© Greenforce

Greenforce: Plant meat in powder form

Greenforce aims to provide an alternative protein source for humans with the 'world's most sustainable plant-based meat.' Founded in 2020, the startup with ten employees has launched vegan burgers, minced meat, and meatballs. Currently bootstrapped, the foodtech company is on a promising path in terms of revenue, as founder Thomas Isermann reveals in an interview.

Munich Startup: Who are you and what does Greenforce do?

Thomas Isermann: We are Greenforce, a young startup from Munich. We are currently revolutionizing the market for vegan meat substitutes with our products. Hannes-Benjamin Schmitz is behind Greenforce, along with me and a whole team of food experts and food enthusiasts who are leaders in protein research. We also have strong support on the team from Patrik Baboumian, 'Germany's strongest vegan.'

Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?

Thomas Isermann: We have made it our mission to secure protein supplies for future generations, as the next 2.3 billion people – a forecast for 2050 – will not be able to be fed with protein from meat and fish. Therefore, a plant-based diet is one of the biggest transformations of the coming decades. After years of development, we have developed a product that will transform the food industry: the world's most sustainable plant-based meat. Our secret is the pea-based powder for self-mixing. By adding water and oil, a meat-equivalent mixture is created.

Co-founder Thomas Isermann with three Greenforce products (© Greenforce).

Vegan alternatives are booming

Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!

Thomas Isermann: The market for vegan meat alternatives is currently booming, and we're aware of this and, of course, delighted. It's great to see that so many people are willing to rethink their approach and embrace alternatives for the sake of themselves and the environment. We see it as an opportunity that we share the same mission as many of our competitors in the market, allowing us to realize it more quickly together. Our products are characterized by a high degree of innovation and differ significantly from the competition in several respects.

Our USP is our innovative powder form. We give our customers the opportunity to mix their own plant-based meat and refine it to their own taste, while our competitors primarily offer ready-made, chilled, and plastic-packaged products. With our easy-to-mix powders, we enable our customers to prepare exactly the amount of (plant-based) meat they need, eliminating unnecessary food waste. They can be stored in a dry place and are delivered in sustainable kraft paper packaging. We completely eliminate the otherwise necessary, cost- and energy-consuming cold chain and relocate the production process to the end consumer's kitchen. This allows us to achieve a significantly lower carbon footprint and thus offer arguably the most sustainable plant-based meat in the world.

Our plant-based meat builds on the 'Do It Yourself' social media trend and enjoys high levels of community involvement. This has allowed us to continually refine our products. We enable anyone to prepare a vegan burger, a vegan meatball, or vegan mince from scratch. It's incredibly quick and easy.

Challenging: the highly competitive market

Munich Startup: What have been your three biggest challenges so far?

Thomas Isermann:

  1. One of the biggest challenges was optimizing the recipe for our plant-based meat. We spent years developing our raw materials and fine-tuning the flavor of our products. After tasting over 50 burger recipes, the results are impressive: our powder tastes and looks like meat. Only better.
  2. Another critical aspect was marketing such an innovative product online, one that requires explanation. Not everyone understands the concept of self-mixing plant-based meat – you have to take the customer by the hand and explain the product thoroughly. In addition, groceries tend to be purchased physically in supermarkets rather than online. With the support of our community and a minimal budget, we managed to launch our product online and are now recording relevant KPIs.
  3. Another challenge we currently face is competing with large corporations in the highly competitive meat alternative market with an even more innovative and cleaner product. We look forward to this challenge.
The vegan Greenforce burger is available in Munich, for example, at Käfer (© Greenforce).

Greenforce: Loyal base and renowned cooperations

Munich Startup: How are things going?

Thomas Isermann: Since this year, we've been on a promising sales path with Greenforce. A number of things have come together for us over the past few months, and it's great to see that all our hard work is now bearing fruit. For example, we've been able to attract well-known cooperation partners as well as various wholesalers and restaurants, and we're currently nominated for the 'Green Product' Award. We're also planning to make our products available to as many people as possible this quarter. Over the past few months, we've built a loyal customer base that continues to grow. The feedback has been overwhelming. Things couldn't be better for Greenforce right now. We're currently growing rapidly and are looking for new team members who want to actively shape the transformation of the food industry!

Munich Startup: How do you rate Munich as a startup location?

Thomas Isermann: Munich isn't the traditional startup hub like Berlin or Hamburg, for example. Nevertheless, the scene here continues to grow strongly, with numerous opportunities for young companies to network. As a startup, we feel right at home here in our hometown of Munich. Even though we've now renamed our most popular product, the 'Pflanzerl,' to Frikadelle for the masses.

“Salad belongs on the burger”

Munich Startup: Fries or salad?

Thomas Isermann: As Food startup, which offers burgers, we clearly have to choose the fries! Sweet potato fries are also welcome – the perfect combination for our burger in all its variations. For us, salad belongs on the burger!

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