At a time when technology has touched almost everything in our day to day lives, the food industry is one that remains untapped in many markets. However, it has gradually picked up pace just like the other sectors. Several companies have forayed into the food industry and have deployed technology to keep up with the trend.
Going by a recent Dealroom report titled ‘The State of European Food Tech 2019’, the European food tech investment has doubled accounting to over €2.3 billion this year. And, the value of the European food tech unicorns has touched €43 billion, which is over 39% than last year. Having seen that food tech is growing in the continent, here we list the most active investors in food tech in 2019.
Kima Ventures (Paris)
Founders: Jeremie Berrebi, Xavier Niel
Funding rounds: 10
Founded year: 2010
Key food tech investments: lunchr, Agricool, Jow, Foodvisor, Collectivefood and more
Kima Ventures is one of the world’s most active early-stage investors with a pattern of investing in 2 to 3 startups across the world each week. Besides providing the capital, it also helps the founders network and supports them to take their business to the next level. Mostly, Kima Ventures is a lead investor but it also works with other investors. Kima takes pride in working side-by-side with entrepreneurs. Headquartered in Paris, Kima also has an office in London.
Five Seasons Ventures (Paris)
Founders: Ivan Farneti, Niccolò Manzon
Funding rounds: 5
Founded year: 2016
Key food tech investments: Tropic Biosciences, THIS, Cortilia, Butternut Box, YFood
Five Seasons Ventures, a Paris-based venture capital firm is focused on funding innovative companies in the food and agriculture segments. The company supports European food-tech startups that create new food categories, develop cleaner ingredients and processes, and deploy the technology. Besides pumping in the capital, the company gives these companies with a vast network of industry contacts.
LocalGlobe (London)
Founders: Robin Klein, Saul Klein
Funding rounds: 5
Founded year: 1999
Key food tech investments: Taster, infarm, REKKI, Biome Makers, WeFarm
LocalGlobe is a UK-based venture capital firm with its focus on both seed and impact investments. The seed-stage venture capital firm is one of the most active firms in the UK. It launched a new fund dubbed Latitude aimed at Series B funding, which will help companies scale.
Business Growth Fund (London)
Founders: Stephen Welton
Funding rounds: 4
Founded year: 2011
Key food tech investments: crepeaffaire, gousto, musclefood, Purity
Business Growth Fund is an investment partner for several growing companies across sectors. The company provides the necessary tools that are needed for these companies to grow and the required funding for them to flourish. The investor has offices in London, Bristol, Birmingham, and Edinburgh.
Idinvest Partners (Paris)
Founders: Christophe Bavière, Benoist Grossmann
Funding rounds: 4
Founded year: 1997
Key food tech investments: THIS, Ynsect, Glovo, lunchr
Idinvest Partners is a pan-European private equity manager, which is focused on the low and middle-market segments. The company’s mission is to fund European business at different stages of growth. The company harnesses several complementary solutions to help businesses grow.
Daphni (Paris)
Founders: Marie Ekeland, Mathieu Daix, Pierre-Eric Leibovici, Pierre-Yves Meerschman, Willy Braun
Funding rounds: 4
Founded year: 2015
Key food tech investments: Agricool, EKIM, lunchr, beendhi
Daphni is a venture capital firm invests in tech startups in Europe with a strong international ambition. The company has built an international community of entrepreneurs, academics, and executives and creatives. The digital platform facilitates the management of its investment and user community engagement.
Cherry Ventures (Berlin)
Founders: Christian Meermann, Daniel Glasner, Filip Felician Dames
Funding rounds: 3
Founded year: 2013
Key food tech investments: infarm, REKKI, flaschenpost.de.
Cherry Ventures is a venture capital fund based in Berlin, which invests in the best teams across the world. The ambition of the company is to add value by supporting the venture teams in building sustainable and successful businesses.
Atlantic Food Labs (Berlin)
Founders: Raffael Wohlgensinger
Funding rounds: 3
Founded year: 2016
Key food tech investments: Meatable, MushLabs, Legendairy Foods
Atlantic Food Labs is a launchpad for startups that work towards shaping up the future of nutrition and health. The company releases pre-seed stage and build companies within the food industry from scratch. Atlantic Food Labs has created some most cutting-edge companies in the food tech industry. Notably, it is a part of Atlantic Labs family, which has been disrupting the Berlin startup ecosystem for almost a decade.
CapAgro (Paris)
Founders: Jean-Baptiste Cuisinier
Funding rounds: 2
Founded year: 2014
Key food tech investments: BoMill, ecorobotix
French agrifood tech VC firm CapAgro focuses on three segments – upstream agricultural production, downstream companies producing healthier food and energy-efficient innovations. It touts itself to be the first venture capital fund, which is dedicated to innovation in the European and French agro-industrial sectors.
Stock photo from Nithid Memanee/Shutterstock
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