Ahead of potential IPO, Impossible Foods promotes chief accountant to CFO

Dive Brief:

Redwood City, Calif.-based Impossible Foods has named David Borecky its new CFO.
Borecky joined the plant-based meat company in June 2019 as chief accounting officer. In January 2021, following former CFO David Lee’s move to AppHarvest, he stepped in as interim CFO.
Borecky’s promotion comes days after Impossible’s main competitor, Beyond Meat, reported mixed financial results and issued a third-quarter warning regarding the re-emergent pandemic’s impact on retail and dining.

Dive Insight:

Just prior to joining Impossible, Borecky spent three years as controller for payments startup Stripe, and before that directed finance and corporate development at another payments startup, Square.

“Leilani and David are extraordinary leaders who share our vision of turning back the clock on climate change by transforming the global food system,” CEO Patrick Brown said in a statement.

During the time Borecky headed Impossible’s accounting, tax, and financial operations, the company secured $700 million in funding. Since its 2011 founding, Impossible has raised over $1.5 billion.

“Despite the devastating impact of COVID on the restaurant business, we’ve more than doubled the number of restaurants serving Impossible products since the pandemic began in March 2020,” Borecky told MarketWatch in an email. He declined to comment on a potential IPO.

In April, sources close to Impossible told Reuters it’s aiming for an IPO or merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) by spring 2022, that would value it around $10 billion.

According to Impossible’s State of Meat in Foodservice Industry report, shared last week, retail sales of plant-based products have grown 43% since 2019, outpacing total food sales growth nine-fold. Additionally, it found, the U.S. market for plant-based meat is projected to reach about $15 billion by 2025, and sales are forecasted to grow 40% annually, compared to 0% annually for animal meat.

As CFO, Borecky is prioritizing reduced prices, as a means increasing accessibility to Impossible products, he said.

“It’s exciting to start seeing the prices of plant-based products come down, while in some categories, animal meat prices are going up,” Borecky told MarketWatch. “As we achieve economies of scale, we’ll continue to lower our prices, and we’ve already done so three times in the past year and half. Meanwhile, the unit economics of the meat industry have already reached their peak."