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Founding
The company was founded in 2009 by Ethan Brown to mitigate climate change. Brown licensed technology from two University of Missouri professors, Fu-hung Hsieh and Harold Huff, who had been developing their meatless protein since the 1980s.
Beyond Meat launched its first product, Beyond Chicken Strips (originally called "Chicken-Free Strips"), at Whole Foods Market in 2012 and expanded nationally in 2013. In 2014, Beyond Meat developed its first plant-based beef product, Beyond Beef Crumbles. That same year, it announced that it had begun development of a new product emulating a beef burger.
Financing and revenues
Between 2013 and 2016, the company received venture funding from GreatPoint Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Obvious Corporation, Bill Gates, Biz Stone, the Humane Society and Tyson Foods.
By 2018, Beyond Meat had raised US$72 million in venture financing.
In May 2019, Beyond Meat became a public company via an initial public offering on the Nasdaq, raising $240 million. It was the first plant-based meat alternative company to became a public company. On the day of its IPO, the company's stock price surged 163%, the best-performing public offering by a major U.S. company since 2000, during the dot-com bubble.
By 2020, celebrity and athlete investors included Leonardo DiCaprio, Jessica Chastain, Mark Rober, Snoop Dogg, Liza Koshy, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, and DeAndre Hopkins.
The company's largest customer is Dot Foods, accounting for 12% of revenue in 2024.
Layoffs
In October 2022, the company announced layoffs of 19% of its staff, or approximately 200 employees, due to revenue declines.
In November 2023, Beyond Meat announced additional layoffs after a 9% decline in sales.
In February 2025, the company halted operations in China and announced additional layoffs. In August 2025, the company announced an additional 44 layoffs, or 6% of its workforce.