Increased R&D staff at Impossible Foods
Of the $700 million that Impossible Foods has raised so far this year, a large amount will go toward expanding its research and development team. The company plans to accelerate product development and broaden its multifaceted technology platform over the next 12 months, and part of that effort includes hiring more scientists to the team.
About $1.5 billion has been raised by Impossible Foods since its establishment in 2011. Roughly $700 million of that $1.5 billion has been raised so far this year in two rounds. Impossible Foods has now announced that it will use a portion of those monies to grow its R&D team and technological platform. According to Impossible Foods, R&D will see the biggest percentage increase in investment of any department within the company over the next six to twelve months.
Impossible Foods announced the creation of the “Impossible Investigator” project, which it hopes will “woo the world’s best scientists to work on the most important scientific problem Earth has ever faced,” in addition to doubling the size of its R&D team.
At the beginning, Impossible Foods stated that it is looking for ten people to work as Impossible Investigators. These people can be data analysts, neurobiologists, experimental psychologists, or have backgrounds in the physical or biological sciences. They can also be experts in data analysis, behavioral and hedonic responses to food, and sensory perception.
The company stated that applicants will be judged on their ability to carry out their plans as well as the scientific value and mission impact of their ideas.
Apart from the initial group of 10 Impossible Investigators, Impossible Foods has announced that it is seeking to hire approximately 50 scientists, engineers, and other R&D specialists to work on ongoing projects. Over the course of the upcoming year, Impossible Foods anticipates that the new hires will more than double the size of its R&D team.
“The goal of science is to find solutions for the most pressing problems facing humanity,” stated Patrick O. Brown, PhD, MD, the founder and CEO of Impossible Foods. And the biggest issue we have right now is that animal agriculture is the most destructive technology ever used. Scientists and engineers in or nearing an academic career have the option to select an alternative route with the greatest potential benefits through the Impossible Investigator program. impact on people and the environment: applying science to get rid of the biggest existential threat to humanity.
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Dr. Brown used his own experience to illustrate the kind of people Impossible Foods is seeking for employment. In 2011, Dr. Brown, an emeritus professor of biochemistry at Stanford University and a former investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, quit his position as head of a biochemistry lab at Stanford to found Impossible Foods.
“I understand the allure of possessing the liberty and the means to address significant issues of your preference in whichever manner you deem most appropriate,” Dr. Brown remarked. “We want to establish Impossible Foods as the leading ‘planetary technology company,’ where bright scientists can work freely to conduct the most innovative research and realize game-changing ideas that could have an instant impact on the real world and don’t require the academic obstacles and diversion.
The formation of the Biomanufacturing team earlier this year coincides with the introduction of the Impossible Investigator program. Under the direction of vice president Smita Shankar, the biomanufacturing team accelerates fundamental scientific discoveries to bring them to market. The group then uses the company’s “basic science” discoveries in industrial engineering, fermentation, and genetics, among other fields, to create economies of scale for the production of common, mass-market products.