Now that stocks are officially in bear market territory, and measures to curb coronavirus have turned the biggest tech hubs into work-from-home zones, we decided to check in to see if the downturn has yet impacted startup funding totals.

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The broad finding: Not quite yet. A Crunchbase global analysis of sizable venture funding rounds ($10 million and up) shows that reported totals are down about 11 percent in 2020 compared to the same period last year.

Overall, investors have put $41.1 billion to work in reported rounds of $10 million and up through March 17 of this year, compared to $46.2 billion in the same period in 2019. Although it looks like a moderate decline, it’s actually too early to tell, given that a sizable percentage of financings actually get reported weeks or months after the date they close.

This year’s totals have been boosted by supergiant financings for a handful of companies, with a lot of the money going toward transportation. That includes -incubated autonomous transportation startup ($2.25 billion venture round), ride-hailing rivals and ($1.2 billion and $856 million, respectively) and electric aircraft developer ($590 million).

Major funding recipients in sectors other than transport, meanwhile, include plant-based meat producer ($500 million), banking upstart ($500 million) and data warehousing provider ($479 million).

Why are big deals happening in the current environment? Partly, it’s because big, complicated private financing rounds typically take weeks or months to close.

Thus, it’s not entirely surprising to see some of the largest private investments getting announced over the same period that major stock indexes are posting their largest declines in years. A deal put together in a more bullish climate might be made public in a more bearish one.

Earlier indications of funding cutbacks may be more easily seen for smaller rounds at early and seed stage, when sought-after deals come together more quickly. However, this is difficult for us to track here at Crunchbase because reporting delays are also most frequent at these earliest stages. So, it’s hard to determine whether a drop in funding is due to delayed reporting or fewer checks being written.

Historically, however, startup funding has trended sharply lower in recessionary times, including after the implosion of the dot-com bubble in 2001 and the financial crisis of 2008-9.

If past cycles are any guide, we can expect a sharp startup funding slowdown in coming months. We’ll keep monitoring the funding totals for indications of that coming to pass.

Illustration: .

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, a new backer, led the round, according to a statement from the company. Existing investors, including and , also participated. The last time Impossible Foods raised money was in May 2019, when it pulled $300 million for its Series E round.

The new round will be used to invest in research, scale up manufacturing, grow the company’s retail presence and presence in certain international markets, and popularize its pork and sausage products.

“Our mission is to replace the world’s most destructive technology–the use of animals in food production–by 2035,” CEO Patrick Brown said in a statement. “To do that, we need to double production every year, on average, for 15 years and double down on research and innovation. The market has its ups and downs, but the global demand for food is always there, and the urgency of our mission only grows.”

Impossible Foods competes in the plant-based alternative food space, which is growing in popularity. Impossible Burgers can be found at restaurants across the country, including at more than 7,000 Burger King locations. , which was well-received by investors when it went public last year, is the other well-known brand in the space.

Impossible Foods closed the Series F round last week amid the coronavirus pandemic, the company said. That’s a good thing, because stocks have been plunging and some investors have been cautioning that VC funding will slow down.

At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in October, Impossible Foods’ Brown said the company would look to raise more money and that it wouldn’t go public in the near future, and it appears to be sticking to that plan.

“With this latest round of fundraising, Impossible Foods has the resources to accelerate growth–and continue to thrive in a volatile macroeconomic environment, including the current COVID-19 pandemic,” Impossible Foods’ Chief Financial Officer David Lee said in a statement.

A slew of celebrities also participated in Impossible Foods’ latest round. Musical artists Jay-Z, will.i.am, Zedd, Jaden Smith and Katy Perry all participated, as did actress Mindy Kaling, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah, actor Kal Penn, tennis champion Serena Williams and co-founder Alexis Ohanian, among other stars.

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The largest growth year over year in funding includes meat alternatives, indoor farming, robotic food delivery and cloud kitchens. Investment in startups operating what the report terms upstream–closer to the farmer and before  retail–increased 1.3 percent year over year, accelerating in the second half with the highest numbers for H2 on record. Alternative proteins ( raised $300 million, , $90 million and , $75 million) and vertical farming ( raised $100 million, , $100 million and , $82 million) drove much of this. The whole sector showed 250 percent growth in the last five years.

Closer to retail and grouped as downstream in the report are eGrocers, restaurants, delivery and home cooking, which saw an overall decline of 7.6 percent year over year. The largest sector decline is food delivery by 56 percent year over year.

Agritech and foodtech experienced growth in investments in regions outside of Asia and North America. According to Louisa Burwood-Taylor head of media and research at AgFunder “Europe continued its trend for growth across VC industries posting a 94 percent increase in agri-foodtech funding, while Latin America had a breakout year, closing $1.4 billion in agri-foodtech funding across 40% more deals than in 2018; that’s more than the entire LatAm VC industry in 2017. Africa also more than doubled its funding in the space.”

Notable investors in the sector cited by the report include venture investor , corporate investors and , and late-stage private equity investors , , and .

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Marcy Venture Partners, which was founded last year and is based in San Francisco, focuses on consumer brands. Its name is a nod to Brooklyn’s Marcy Houses where Jay-Z grew up.

The firm has already made a number of deals. It’s invested in six companies so far, leading the rounds for three, according to Crunchbase. Its most recent investment was in electric mobility startup in October 2019, and the largest round it’s led so far was a $70 million round for singer Rihanna’s lingerie line . The firm’s first investment since it was founded in March 2019 was ’s $8 million in April 2019.

It’s a quick pace of investing for the first seven months of a VC firm’s existence, but the co-founders are no strangers to the world of venture capital.

Jay Brown, who co-founded with Jay-Z and served as its CEO until late last year, has invested in companies like and . Jay-Z, , is also known for backing high-profile companies like and . And Larry Marcus is a seasoned venture capitalist. He’s the director of , which invested in companies like and , and he backed companies like and as an angel investor, according to Walden VC’s .

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The startup’s major competitor went public earlier this year and the demand for plant-based food is growing.

Beyond Meat’s stock has soared on the stock market. The company priced its shares at $25, and its stock closed 163 percent higher on its first day of trading. Beyond Meat was trading at $146.29 around midday Thursday. Its IPO was wildly successful, and shows the market has a hunger for plant-based alternatives.

But still, Impossible Foods CEO Patrick Brown said Wednesday that going public isn’t in the cards for the company in the near future.

“At this point it’s not something that we need and we can take our time,” Brown said at TechCrunch’s annual Disrupt conference.

Impossible Foods has raised in total funding and its investors include and . The company last raised its $300 million in May.

It’s a little odd that the company wants to raise more privately when it appears well-funded and raised money just a few months ago. But more cash could help it scale, develop new products (Brown mentioned that Impossible Foods has made a steak prototype, but it’s not trying to scale it) and beef up before exploring an IPO.

The Hunger For Plant-based Alternatives

Plant-based meat alternatives have gained popularity in recent years, with more and more restaurants adopting these options for their menus. Impossible Foods partnered with Burger King to create the Impossible Whopper and McDonald is partnering with Beyond Meat for its new PLT burger in Canada.

Brown waved away the idea of competing with other plant-based meat alternatives, saying he was primarily concerned with with beef producers.

“We’re not trying to outperform veggie burgers, we’re trying to outperform the cow,” he said.

Brown focused on the environmental issues that come with raising cows for food — think greenhouse gases, land use, and water consumption. All heavy topics to digest.

Photo credit: Alex Wilhelm

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Founded in 2011, Impossible Foods is focused on developing plant-based substitutes for meat and dairy products. The Bay Area-based company has now raised from a host of backers including , , , Serena Williams and singer Katy Perry.

Impossible Foods’ super-sized round follows on the heels of a blockbuster IPO by fellow meatless protein maker , which has seen its shares skyrocket since its public debut on May 2 (trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol: BYND).

Still, Impossible Foods CFO told Reuters the company isn’t rushing to go public, saying: “We believe in self-reliance. Being ready to go public is a priority for the company because we need to be operating at the highest level of rigor.”

In general, companies creating plant-based substitutes for dairy and meat are whetting investors’ appetites. In February, we reported on how biotech unicorn Ginkgo Bioworks launched a new spinoff called that will work on developing proteins that can serve as meat and dairy replacements. Boston-based Motif started out the gate with $90 million in Series A funding.

Last June, Crunchbase News’ Joanna Glasner reported that up until that point just more than $600 million in known funding had gone to what we’ve dubbed the “alt-meat” sector, according to Crunchbase data. Actual investment levels may be quite a bit higher since strategic investors don’t always reveal round size. She also wrote in August 2017 about how some of the companies in the space had raised substantial sums of venture capital.

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