Alternative protein venture capital fund Lever VC has completed final close of Lever VC Fund I with USDD80 million raised to back early stage plant-based and cultivated meat and dairy companies around the world.
The Fund has already built a portfolio of 19 fast-growing plant-based, cultivated and fermented animal protein companies from across the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Lever VC’s backers include several of the world’s largest meat companies, from the US, China and southeast Asia; several of the world’s largest ingredient and food commodities companies, from the US and Europe; one of the world’s largest fermentation companies, from Europe; two of the world’s largest AgriFeed companies, from China and southeast Asia; family offices of the largest retail groups in several countries; and a range of additional family offices.
“We’re pleased with the strong growth in value, sales and technology of our current portfolio, and we’ll continue to invest in more stellar companies over the next year,” says Nick Cooney, Managing Partner of Lever VC. “We’re grateful to be partnered with some of the biggest food companies from the US, Europe, China and Southeast Asia, as well as value-add family offices. We also look forward to beginning the raise of Lever VC Fund II early next year on the back of large pre-commitments from existing LPs and strong interest from institutional investors.”
Lever VC’s portfolio currently consists of TurtleTree Labs (led pre-Seed), Avant (led pre-Seed), THIS (co-led Series A), Mission Barns (Seed and Series A), Bond Pet Foods (led Seed), Better Meat Co (Seed), Blackbird Foods (led Pre-Seed and Seed), The New Butchers (Seed), Bluu (Seed), A Dozen Cousins (Seed and Series A), Welldone (Seed), Marvelous Foods (led Seed), Good Planet Foods (Pre-A), The Good Spoon (led Seed), Grounded (led Seed), CellX (Seed), NoMoo (Seed), Mozza (led pre-Seed) and Heura (Series A). Portfolio companies that received investment from Lever VC in 2019 and 2020 have already seen growth in valuation or valuation caps of 44x, 13x, 7x, 3x, 3x, 2.5x, 2x, 2x, 1.6x, and 1.1x since investment, with three more set to launch first follow-on rounds later this year.
Lever VC tracks over 2,000 alternative protein companies globally, with team members in the US, UK, France, Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore, Brazil and Israel. Prior to launching the Lever VC Fund, Partners Nick Cooney and Lawrence Chu made family office investments into leading alternative protein companies including Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, JUST, Upside Foods (Memphis Meats), Mosa Meats, Aleph Farms, Miyoko’s and Kite Hill Foods. Lever VC is actively speaking with investors interested in Lever VC Fund II, which will begin raising early next year.
