Mudcake

We believe inclusive systems innovation, which enables all people and places to participate and benefit, is essential to a strong food system that is better for everyone. With teams on the ground across Europe, we bridge the gap between countries and regions with low innovation capacity and those leading the way. And we put consumers at the heart of our work, helping build trust by reconnecting them to the origins of their food, directly involving them in the innovation process, and working with the food sector to increase transparency. Collaboration is central to all our work, which spans the whole food value chain, and is vital to meet the big challenges we face. Together with our community, we will build an innovative and resilient food system that in turn creates a healthier society and planet.

Our mission is to bring the Danone Manifesto to life by partnering with a tribe of disruptive entrepreneurs. We are a corporate venture group located in New York City and Paris that is part of a global food and beverage company with a unique manifesto and world-class expertise and resources. Together with our portfolio companies, we aim to create a healthy and sustainable future of food.

As a late-stage, growth equity-focused fund, we arrive in the sweet spot between seed/early-stage and the buyout phase, minimizing risk and maximizing value. We work with exceptional entrepreneurs to help scale their business with capital and resources. Our holistic investment approach to AgriFood realizes value across the entire value chain from pre-production to distribution. Growth and late stage investments are an underserved market need in Agriculture and Food, and we’re biased towards underinvested sub-sectors within these verticals. Much of our investing happens between the coasts. Our St. Louis location puts us within 500 miles of 70% of US agriculture production. Additionally, the highest concentration of plant science PHDs in the world live in the St. Louis area, giving us a unique position to scout, form relationships, and strike deals with this rich talent pool. Our exhaustive, metric-driven underwriting process ensures we invest in the best of the best. We lean towards tech-enabled, sustainable AgriFood companies in the late stage VC/growth stage with converging to positive operating cash flow. This limits risk and leads to outsized returns. We lead deals and work with entrepreneurs through active board participation. We create distinctive, highly effective Value Enhancement Plans for each of our investments to ensure our entrepreneurs reach scale.

Bluestein Ventures is a leading early-stage venture capital fund investing in the future of food. Our focus is game-changing, early-stage ventures across the food industry that redefine how consumers achieve their health and wellness. Our investments span the entire supply chain – both B2C and B2B – with a focus on four areas: high-growth consumer brands, proprietary foodtech, next-gen commerce, and digital technology. Our target stage is Seed to Series A. We’re active investors, going beyond capital to help our portfolio companies develop, iterate, and implement their go-to-market strategy to achieve product-market fit and set the foundation for scale. Since Bluestein was founded in 2014, we have invested in over 40 companies. Notable investments include Factor, the #1 prepared meal-subscription service that exited to HelloFresh in 2020; FourKites, a freight location intelligence platform for large shippers; Meati, a minimally processed fungi-based alternative protein; and Foxtrot, a new-age convenience store. Other investments include Mori, Vive Organic, New Culture, and Provi.

Pioneers in deploying venture capital into high impact agrifood tech since 2014, we back ambitious teams that are reconnecting and strengthening the link between human health and the health of the planet through innovative technology. Clay Capital was founded with the belief that food is both the cause of, and remedy to, some of today’s most urgent challenges: environmental degradation, societal inequity, and human health. We see these issues as interconnected.In Europe and Asia especially, there is a generation of entrepreneurs motivated to tackle the $12 trillion market opportunity that lies in restoring and reconnecting human and planetary health - and who have a toolkit fit for purpose: from farmers and chefs, to biotechnologists, computational biologistics, plant scientists, computer engineers and multidisciplinary teams merging these skillsets. There is no single silver bullet; transforming a system that has supported humanity in its evolution from Nomadic to Agrarian, and been the seed that rooted and grew societies around the globe, will not happen overnight. Therefore, there’s an urgent need for both transitional solutions and revolutionary new infrastructure. We aim to back both, and enable a healthier food system to co-exist with a healthier planet within our lifetimes. Clay Capital invests to strengthen and refocus how materials are produced and consumed through innovation to have sustainable, nutritious, and circular outcomes. This context presents us with unrivalled opportunities for smart investing - investments that address urgent issues today, for a better tomorrow.

We embrace the unique perspective and energy that startups bring to the world. We complement those elements with our deep food industry experience to help emerging companies reach their goals faster. Areas of FocusFunctional: Better-for-you alternatives and nutritional powerhouses Sustainable: Takes care of people and planet Experiential: Next level indulgence, immersion, and engagement Value Add: How We Can HelpSales & Product Strategy: Support on channel & category strategy, portfolio planning, trade & marketing design to scale your brand. Supply Chain & Operations: Guidance on the product journey, from sourcing to manufacturing and distribution, to achieve efficient growth. Insights & Thought Leadership: Market analysis and corporate function advice leveraging Grupo Bimbo's global resources.