纯素足球运动员克里斯·斯莫林助力英国植物肉品牌公司融资460万美元

原文：https://vegnews.com/2020/8/vegan-soccer-player-chris-smalling-helps-uk-plant-based-meat-brand-raise-4-6-million

注：译文谨供参考。

VEGAN SOCCER PLAYER CHRIS SMALLING HELPS UK PLANT-BASED MEAT BRAND RAISE $4.6 MILLION

纯素足球运动员克里斯·斯莫林助力英国植物肉品牌公司融资460万美元

Plant-based brand THIS—maker of vegan bacon and chicken—will use the funding to launch 10 new products every year for the next three years.

植物肉品牌公司THIS（“这个”）是一家纯素食的培根和鸡肉制造商，将利用本轮融资的资金在未来三年里每年推出10款新产品。

by ANNA STAROSTINETSKAYA

作者：ANNA STAROSTINETSKAYA

AUGUST 12, 2020

2020年8月12日

This week, United Kingdom-based vegan brand THIS launched a campaign on crowdfunding platform Seedrs and has already raised ￡3.5 million ($4.6 million), with ￡2 million ($2.6 million) secured before the campaign went public. Investors include professional soccer star Chris Smalling—who plays for popular team Manchester United—along with a host of venture capital firms such as Backed VC, Five Seasons Ventures, Idinvest Partners.

总部设在英国的纯素食品牌公司THIS于本周在众筹平台Seedrs上发起了众筹活动，迄今已筹集了350万英镑（460万美元），其中200万英镑（260万美元）是在本次活动公开之前获得的。本轮融资的投资者包括为热门足球队曼彻斯特联队（Manchester United）效力的职业足球明星克里斯·斯莫林（Chris Smalling），以及Backed VC、Five Seasons Ventures、Idinvest Partners等众多的风险投资公司。

Founded by restaurateurs Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman, the company creates realistic vegan versions of bacon and chicken from soy and pea protein, which are now available in more than 2,000 stores and restaurants across the UK. Since its launch in June 2019, THIS has sold more than 5 million units of its plant-based meat products.

THIS公司由两位餐厅老板安迪·肖维尔（Andy Shovel）和皮特·沙曼（Pete Sharman）共同创立，采用大豆和豌豆蛋白打造逼真的纯素版培根和鸡肉产品，现已投放到英国各地2,000多家的商店和餐馆。自从其在2019年6月正式成立以来，THIS公司的植物肉产品销量已经突破了500万份。

“THIS is capitalizing on the most important trend in nutrition: strong demand for tasty plant-based meat alternatives, for all those who are increasingly conscious about the detrimental health, climate change, and animal welfare impacts of mass meat production,” Andre de Haes, founder of Backed VC, said. “This macro trend alone doesn’t explain THIS’s success; it is unprecedented to see a startup food product achieve widespread supermarket distribution right after launching. The team at THIS blend executional hyper-efficiency with both ground-breaking research and development and innovative marketing. THIS’s achievement as the fastest campaign in Seedrs history for a round above ￡1.5 million is well deserved.”

“人们越来越重视大规模肉类生产对人体健康、气候变化和动物福利造成的有害影响，故此THIS公司正在充分利用这个食品营养方面的最重大趋势：（广大消费者）对美味的植物性肉类替代品的需求强劲，”Backed VC公司的创始人安德烈·德·海斯（Andre de Haes）说道。“光看这个大势所趋还不能说明THIS公司的成功；（该公司）新创的食物产品在推出后立即实现了大量的超市分销业绩，这可是前所未见的事情。THIS公司团队将超高效率的执行能力与开拓性研发和创新性营销紧密结合。在Seedrs历史上开创了一轮融资超过150万英镑的最快的众筹活动，THIS公司取得这样的成果是当之无愧的。”

With the new capital, THIS plans to continue its aggressive expansion with a launch planned in two additional major supermarkets later this year. The team is also investing ￡1 million ($1.3 million) in new product development with the aim of launching 10 new vegan meats per year for the next three years. “Pete and I can scarcely believe how quickly the Seedrs campaign has been building momentum. I haven’t clicked ‘refresh’ this often since my online dating days,” Shovel said. “We’re truly honored that so many people have deemed THIS to be worthy of their investment; we’ll keep over-working and aging abnormally fast, in the hope that we make them a massive return.”

凭藉新获得的资本，THIS公司计划继续大举扩张，准备在今年晚些时候将产品推广到另外两家大型超市。该公司团队还将在新产品开发方面投入100万英镑（130万美元），打算在未来三年里每年推出10款新的纯素肉制品。“皮特和我几乎不敢相信本次Seedrs众筹活动一路高歌猛进是多么的快。自从以前我在网上交友之后，我都没有像现在这么频繁地点击‘刷新’，（以便查看最新的页面内容）”肖维尔说道。“如此多的人认为THIS公司值得他们的投资，让我们真的感到很荣幸；即使我们一直过度工作并且异常快地衰老，我们也要让他们获得巨大的回报。”（注：截至本译文发表前，THIS公司本轮众筹融资额已攀升至接近450万英镑。）

In 2018, Smalling was inspired to adopt the vegan lifestyle by his wife Sam Smalling, who has been vegan herself for several years. He has since credited his veganism for keeping him injury-free and is excited to support THIS. “I’ve been really impressed with what Andy & Pete have achieved in such a short time. They’ve created a killer brand with amazing products,” Smalling said. “[I am] thrilled to be part of their journey.”

斯莫林的妻子萨姆·斯莫林（Sam Smalling）是一名多年的纯素食者，她在2018年鼓励自己的丈夫也采纳了纯素生活方式。斯莫林后来将自己不再（因为运动而）受伤归功于纯素生活方式，现在他也很高兴支持THIS公司。“在这么短的时间里安迪和皮特所取得的成就真的让我很感动。他们用出色的产品创立了一个‘杀手级品牌’，”斯莫林说道。“[我]非常兴奋成为他们公司发展历程的一分子。”