In India, cricketer Virat Kohli and Bollywood star Anushka Sharma have invested in Mumbai-based alternative protein startup Blue Tribe Foods. The couple, who married in 2017, will also act as brand ambassadors.
Blue Tribe Foods was founded in 2019 and is one of a number of companies pursuing “smart proteins” in the lucrative Indian market. Smart proteins include plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-derived substitutes for meat, eggs, and dairy.
“Virat and I have always been animal lovers,” Sharma says in a press statement. “It’s been years since we decided to adopt a meat-free lifestyle. The collaboration with Blue Tribe is a step to tell people how they can be more conscious and leave less impact on the planet by switching to a plant-based diet. We hope that more people would like to understand the need for it and thus, help the planet and the life in it.”
In 2020, Genelia and Riteish Deshmukh, another Bollywood elite power couple, endorsed Imagine Meats, an alternative protein company working with agribusiness giant ADM.