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The Cibus funds appoints two Investment Directors

The Cibus funds, a sustainable food and agriculture investment adviser, has appointed Benoit Boisseuil and Tom Ritchie as Investment Directors. 

The pair will source, execute and manage growth equity and buy-out situations within the Cibus funds.

Boisseuil and Ritchie join during a period of strong growth for the Cibus funds, which see significant investment opportunities presented by global demographic changes, shifting consumption patterns and the inability of the world’s fastest growing economies to meet rapidly increasing regional demand for high-value foods.

Boisseuil has over 13 years’ experience as a private equity investor, M&A investment banker and strategy consultant across EMEA and Asia. He joins from private equity firm AGIC, where he was Vice President in charge of the origination and execution of various USD 100m to USD 1bn enterprise value transactions across Agrifood Tech and life sciences sectors. Before joining AGIC, Boisseuil was a M&A Investment Banker at Morgan Stanley, where he oversaw circa USD 6bn of successful deals on both sell-side and buy-side mandates in the green /energy transition sectors. Boisseuil started his career as a strategy consultant. He speaks French, English, Mandarin and Russian and holds an MBA from London Business School.

Ritchie is an experienced food and agriculture investment professional and joins the Cibus funds from Rabobank, where he was an Investment Director responsible for growing Rabobank’s EUR 125m food and agriculture venture capital fund. Prior to Ritchie’s role in venture capital, he worked in Rabobank’s acquisition finance team in both London & Sydney, where he led a number of mid-market private equity leveraged buyouts. Ritchie has held positions on the boards of a number of Agrifood Tech companies and brings a large network within the food and agriculture sectors as well as 15 years’ experience in farm management, including livestock and arable farming.

Rob Appleby, Co-Founder, the Cibus funds, says: “We are very excited to have Benoit and Tom on board at the Cibus funds. They are both valuable additions to the team and join at a time when global food production is being significantly impacted by the ongoing climate crisis, a growing world population and rapid regulatory change. These factors are combining to disrupt decades of accepted agriculture and food production practices. Their joint experience and expertise will add strength and depth to the Cibus team as we continue to see strong growth. Both Tom and Benoit bring specialist knowledge and experience in sectors and key investment themes to the Cibus funds. “

Boisseuil says: “I am delighted to join the Cibus funds with a focus on high-impact growth companies across all aspects of animal and human food value chains. I feel grateful to have the opportunity to join a first-class team underpinned by a strong corporate ethos, investing using a differentiated ESG driven framework, focussed on early mid-market buyout investments. I look forward to helping the team take advantage of the significant investment opportunities in this space.” 

Ritchie adds: “I am proud to be joining a team that is passionate about channelling capital towards companies that are shaping the future of food. Agrifood Tech has the potential to completely reform the food value chain to ensure global food security for the future as well and generate strong financial returns for investors.  I am looking forward to working with the ambitious Cibus team to identify innovative technologies that are disrupting food production, increasing resource efficiency and ensuring sustainability.”

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