Heura wants to grow beyond meat substitutes and in 2025 plans to launch various sweets and condiments on the market.
“We have invested 4 million euros in the design of new formulas with the aim of improving the nutritional value of unhealthy products. Broadly speaking, we are going to reduce fats and sugars through fibers and proteins,” says Marc Coloma, co-founder with Bernat Añaños.
It is still early to know the details of the products. For confidentiality reasons, the company cannot reveal them. In the coming months, it will apply for 5 patents before the European office. In addition to introducing new textures and fibers, one of them will protect a process to take advantage of industry waste.
The commitment to diversification comes seven years after the birth of Heura, a delicate moment since the vegetable meat substitutes sector is not growing as fast as expected. “Seeing the new reality, we have taken advantage of our R&D to take it to other categories,” reasons Coloma, who admits that the prices of substitutes are still high and that there are products on the market that do not taste good.
“We need to raise awareness about the need to reduce meat consumption, but at Heura we have decided that we do not want to be paternalistic and that we are going to remove social pressure,” he says. With this commitment, Heura will cease to be a vegan food company and will become an innovative food company. Initially, the new products will not contain animal protein, although they could contain it, since Heura will license its technology to third-party manufacturers.
The strategy comes at a time of internal changes in the company, which in recent months has renewed the management team after laying off 19% of the workforce in 2023. “We have focused on the markets of Spain, Portugal, France and Italy and we have abandoned direct distribution in Switzerland, Austria, the United Kingdom, Holland and Poland.”
Like other startup companies, Heura works to achieve profitability as soon as possible. According to his calculations, he will achieve this in 2026 as long as income – of 38 million in 2023 – continues to grow at a double-digit annual rate. In February, the company entered the Netherlands-based food manufacturer Upfield in a round in which it raised €40 million.
