HeyTea Partners With Artificial Meat Startup Starfield To Launch Veggie Burger

Chinese cheese tea maker HeyTea has rolled out its first artificial meat product, a plant-based veggie burger, the brand’s official Weibo account announced on Monday morning. The tea brand is partnering with the Shenzhen-based food technology company Starfield which has created its own artificial meat product in 2019, to offer more vegetarian food options to customers.

SEE ALSO: Chinese Artificial Meat Startup STARFIELD Raises Funds From Joy Capital, Matrix Partners and Others

Priced at 25 yuan ($3.6), the “Future Meat Cheezo Burger” uses soy protein as raw material with the calories per 100 grams of vegetable meat euqalibg only half of those in beef. The new menu has been available at every HeyTea locations with in-store ovens across China since May 18.

Starfield, founded in 2019, recently completed a Pre-A round of financing worth tens of million of yuan with proceeds going towards R&D and marketing. Joy Capital and Matrix Partners China took part in the round, along with the well-known US-based evergreen fund New Crop Capital, and a similar Chinese fund Dao Foods Capital. According to publicly available information, Starfield is now one of the largest domestically funded artificial meat companies in China.

Starfield has now partnered with 6 major restaurant chains to offer plant-based dishes across hundreds of restaurants in China including Papa John’s, Brut Eatery, Hong Li Village, Nayuki’s Tea, Gaga Chef and Element Fresh.