In This Issue:
- Food Venture Financing Trends
- CPG Corporate Venture and Private Equity Funds
- Links to Relevant Content and Events
Food Venture Financing Trends
- SPACs continue to be attractive options for CPG companies. Post Holdings announced last week that it plans to sell 30,000,000 units at $10.00 per unit in a SPAC deal.
- Unilever announced a partnership with ENOUGH, a plant-based protein provider, in an effort to expand its plant-based meat portfolio.
- Organic food sales increased by 12.8% in 2020, reaching a record $56.4 billion in sales according to a recent report by The Organic Trade Association.
- Vertical farming startup Bowery Farming it raised $300 million in its Series C round. Bowery Farming plans to use the funds to expand its smart indoor farms and increase research and development efforts.
CPG Corporate Venture and Private Equity Funds
This week's featured corporate venture and private equity fund is ADM Ventures.
- ADM Ventures is the venture investing arm of global food and feed ingredient provider, Archer Daniels Midland Company. ADM Ventures invests in cutting edge startups with disruptive technologies across five key areas: human nutrition, health & wellness / microbiome, animal nutrition, sustainability and biomaterials, and agriculture technologies.
- Portfolio companies include:
- Air Protein
- AquiNovo
- Future Meat
- Geltor
- Nature's Fynd
- Perfect Day
- PitPat
- Remedy/Nourished
- ADM Ventures leverages ADM's extensive, global solutions network, including ingredients, flavors, assets, people, expertise, and customers, to provide necessary product development, capital equipment, operations, guidance and sales to portfolio companies.
Links to Relevant Content and Events
ARTICLES
- Oatly Shares Lift 18 Percent on First Day of Trading
- Invaio Raises $89M to Accelerate Commercialization of Its Injectable Bio-Inputs
- Food Rocket Raises $2M for 15 Minute Grocery Delivery in San Francisco
- Plant Power Fast Food Chain Raises $7.5M Series A
- Kula Bio Banks $10M Seed Funding to Fix Nitrogen, Carbon in the Soil
- Rock-Picking Robotics Startup TerraClear Raises $25M
- 7Shifts Raises $21.5M for Its Workforce Management Platform for Restaurants
- Vertical Farming Company Bowery Raises $300M, Valuing Firm at $2.3B
- Post Holdings Announces Pricing of Post Holdings Partnering Corporation's Initial Public Offering
- Unilever Steps Up Plant-Based Protein Innovation In Partnership With 'Enough'
- Organic Food Sales Hit Record $56.4B in 2020
- Bowery Farming Secures $300 Million in Series C Funding to Accelerate Growth
- Avocado Consumption to Continue Setting Records
EVENTS
Project W – Emerging Food Brands Lab
June 10 – July 29, 2021
DWT is excited to announce that Project W is bringing its signature programming to female founders in the food and beverage sector through our first Emerging Food Brands Lab. Developed in collaboration with DWT's Food + Beverage practice, this multi-week program has been crafted to help female founders take their brand to the next level through workshops dedicated to scaling production, optimizing distribution networks, and raising capital.
CIA's Menus of Change Leadership Summit
June 22 - 24, 2021
Jeffrey Sachs, PhD, professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, will be joining the Menus of Change® Leadership Summit: Virtual Edition, June 22–24, to provide his insights on how building sustainability into your business benefits your guests, the planet, and most importantly, your bottom line. Twice named one of Time Magazine's most influential world leaders, ranked by readers of The Economist as one of the top three most influential living economists, and recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize.
Please check out DWT's newly re-launched Startup Law Blog
At DWT, we are proud to have one of the largest Food & Beverage legal practices in the country, with over 40 attorneys representing food innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors at every level of the food chain, from Farm to Label.
Please contact our Food and Beverage team if we can assist you in any way in these unprecedented times.
The facts, laws, and regulations regarding COVID-19 are developing rapidly. Since the date of publication, there may be new or additional information not referenced in this advisory. Please consult with your legal counsel for guidance.
DWT will continue to provide up-to-date insights and virtual events regarding COVID-19 concerns. Our most recent insights, as well as information about recorded and upcoming virtual events, are available at www.dwt.com/COVID-19.