Danone Manifesto Ventures

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.

We partner with consumer food brands who have the ambition to become category leaders and sustainability champions. We have helped iconic brands navigate to the top of their category, fast. Pan-European Seed to Series B investors with tickets between €2 – €10m. Our ManifestoDeeply driven by a passion for food & beverage: Our knowledge and passion are cornerstones for deep and lasting relationships with founders. Rational over emotional: We build our conviction by understanding people, market, the product and the need it addresses, using data to support most decisions. Ambitious, squared: We back category-defining companies building the future of food. We think big and encourage our partners to think bigger. There to support, not interfere: We are in a number-driven world, and we trust the analytical process. Being thoroughly data driven helps us navigate problems and find more actionable solutions. In hustle we trust: We like entrepreneurs who hustle harder and smarter. We appreciate creativity in the engagement, fast and clear communications and relentlessness pursuit of objectives. Do good, be good and make good: We value honesty, integrity and trust in the way we operate and expect the same from our partners. Caring as an advantage: We care about the planet, people and above all the entrepreneurs. We invest in companies that take their impact on the planet seriously and have clearly defined impact goals. Alignment of interests is our mantra: We strive to preserve alignment between shareholders, management and other stakeholders. We allow our convictions to evolve: If we decide not to invest, we do our best to give the founders constructive feedback and keep the dialogue open, leaving the door open in case we build a stronger conviction down the line.

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.

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.

Established by founder and former CEO of Vital Proteins and backed by a team of highly successful consumer brand entrepreneurs and investors, Starshot Ventures Launch Pad – SVLP – is a venture creation studio that forges innovative brands meant to deliver on consumers’ wellness needs. We are seasoned leaders and well-respected brand builders on a mission to provide better wellness solutions for all. We lead with curiosity and chase bold ideas in the pursuit of helping others be their best.

FIGR’s mission was born out of the co-founders’ mutual passion for consumer products – from fashion and beauty to food and beverages – and concern for environmental and social issues worldwide, in some cases being exacerbated by the consumer sector. Idealists picture a world where consumers reduce their purchases to the bare minimum. This purist thinking has driven many consumer businesses to sit at the extreme ends of the spectrum, with a feeling that they must choose between staying as a small kitchen-table business or scaling and becoming inherently “bad”. Story It all started with artisans. Fiona and Ellie met at lifestyle media house Hearst UK. Tasked with creating the Small Business Partnerships team to monetise opportunities for artisans across e-commerce, events and media space, they started to think about what high-potential small consumer businesses really need to grow, and what this growth could look like if businesses and investors considered people, planet and profit. Around the same time, Fiona was beginning to develop the philanthropic strategy for the family office, and had started to explore how philanthropy and investment could combine to maximise social and environmental impact. Mission We back the founders redefining life’s everyday choices. FIGR invests in early-stage startups with the potential to shape consumer behaviour. We take a two-pronged approach to impact, by backing responsible for-profit organisations via FIGR and supporting non-profit organisations via the Harrington Foundation. We invest in three types of changemaker: Switchers: Switchers disrupt the consumer sector with exciting alternatives to existing goods. Responsible products people want to use. Enablers: Enablers support consumers and businesses to make responsible choices. Tools and resources enabling everyone to do better. Solvers: Solvers create solutions to unsolved issues affecting consumers’ lives. Tackling real problems for real people. Approach We won’t redefine life’s everyday choices overnight. We don’t work to typical venture capital timelines, because we believe driving real change takes time. We also believe bringing investors on board is about much more than funding - we want to be the first investor our founders call if they need support or have exciting news to share! We provide a non-judgemental thinking partnership, expertise from our team and advisors, and introductions to our wider network. We typically invest up to £300k of patient capital at pre-seed and seed stage. We invest in businesses… Shaping the consumer sector as a switcher, enabler or solver With a responsible social and environmental approach Based in the UK or Europe Generating revenue (although we’re open to investing in pre-revenue businesses in rare circumstances) With innovative and passionate founders at the helm who we believe will scale the business effectively Confident that funding from FIGR will help to achieve their goals (investment isn’t right for everyone!) ValuesWe make a difference: We’re here to drive positive environmental and social change, so we look at all prospective investments through the lens of their impact. We also partner with The Harrington Foundation as we believe combining philanthropic grants and investing for impact is the best way to make a difference. We do the right thing: FIGR has a strong moral compass. Although we want our investments to make a great return, we will not compromise on our commitment to make a difference. We act with integrity, compassion and respect. We take risks: We have the confidence to be brave, as we know this is the only way to make a change. We prioritise potential over experience and take chances on great people. We’re open to leading rounds, investing before institutional funders and funding first-time founders. We say what we mean: In an industry rife with complicated jargon and lengthy processes, we choose clarity. We want everyone we work with to know exactly where they stand. We’re transparent and straightforward, and we communicate our decisions quickly – founders are too busy to be left in the lurch!