Google reportedly tried to buy a veggie cheeseburger startup for over $200 million
The deal reportedly fell through when the two couldn't agree on price. Google was said to have offered between $200 million and $300 million.
Impossible Foods is developing a fake cheeseburger, a food item that is supposed to look and taste a lot like a ground beef with cheese but is made entirely out of plants.
The goal is to make healthier meat-like-food that is more affordable and sustainable than real beef, especially in developing nations that can't afford to raise a lot of cattle.
It's said to be backed by such luminaries as Bill Gates, Khosla Ventures and Google executive Tony Fadell, who helped it raise $74 million in funding.
It's one of a handful of venture backed fake-meat or similar veggie-food startups. Others include Beyond Meat, also sells a chicken substitute, also backed by Gates as well as Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone.
Google's desire to buy the company doesn't seem like a straightforward fit for the internet-search giant. But its 90-person team is chock full of people with strong science and food backgrounds. And Google does have a world-class research team working on all sorts of moonshot projects, from self-driving cars to healthcare.
We reached out to Google for comment.