Better Nature has launched a crowdfunding campaign to drive growth across the UK and Europe, as well as appointing a new non-executive director.

The crowdfund, launched through the Seedrs platform, forms part of a wider fundraising push to drive mainstream retail growth for the brand’s tempeh product range. Now open to the public, it seeks investors who share the brand’s vision to “help people live healthier lives through tempeh”.

Fiona Fitzpatrick has been appointed as a non-executive director to steer the business as it enters its next phase of growth. Fitzpatrick brings 25 years of experience within the food and beverage industry, and has scaled a number of food challengers to success including dessert brand, Gu, and frozen plant-based brand, Strong Roots.

Christopher Kong, CEO and co-founder at Better Nature, said: “This has been a phenomenal year for business – in the past few months we’ve launched into 560 Tesco stores across the UK, enjoyed sell-out success at over 900 Lidl stores, and have seen revenue increase by 230% YoY”.

He said that the raise will also enable the company to make tempeh more accessible through familiar formats such as burgers and falafels.

Kong added: “In 12 months’ time the meat-free aisle will look very different to how it looks now. With Fiona’s guidance, we have an opportunity to transform the category and lead the movement for natural, nutritious, minimally-processed plant-based foods, and that’s exciting.”

This week, the brand has also announced that it has become the UK meat free sector’s top scoring B Corporation, with an impact score of 99.7. Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are verified by the global nonprofit B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.

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