see how the companies have positioned themselves with grocers.
Beyond Meat was the first mover, and boasted more than 45,000 locations in which it is sold - compared to just over 7,200 for Impossible Meats. Already, Beyond Meat is already in supermarkets Kroger ($KR), Safeway ($PRIVATE:PRIV_ALBERTSONS) and Whole Foods ($AMZN) - as well as restaurants like TGIFridays ($PRIVATE:TGIFRIDAYS) and Del Taco ($TACO).
Being a "first mover" to public markets certainly seems to have made a difference for Beyond Meat - see how it stacked up (blue) against Impossible Foods (red) for search trends.
Impossible Foods is now growing aggressively having wrapped up its funding, however - the company grew staff by 7% just over June, according to our tracking of the company's LinkedIn ($MSFT) Headcount. Impossible's scale war against Beyond comes as the former has struggled to match demand, as plant-based burger popularity took off this spring.
From burgers that do less damage to the environment to ethically-sound eggs, investors have been clamoring to get into 'ESG' investments (focusing on environmental, social or corporate governance matters) in 2019.
But, if consumers are not pumped to test out the plant-based-burger-substitute, we've got all the McDonalds in the US mapped out below, for anyone on the run and in need of a bite this extended holiday weekend. No matter what burger you crave, chances are you'll have an opportunity to get your fix while celebrating Independence Day.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.