INVESTORS MAKE MEATY PROFIT FROM VEGAN FLOAT

THE founder of vegan burger maker Beyond Meat has made around £150m after it soared on its stock market debut this week.

Shares listed at $25 but rose 163pc on their first day on the Nasdaq exchange on Thursday, and rose 4pc yesterday. A stock in the plant-based meat maker is now worth around $69 a pop, valuing the company at £3bn.

This means the roughly 5pc stake held by its founder and chief executive Ethan Brown, 47, is worth £151m.

A company owned by Twitter cofounder Evan Williams, Obvious Ventures, owns around 7.5pc of shares, with his stake now worth £226m. And former McDonald’s boss Donald Thompson, 56, who is on Beyond Meat’s board, has a 4.4pc stake, worth £132m. A company he is chief executive of, Cleveland Avenue, holds the same amount again, meaning he has access to around £264m of shares.

Other investors include actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and actress Jessica Chastain ( pictured with Brown, above).

Founded in 2009, Beyond Meat makes fresh and frozen plant-based versions of chicken, pork and beef.