Overview
Lasso (formerly Tender Food) makes plant-based meat that has the texture of whole-muscle cuts using a rotary jet-spinning process that fibers plant proteins into a fibrous structure, enabling products like pulled pork, chicken, and steak without binders. The company both brands its own products and licenses its fiber-spinning technology to other food makers, allowing a wide range of ingredients—including plant proteins, mycoprotein, and even animal proteins for cultivated meat—to be spun into fibers. By focusing on scalable manufacturing and aiming for price parity with animal meat, Lasso seeks broad adoption of its textures. Under the Lasso brand, it is also exploring new categories such as fruit snacks and pet food beyond meat alternatives.
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Simplify's take
What believers are saying
- Lasso joined Mars’ 2026 food-tech cohort, validating its texture technology for strategic partners.
- October 2025 funding and 2026 product launches show investor support beyond alt-meat branding.
- Nine patents and 1000x scale-up from prototype support licensing economics and manufacturing leverage.
What critics are saying
- Messersmith said 2025 plant-based meat fundraising was dead; category demand collapsed.
- Lasso still lacks mass-market retail wins; first commercial applications remain unproven in 2026.
- If foodmakers bypass SpinTech, Lasso becomes another underfunded processing platform with no durable moat.
What makes Tender Food unique
- Lasso’s SpinTech uses centrifugal fiber-spinning, not extrusion, to mimic whole-muscle texture.
- Harvard Wyss founders Christophe Chantre, Kit Parker, Grant Gonzalez, and Luke Macqueen built proprietary patents.
- Mike Messersmith shifted Lasso from meat brand to platform licensing across snacks and pet food.
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