Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown speaks before ringing the opening bell at Nasdaq MarketSite, May 2, 2019 in New York City. Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Beyond Meat is a food company. Just don't tell that to investors. In its trading debut Thursday, the maker of plant-based foods that serve as a substitute for meat more than doubled in value, giving the company a market capitalization of $3.9 billion. Based on last year's revenue of $87.9 million, that values Beyond Meat at 44 times sales, the kind of multiple usually seen from the fastest-growing technology companies. It's not even in the same universe as big food companies, which are typically valued at less than two times revenue. Hormel is on the high end at 2.3 times sales, while Tyson Foods has a multiple of 0.7.

Located in El Segundo, California, near Los Angeles, and with backing from Bay Area tech investors like Kleiner Perkins and Obvious Ventures, co-founded by Twitter's Ev Williams, Beyond Meat is catering much more to the high-growth tech investor than the money manager focused on traditional food brands. The company has what it calls an "innovation team," consisting of 63 people, including engineers and researchers, and says in its prospectus that its success relies partly on protecting "our intellectual property and proprietary technologies." Beyond Meat, which sells packaged food in grocery stores and also has burgers and other items at 12,000 restaurants including A&W Canada, TGI Fridays and Carl's Jr., priced its IPO at $25 per share, the high end of its range, before jumping right as it started trading. The stock closed at $65.75.

Packages of Beyond Meat Inc. beef crumbles are displayed for a photograph in Tiskilwa, Illinois, on Tuesday, April 23, 2019. Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images