Better Meat Than Animals: How Planted Is Rethinking Plant-Based Protein
Sara Fedele, Lead, PR and Communications at Kickstart Innovation
As part of our Interview with the Founder series, we explore the stories behind the companies emerging from our community and alumni network. Today, we're speaking with Pascal Bieri, Co-Founder of Planted, the Swiss FoodTech company developing plant-based meat through a combination of proprietary structuring and fermentation technologies.
Founded in 2019 as an ETH Zurich spin-off, Planted set out to rethink meat rather than simply replace it. The company develops products using natural ingredients, with a focus on taste, texture, nutrition and significantly lower environmental impact. Today, Planted produces in both Switzerland and Germany, and its products are available across thousands of restaurants and retail locations throughout Europe.
At the heart of Planted's approach is the ambition to create products that can convince not only plant-based consumers, but meat lovers too. The company combines extrusion and fermentation technologies to recreate the sensory qualities of meat while improving its environmental and nutritional profile.
In this interview, Pascal Bieri shares how Planted grew from an idea rooted in sustainability into a European FoodTech company, explains the role of technology and partnerships in its growth, reflects on its early collaboration with Coop through Kickstart, and discusses why the next generation of alternative proteins needs to become, in Planted's words, “better meat than animals.”
Q: Can you tell us the story behind the founding of Planted?
Understanding the enormous environmental and health impact of animal meat production was a clear wake-up call. So, we didn’t just want to change our personal consumption but truly create systemic impact – with products that can also inspire meat lovers and get them to change their consumption behavior.
Planted develops and produces plant-based meat with only natural ingredients that not only serves as a substitute product, but also convinces in terms of flavour, function and nutritional value. Our goal: to rethink meat – sustainable, healthy, innovative and uncompromising flavour.
Q: How does Planted integrate sustainability into its product development and operations?
Sustainability is at the core of what we do and why we exist. Compared to conventional meat production, our structured proteins emit up to 97% less greenhouse gases and use up to 90% less water.
We use electricity from 100% Swiss hydropower for our production in Kemptthal, Switzerland. To ensure that no energy is wasted, we recycle the heat generated in the production process and use it to heat our offices and other parts of the building. With this, we’ve drastically reduced our natural gas usage to just 20%, with the remaining 80% fulfilled by this energy recovery system.
Our newly opened production site in Memmingen, Germany, operates almost CO₂-neutral and completely free of fossil fuels. Instead, we rely on well cooling, while heat is supplied through a sustainable and regionally oriented local heating network, including a biomass heating plant in the neighbouring industrial estate.
To reduce water consumption as much as possible, we have also implemented water conservation measures throughout the company.
Q: What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced in scaling a plant-based food company in Switzerland and internationally?
Every country has its own culinary identity. It was a challenge to adapt our products to this diversity while maintaining the highest flavour and nutritional standards.
But this was also our opportunity. Our meats are as versatile as animal meat.
Q: What technological innovations are key to creating meat alternatives that truly resonate with consumers?
The key is to replicate the sensory experience of meat while improving nutritional value and creating less environmental impact – keeping all the goods but leaving out all the bads.
A combination of extrusion and fermentation is used in the manufacture of our products.
Fermentation is nature’s most versatile toolbox to boost and tailor taste, texture and wholesomeness of foods.
Pushing fermentation allows us to continue our strive for clean-label and healthy alternatives to meat while doubling down on taste and naturalness. Our ancestors already used fermentation processes to make foods tastier, more shelf-stable or edible at all. We want to continue this, pushing the boundaries of alternative protein using culturally rooted concepts.
We are also currently part of the European research project HealthFerm, which is investigating innovative food fermentations based on pulses and cereals as well as the health effects and consumer perception of novel fermented foods.
Q: How do you approach building partnerships with retailers, restaurants, and other stakeholders?
At Planted, we approach partnerships with retailers, restaurants, and other stakeholders as long-term collaborations built on shared values, transparency, and mutual growth.
Our goal is not just to sell products, but to co-create a movement toward more sustainable, delicious food that convinces even the most discerning meat lovers.
We strive to collaborate with everyone in our markets who values good food, nutrition, and the joy of eating – creating true win-win-win partnerships between our collaborators, their consumers, and us as their trusted protein partner.
Q: What role does the Swiss ecosystem play in your growth and innovation efforts?
The Swiss ecosystem plays a crucial role in our growth and innovation at Planted. It’s where our roots are, and where many of our biggest leaps have taken shape.
Switzerland offers a unique combination of scientific excellence, a strong innovation culture, and a supportive environment for mission-driven startups. With close ties to ETH Zurich, one of the world’s leading science and technology institutions, we’ve been able to build a deep R&D foundation rooted in cutting-edge food and material science.
Beyond academia, Switzerland’s food ecosystem – from regulatory frameworks to sustainability-focused consumers – has provided fertile ground for testing, learning, and scaling. The proximity to progressive retail partners, open-minded early adopters, and a high standard of quality has challenged us to continuously improve and innovate.
Additionally, platforms like Kickstart and Innosuisse have helped us make valuable connections, gain visibility, and secure support in our critical early phases.
In short, the Swiss ecosystem hasn’t just supported our growth; it’s helped shape who we are: science-led, sustainability-driven, and relentlessly focused on building the future of food.
Q: What happened after Kickstart introduced you to Coop back in 2019? How did that partnership develop and what specific results came from that collaboration?
After Kickstart introduced us to Coop in 2019, the connection proved to be an important moment in Planted’s early journey.
Coop was the first major retailer to believe in our vision, not just as a distributor, but as a true partner in reshaping the future of food. The collaboration was planned regardless, but we were able to put an additional emphasis on consumer feedback thanks to Kickstart’s involvement.
Coop gave us an early platform to learn in the retail channel. The partnership developed into a trusted relationship that has grown steadily over the years.
Today, Coop remains one of our most important retail partners, offering a wide range of Planted products across hundreds of stores. Their early belief in our mission not only gave us shelf space; it gave us credibility, scale, and momentum.
Q: How do you communicate the value and impact of plant-based eating to a broader audience?
It's about shifting mindsets, empowering better choices, and making sustainability tangible, delicious, and available.
We focus on leading with positivity rather than guilt, highlighting what eating Planted adds to life – great taste, creativity, and variety – instead of framing it around restrictions.
Taste remains the number one driver of food choice, so we let our products speak for themselves through powerful visuals, chef collaborations, and hands-on tastings that make the experience real and enjoyable.
Q: Looking back, what would you tell yourself on day one of starting Planted?
You have to combine excellence in research with a love for creating best-in-class products. For us, that meant suitability for everyday use, enjoyment, and economic reality.
One of Planted’s key success factors has been the strength of the ecosystem it could rely on. ETH Zurich provided early access to production facilities, academic support, and top talent. Programs like MassChallenge Switzerland and Kickstart enabled valuable collaborations between startups and industry.
Family offices and venture capital contributed essential funding, while major retailers helped distribute and promote our products. Finally, a vibrant and open-minded gastronomy scene welcomed Planted early on, setting trends and helping overcome consumer barriers.
Q: What’s next for Planted in addressing consumer concerns that plant-based alternatives are ultra-processed, and how do you plan to position the company over the next decade?
This June, we opened our new production facility in Memmingen, southern Germany, which is fully dedicated to our fermentation technology. We are therefore laying the foundations for the next generation of plant proteins – including full muscle structure.
Current technologies and solutions for plant-based meat are not able to replace more than 1 to 3% of meat consumption and therefore do not have the necessary impact on our food system.
Consumers justify this with a lack of flavour, an overall unattractive price and questionable ingredients. In order for meat eaters to switch, it is crucial that we produce “better meat than animals” – i.e. better flavour, cheaper price, lower environmental impact, good ingredients and a positive impact on health.
We focus on these parameters.
Q: This year marks 10 years of Kickstart. What does it mean to you to be part of this ecosystem, and how do you think Kickstart has contributed to shaping the innovation landscape in Switzerland and beyond? Can you share any fun memories of your journey with Kickstart?
Congratulations to 10 years of Kickstart!
For us at Planted, being part of this ecosystem means a lot, because Kickstart has always enabled eye-level conversations that focus on solutions, rather than what is not possible.
The platform not only connected us with relevant partners at an early stage, but also showed us what is possible when startups, corporates and institutions work collaboratively on forward-looking solutions.
A particular highlight for us was the first presentation of our planted.chicken prototype as part of Kickstart.
The feedback was honest, direct, and motivating.
We still remember well how we prepared our first products in a kitchen for partners, with a lot of passion and improvisation. Back then, a lot of the work was still done by hand – today, our products can be found all over Europe.
About Pascal Bieri
Pascal Bieri is one of four founders of Planted and a member of the Executive Board. He grew up in Sursee and studied Business Administration at the University of St. Gallen, earning an M.A. in Business Innovation.
After five years with Migros Industrie in various positions, including three years in the US, he founded the ETH FoodTech spin-off Planted in 2019 together with three co-founders. At Planted, Pascal is responsible for sales and international business development.
About Planted
Planted combines proprietary structuring and fermentation technologies to produce meat from plant proteins, focusing on taste, meaty and juicy texture, and clean ingredients.
The Zurich-based ETH spin-off was founded in 2019 and produces its meats in Kemptthal, Switzerland, and Memmingen, Germany. Planted is a certified B Corporation, and its products are available in more than 6,500 restaurants and 10,000 retail outlets across Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, the UK and Benelux.
Its product portfolio includes planted.chicken, planted.pulled, planted.kebab, planted.duck, planted.schnitzel, planted.bratwurst and planted.steak, alongside limited editions developed with chefs including Tim Raue, Haya Molcho and Sebastian Copien.
