Matthew Glover

Last updated

Matthew Glover
NationalityBritish
Occupations
  • Veganuary founder
  • businessman
Known for
SpouseJane Land

Matthew Glover is a British businessman and animal rights activist. He is the co-founder of the Veganuary movement, which his wife Jane Land helped to create. In 2019, Glover founded Million Dollar Vegan, a global education charity focused on veganism. In addition he is the founder of Veg Capital, which helps fund vegan food businesses. In December 2020, Glover and Adam Lyons created the vegan food brand VFC, a business that went onto become an international venture.

Career and Personal life

Glover is married to Jane Land, and they live near York. [1] [2] Glover came from a family of butchers and converted to veganism. His interest was initially with animal welfare and sustainability. [2] Together, Glover and Land attended street activism and vegan demonstrations. They felt like they were being ignored and subsequently they wanted to create something productive. [3] The concept of Veganuary was created by Glover and Land in 2014. [4] The campaign aims to get more people eating plant-based foods with the aim to becoming a permanent vegan. [5]

In its first year, Glover and Land put their life savings into the Veganuary project and moved in with Glover's mother. [6] The campaign has surpassed one million sign ups since its launch. [5] By 2022, The Veganuary event has grown to become one of the most successful vegan campaigns worldwide. That year another six-hundred thousand people signed up to take part. [7] In addition more businesses than ever promoted the event. [5]

Glover started his first business aged twenty-one and has built businesses in the construction, glazing and events sectors. [8]

In 2019, Glover launched the "Million Dollar Vegan" (now GenV) charity brand. [9] GenV is dedicated to educating people about the environmental, ethical and health benefits of living a plant-based lifestyle. Its aim is to inspire more people to become vegan and it operates in ten countries. [10] The brand soon received support from Paul McCartney, Chris Packham and Moby. [11] The organisation was founded after Glover and Land, with the backing of McCartney, challenged Pope Francis to become vegan for Lent. [12] In return, they pledged to donate one million dollars to Pope Francis' chosen charity, but he did not accept the challenge. [12] Their second campaign challenged US President Donald Trump to become vegan during January 2020. In exchange for his participation the same one million dollar charity reward was offered, though Trump too declined. [13] Glover is the current president of the charity. [10]

In June 2020, Glover launched a plant-based investment business. The not-for-profit venture was designed to help fund the growth of vegan companies. [14] Glover currently serves as the managing director of the company Veg Capital. [8]

In December 2020, Glover and restaurateur Adam Lyons co-founded the food brand VFC, which specialises in meat free alternatives for fried chicken. [15] The company was founded in York, United Kingdom. [15] Glover treated the brand as a form of business activism against the factory farming of chickens. He told Maxine Gordon from The Press that "this is where food meets activism. This is our sit-down protest." [15] The company experienced rapid growth and secured a supermarket distribution deal with Tesco. [16] In the first year of trading, the business expanded its sales into Spain, Netherlands and the United States markets. [17] [18]

In July 2022, Glover co-founded Sentient Ventures, a new UK venture fund to invest in early-stage growth capital for alt protein startups globally. [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Del Taco</span> American fast food restaurant chain

Del Taco Restaurants, Inc. is an American fast-food restaurant chain that specializes in American-style Mexican cuisine, as well as American foods such as burgers, fries and shakes. Del Taco is led by Brand President Tom Rose, and is headquartered in Lake Forest, California. On December 6, 2021, Jack in the Box announced it was acquiring Del Taco for $12.51 per share. The acquisition was finalized in March 2022. Del Taco has approximately 600 locations in 16 US states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Dennis</span> Bus manufacturer based in the United Kingdom

Alexander Dennis is a British bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom with a 50% market share in 2019, it has manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Friedrich</span> American food company founder

Bruce Gregory Friedrich is co-founder and president of The Good Food Institute (GFI), a Y Combinator funded non-profit that promotes plant- and cultivated meat alternatives to conventional animal meat. He is also a co-founder of the alternative protein venture capital firm New Crop Capital. Friedrich previously worked for PETA and Farm Sanctuary.

<i>VegNews</i> American magazine

VegNews is a media brand focused on a plant-based lifestyle, encompassing a flagship magazine, a website, and a podcast, among other properties. VegNews covers content relating to veganism, including news, recipes, and celebrity interviews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Innocent Drinks</span> British beverage company

Innocent Drinks is a British-based company that produces smoothies and juice sold in supermarkets, coffee shops and various other outlets. The company sells more than two million smoothies per week. Innocent is over 90% owned by The Coca-Cola Company.

Eat Just, Inc. is a private company headquartered in San Francisco, California, US. It develops and markets plant-based alternatives to conventionally produced egg products, as well as cultivated meat products. Eat Just was founded in 2011 by Josh Tetrick and Josh Balk. It raised about $120 million in early venture capital and became a unicorn in 2016 by surpassing a $1 billion valuation. It has been involved in several highly publicized disputes with traditional egg industry interests. In December 2020, its cultivated chicken meat became the first cultured meat to receive regulatory approval in Singapore. Shortly thereafter, Eat Just's cultured meat was sold to diners at the Singapore restaurant 1880, making it the "world's first commercial sale of cell-cultured meat".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grill'd</span> Australian multinational casual dining restaurant chain

Grill'd is an Australian-owned multinational casual dining restaurant chain specialising in healthy burgers. Founded by Simon Crowe in 2004 in Hawthorn, Melbourne, the group now has over 150 restaurants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beyond Meat</span> Los Angeles-based producer of plant-based meat substitutes

Beyond Meat, Inc. is a Los Angeles–based producer of plant-based meat substitutes founded in 2009 by Ethan Brown. The company's initial products were launched in the United States in 2012. The company went public in 2019, becoming the first plant-based meat analogue company to go public.

The Humane League (THL) is an international nonprofit organization that works to end the abuse of animals raised for food through corporate, media and community outreach. It operates in the United States, Mexico, the UK and Japan. THL promotes plant-based diets, conducts research on the effectiveness of different interventions, and works to obtain animal welfare commitments from companies. It was founded in 2005 in Philadelphia by Nick Cooney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Candice Hutchings</span> Canadian YouTube personality, vegan chef, comedian, and author

Candice Hutchings is a Canadian YouTube personality, vegan chef, comedian, and author. She runs a YouTube cookery-related channel The Edgy Veg. Since beginning her channel in October 2012, her videos have received over 31 million views, and her channel has accumulated over 457 thousand subscribers. As of March 2017, she was one of the most popular vegan chefs on YouTube.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Veganuary</span> UK nonprofit promoting veganism

Veganuary is an annual challenge run by a UK nonprofit organisation that promotes and educates about veganism by encouraging people to follow a vegan lifestyle for the month of January. Since the event began in 2014, participation has increased each year. 400,000 people signed up to the 2020 campaign. The campaign estimated this represented the carbon dioxide equivalent of 450,000 flights and the lives of more than a million animals. Veganuary can also refer to the event itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perfect Day (company)</span> Food technology company

Perfect Day, Inc. is a food technology startup company based in Berkeley, California, that has developed processes of creating dairy proteins, including casein and whey, by fermentation in microbiota, specifically from fungi in bioreactors, instead of extraction from bovine milk.

BOSH! is a duo of British vegan chefs from Sheffield consisting of Henry Firth and Ian Theasby. They rose to fame in 2016 with the launch of their YouTube channel, and have gone on to host the ITV1 television programme Living on the Veg and author a number of books. Their eponymous vegan cookbook ranked fifth in the Sunday Times Bestsellers chart in 2018, and is among the top 50 best-selling UK cookbooks of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miyoko Schinner</span> Japanese-American vegan activist

Miyoko Schinner is an American vegan chef, vegan activist, social entrepreneur, cookbook author, and cooking show chef, who appeared in the 2024 documentary, You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment. She is currently the host of the YouTube cooking show, The Vegan Good Life with Miyoko.

Prodege, LLC is an American online marketing, consumer polling, and market research company based in El Segundo, California. The company develops consumer rewards and polling programs under various brands including Swagbucks, MyPoints, InboxDollars, CouponCause, Tada, Ysense, Upromise, and Pollfish.

ProVeg Nederland, known as Viva Las Vega's (VLV) from 2011 to 2017, is a Dutch foundation that aims to accelerate the transition towards a plant-based food system. The foundation's stated goal is to make it easier for consumers to eat plant-based more often and also to help companies address the growing demand in plant-based products. ProVeg Nederland is a member of the international ProVeg International.

ProVeg International is a non-governmental organisation that works in the field of food system change and has ten offices globally. The organisation's stated mission is to reduce the consumption of animal products by 50% by 2040, to be replaced by plant-based or cultured alternatives. Instead of increasing the share of vegetarians and vegans, ProVeg's focus is on reducing animal product consumption in the general population.

ProVeg Incubator is a business incubator based in the Tiergarten district of Berlin, Germany. It was established in 2018 as part of the wider ProVeg International non-governmental organisation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VFC (company)</span> British vegan food company

VFC Foods is a British vegan food company that started trading in December 2020. An acronym for "Vegan Fried Chicken," it was founded by Matthew Glover and Adam Lyons in North Yorkshire, England. The company specialises in creating meat substitute products for fried chicken. Glover is the co-founder of the Veganuary movement and uses his experience in vegan activism to promote the brand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Squeaky Bean</span> British vegan food company

Squeaky Bean is a British vegan food company and began trading in 2019. It is owned by the British food manufacture company Winterbotham Darby and is based in Redhill, Surrey, United Kingdom. The company experienced rapid expansion from just three products into a multiproduct brand stocked in British supermarkets. The brand significantly expanded its distribution capabilities following the growth and receiving millions of pounds worth of investment. In 2021, it was reported that the brand had amassed a turnover of £7.5 million.

References

  1. ↑ Roberts, Joe (9 February 2019). "Vegans to pay Pope Francis $1,000,000 to try diet for lent". Metro . (DMG Media). Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  2. 1 2 Barratt, Sarah (30 December 2019). "The founders of Veganuary share their tips on how to nail it". Country Living . Archived from the original on 19 January 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  3. ↑ Ho, Sally (31 December 2020). "Interview: Matthew Glover Veganuary Co-Founder "It's The Easiest Year Ever To Go Vegan"". Green Queen. Archived from the original on 31 December 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  4. ↑ "'Why I started the Veganuary movement'". BBC News . 3 January 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 Wood, Zoe (1 January 2022). "Veganuary set to pass 2m milestone as more firms join movement". The Guardian . (Guardian Media Group). Archived from the original on 1 January 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  6. ↑ Gordon, Maxine (11 January 2019). "Meet the York couple behind Veganuary who've turned half a million people vegan". The Press . (Newsquest). Archived from the original on 14 January 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  7. ↑ "January 2022: Viva! Vegan Podcast". Viva! The Vegan Charity. 1 January 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  8. 1 2 "Veg Capital – Plant-Based Investors". Veg Capital. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  9. ↑ Scott, Catherine (12 January 2022). "Veganuary – how an idea over a glass of wine in York became a global phenomenon". The Yorkshire Post . (JPIMedia). Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  10. 1 2 "About". Million Dollar Vegan. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  11. ↑ Gordon, Maxine (6 February 2019). "York couple launch million-dollar campaign to turn Pope vegan". The Press . (Newsquest). Archived from the original on 14 January 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  12. 1 2 Carrington, Damian (6 February 2019). "Pope Francis offered $1m charity donation to go vegan for Lent". The Guardian . (Guardian Media Group). Archived from the original on 6 February 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  13. ↑ Kilander, Gustaf (1 October 2021). "Trump refused to go vegan for a month in case it killed a much-needed brain cell". The Independent . Archived from the original on 1 October 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  14. ↑ Mattinson, Alec (8 June 2020). "Veganuary co-founder Matthew Glover launches vegan investment fund". The Grocer . (William Reed Business Media). Archived from the original on 14 January 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  15. 1 2 3 Gordon, Maxine (1 January 2022). "KFC or VFC? York duo launch Vegan Fried Chick*n as Veganuary starts". The Press . (Newsquest). Archived from the original on 1 January 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  16. ↑ Gilbert, Helen (5 October 2021). "Vegan fried chicken alternative VFC lands first supermarket listing in Tesco". The Grocer . (William Reed Business Media). Archived from the original on 5 October 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  17. ↑ Pun, Amanda (28 December 2021). "The plant-based revolution: 10 European vegan meat alternative brands to check out". EU-Startups. Archived from the original on 28 December 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  18. ↑ "U.K.-Based Vegan Chicken Brand Comes to U.S." QSR magazine. 23 September 2021. Archived from the original on 14 January 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  19. ↑ "Veganuary Founder Matthew Glover Announces £30M Sentient Ventures Vegan Fund". vegconomist.com. 5 July 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.