PINC

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.

Nourish Ventures is on a mission to partner with and scale the industry trailblazers leading the food system of the future. Nourish Ventures is the corporate venture capital fund of Griffith Foods. Griffith Foods is an innovative, global, product-development company that has been solving problems in the food industry for more than 100 years. At Nourish we invest in, and partner with, innovative start-up companies that are shaping a healthy and sustainable food system. We are committed to forming partnerships with entrepreneurs who share our aspiration to blend care and creativity while nourishing the world. From smarter alternative proteins to safer ecologically-sound farming methods, it’s our mission to actualize and scale the development of tomorrow’s food system.

The world is entering a new era of food and agriculture transformation. Long-term consumer trends towards health and sustainability, along with a growing and more affluent population, are driving the demand for more efficient and sustainable food production methods. Fueled by recent technological breakthroughs, increasing government support, and a focus on resource allocation, the traditional agriculture industry is facing significant disruption and pressure to adapt. Lever VC backs the entrepreneurs creating the future of food and agriculture. What we look for Lever VC invests in companies creating the future of food and agriculture, encompassing anything that drives improvements in sustainability and ESG targets in the current food system. For novel ingredient companies, such as providers of sustainable commodity goods, nutraceuticals, proteins, flavorings, or fats, we look to invest in companies with significantly improved quality, price, sustainability, and functionality, that demonstrate product-market fit. For technology-driven companies across the food and agriculture supply chain, we look to invest as early as possible in global or regional pioneers of technologies that create ingredients, inputs, services, machinery, or products that generate significant improvements compared to state-of-the-art incumbents and have a clear path to market-accessible price points. For product-driven companies in the better-for-you, pet food, and plant-based space, we look to invest early in companies that are #1 or #2 in quality in their broad geographic region, in product categories with large total addressable markets that are not over-saturated, and that have demonstrated early sales traction and strong weekly unit turnover. In all categories, we look for reasonable deal terms and fantastic founding teams with the vision, work ethic, good judgment, intelligence, and self-awareness needed to build an incredibly successful company. Lever VC conducts robust, lead-level due diligence before every investmentSourcing Lever sources deals from our extensive personal networks in the sector, robust inbound cold contacts, incubator and accelerator partners, and trade media and sales channel monitoring. Tracking The Fund tracks and monitors over 5,000 companies in the protein landscape through its proprietary database, allowing for robust peer analysis and early detection of breakout growth. Scientific and Technical Review Lever utilizes its in-house scientific expertise to conduct extensive technical review on all relevant deals via interviews, data analysis, IP and academic literature reviews, and site visits. Due Diligence The Fund conducts lead-level due diligence before all investments, including financial modeling, returns analysis, taste panels, site visits, competitor analysis, and general financial and strategy reviews. Lever VC's deep sector experience allows it to provide portfolio companies with much more than just capital The Fund taps its extensive network of investors in the category to help portfolio companies raise follow-on rounds with value-add partners. It utilizes its connections with leading food companies around the globe to help portfolio companies secure product development, scale-up and sales partnerships. It draws on years of experience investing across scores of companies in the Food and AgTech sectors (and reviewing thousands more) to advise on commercial and marketing strategies. Lever VC prefers to lead or co-lead rounds and to take board or board observer seats when possible, although neither is required.

Astanor brings together capital, deep sector knowledge and a strong network of entrepreneurs, impact investors, technologists, scientists, farmers, chefs, policy makers and food lovers to give rise to a future of food that is nourishing, regenerative, scalable, trusted and delicious. Mission-driven investors, from soil to gut Astanor is an impact investor, delivering financial, social and environmental returns in equal measure. We believe in the future of an agrifood system that provides affordable nutrients for 10 billion people, preserves and regenerates natural resources, actively contributes to decarbonization and protects land and ocean biodiversity. At Astanor, we are driven by a pressing urgency to combat climate change, biodiversity loss and improve the health of humanity and the planet. Sustainability and impact were part of the firm’s founding principles and remain an area we are committed to excel in. Our mission as impact investors is to find, support and scale the most disruptive, impactful solutions to accelerate progress towards global sustainability targets. Our priorities Only highly disruptive, scalable new technology guided by a deep understanding of, and respect for, nature will revolutionize the agrifood sector. Astanor is founded on the thesis that a healthy food system starts from the soil, is connected, transparent and local, nurtures diversity and grows food that is our and the environment’s best medicine. Accelerating regenerative agri/aquaculture finding innovative solutions that enable the global regenerative use of resources, soil & ocean stewardship and scalable agroecology. Connecting the value chain implementing sustainable supply chains, fair remuneration, traceability & transparency, circularity and eliminating waste. Innovating agrifood transformation processes facilitating the sustainable production of food, textiles & agriculture- based materials and restore human and planet health. Astanor’s investment process is guided by 6 principlesRegeneration: Soil is the new black. Health starts, and is sustained for the long-term for people and the planet, from fertile soil and healthy oceans. Food integrity: Insight breeds intelligence. Traceability, transparency, fair labor and supply chain practices will restore trust, decrease risk and strengthen communities. Sustainable diet: Resilience rooted in diversity. New sources of food are required to end overreliance on a few species, monoculture systems and climate-destructive diets. Fresh & delicious: Quality led innovation. New approaches are needed in distribution, packaging that preserves without polluting and urban agriculture to put great tasting food on the table. Nourishment: Food as medicine. Sustainably grown and minimally processed foods protect and promote health. Protection: Waste not, want not. Greater care and efficient use of natural capital, alongside new methods to repurpose waste, are needed to repair the planet.

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.

ICL is a global leader in the field of agriculture, food, and engineered materials, and continually seeks with its unparalleled R&D infrastructure to develop innovative solutions for humanity’s greatest sustainability challenges. ICL Planet Startup Hub is the vehicle in which ICL chooses to work with innovative companies, synergize with their novelty, and short-cut their way to global play. Our ICL Planet Startup Hub offers a unique flexible hybrid innovation model that uses various startup incubator and startup accelerator elements to synergize ICL’s resources, expertise, mentorship, and infrastructure with early-stage innovative AgTech startups and FoodTech startups with the goal to make an impact in the world we live in and in the AgriFood Tech ecosystem. Together, we can grow game-changing technology and address vital global sustainability concerns, in order to create significant environmental transformation! We created ICL Planet Startup Hub, a vehicle in which ICL cultivates, nurtures, and accelerates innovation and technologies in the AgriFood tech ecosystem. We invite entrepreneurs, innovators, and AgTech & FoodTech startups to join forces with us and fulfill their potential. Together we can make an impact on global challenges and disrupt the AgriFood tech ecosystem. By joining our cutting-edge AgriFood tech startup hub, you’ll be partnering with a trusted name and an industry leader. We at ICL are on a continual quest to create sustainable solutions for the global food, agriculture, and industrial markets that impact the daily lives of millions worldwide. We seek, invest and grow disruptive companies that can favorably affect the industries we work in and lead, in order to address critical global needs and bring about a positive environmental impact on our collective future.