Impossible Foods hires Ravi Thakkar as VP of Product Management.
Impossible Foods, producer of the Impossible Burger, has announced that it has created a new position for Ravi Thakkar. Thakkar has been appointed as Vice President of Product Management.
Thakkar will build and lead a team of product managers at Impossible Foods.
In a statement, the US-based food tech start-up said it was working with its scientists on a full range of plant-based meat and dairy foods, as well as promoting its Impossible Burger. This burger uses genetically modified yeast to produce heme, a protein that mimics the flavour of meat. Essentially, it is a plant-based burger.
Thakkar joins Impossible Foods from Apple, where he served as iPhone Product Manager in the Worldwide Product Marketing division. Before Apple, Thakkar held several product leadership roles at Motorola Mobility, a mobile devices company acquired by Google.
Commenting on his appointment, Thakkar said that he was “deeply” passionate about the mission at Impossible Foods, adding: “The profound impact we can have on animal welfare and the planet is limitless.”
He concluded: “It is a privilege to build a world-class product management organisation to make the global food system sustainable.”
“Ravi brings a wealth of product experience and leadership from high-tech companies,” said Sheetal Shah, Senior Vice President for Product and Operations. “It is so important that we build a strong product management function as we scale the business and there’s no one better than Ravi to lead it.”
According to Impossible Foods, it has experienced strong demand for its Impossible Burger, which it launched in 2019. The Impossible Burger is now sold in more than 15,000 restaurants in the US and Asia.
Earlier this year, Burger King introduced the Impossible Whopper to all 7,200 US restaurants.
In addition to an increasing number of outlets that sell the Impossible Burger, many restaurants are expanding the number of items made from this plant-based meat, according to Impossible Foods. The company also said that sales have increased more than four-fold in Asia over the last four months.
Last month, Impossible Foods announced a co-manufacturing collaboration with global meat provider OSI Group. OSI has already begun to produce the Impossible Burger, adding short-term capacity to Impossible Food’s plant in Oakland, California. Impossible Foods said OSI will continue to expand production of Impossible Foods throughout 2019.
A number of A-list celebrities have invested in Impossible Foods, according to media reports. This includes celebrities such as Serena Williams, Jay-Z and Katy Perry.
Institutional investors include Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, Google Ventures, Horizons Ventures, UBS, Bill Gates and Viking Global Investors.