More and more consumers want plant-based alternatives with clean ingredients and short ingredient lists. Now Lime & Leaf has received support from both Innovation Norway and DOGA to further develop and test their own plant-based meat in the market.
Lime & Leaf has received a grant of 150,000 kroner from Start-up grant 1 From Innovation Norway. The grant is intended to contribute to the further development of the company’s plant-based meat product, which is currently served in the Lime & Leafs restaurant in Fredensborgveien in Oslo and sold to selected B2B customers.
What sets the product apart from many other options in the category is the ambition to create plant-based meat based on pure ingredients and without relying on long ingredient lists.
– We have always been concerned that plant-based food does not have to mean a long list of additives. This supplement allows us to further develop our meat without compromising on the pure ingredients, says founder and managing director Sindy Tran.
Tran has developed Lime & Leaf together with co-founder Martin Truong, who has worked closely with the project and been instrumental in developing the company and the plant-based, protein-rich product.
From product development to market validation
After the support from Innovation Norway, Lime & Leaf has also received support through DOGA. Market-ready-program. It was Innovation Norway that tipped Tran off about the scheme, and Lomi Agency was a natural next step in the development.
– We had already been working extensively on product development. Through Market Ready, we have the opportunity to work more systematically on market positioning. It felt like the right timing, says Tran.
Through Market Ready, Lime & Leaf will test the product with potential customers and use the insights to make better decisions regarding, among other things, target audience, sales channels, product format, packaging, and pricing.
The company is embarking on work to answer three key hypotheses: the first concerns who actually makes the purchasing decision in the HoReCa market – whether it is the chef, the buyer or others – and what it takes for them to choose the product.
The second concerns how the company best reaches consumers. Lime & Leaf believes that taste and the physical product experience can be more important than, for example, social media in this category, but wants to test whether this assumption is correct.
The third factor may have a direct impact on how the product is commercialized: Should it primarily be an ingredient for professional kitchens, or a ready-made product for consumers? The answer will, among other things, influence how the company proceeds with packaging, pricing, and distribution.
From restaurant kitchens to scalable product
Lime & Leaf was included in Aggrators StartUp program In March. Aggrator’s work with the company is primarily focused on the development and commercialization of the plant-based meat product.
Through the program, entrepreneur Sindy Tran has worked closely with a mentor. Salvador Baille With, among other things, vision, business model and plans for further growth. He has also assisted in the application process, including with the Business Model Canvas and the review of the application.
Aggrator's expert in soft funding Tone Blixøen At the same time, they have helped identify relevant support schemes and structure the application to Innovation Norway.
– For Lime & Leaf, it was about putting words on what makes their product unique: pure raw ingredients and local origin, and connecting it to the right arrangement, says Tone Blixøen, partner and soft funding expert at Aggrator.
Will find the product's place in the market
With support for both product development and market validation, the next step is to find out where Lime & Leaf’s plant-based, protein-rich meat has the greatest potential – and how it can best be scaled beyond its own restaurant.
The ambition of Tran is that in a few years the product will have found a natural place both in professional kitchens and at home with consumers.
– I hope that our plant-based product finds its natural place in restaurant kitchens, in packed lunches, and on dinner tables at home – not because we have convinced anyone, but because the taste and nutritional value speak for themselves.
The image in the article shows Sindy, the Managing Director of Lime & Leaf.