Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed’s KBW Ventures invests in French vegan fast food chain

Furahaa Group also has a food subscription box business and a distribution arm

KBW Ventures is among the investors who participated in in plant-based food solutions and fast food dining start-up Furahaa Group. Courtesy KBW Ventures

Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed’s KBW Ventures has invested in Furahaa Group, a company that owns a vegan fast food chain based in France.

The Paris-based start-up founded in 2015 by Arthur Devillers, also has an operating subsidiary known as PlantB2B that distributes vegan food and a company known as ViVeg that offers a subscription-based food box delivery service, KBW Ventures said in a statement on Tuesday. It did not disclose the value of its investment, which was made alongside a group of other investors in a seed funding round.

The start-up seeks to expand its PlantB2B subsidiary, which also stocks the group’s restaurants, to other French markets. It also plans to expand the ViVeg subscription service.

“Furahaa Group … while giving both consumers and other vendors a route to choose plant-based options, had me interested in the business immediately,” said Prince Khaled.

“The distribution business is strong and during the pandemic I saw a swift and organised pivot – something any investor would find very attractive in a portfolio company.”

The group also plans to open new Furahaa dining outlets and has plans to launch a franchise model for the chain.

“Furahaa would like to be the first plant-based chain in France,” Mr Devillers said. “It’s simple: we want to be everywhere that mainstream fast food is, but offering plant-based, delicious, ethical alternatives.”

KBW Ventures has invested in a number of companies in the food technology sector. Its portfolio of investments include plant-based alternative and cultivated cellular product companies. These include plant-based chicken product manufacturer Rebellyous Foods, US fast food company Veggie Grill and vegan jerky company Moku Foods.

Earlier this year, KBW Ventures participated in a pre-seed funding round of TurtleTree Labs, a Singapore company using biotechnology to create milk from cells.

In January, it agreed a follow-on investment in California-based BlueNalu, which produces laboratory-grown seafood. BlueNalu raised $60 million in debt through the issue of new convertible notes to both new and existing investors.