Food product manufacturer Campbell Soup launched a $125m venture capital fund on Wednesday called Acre Venture Partners that will invest in food-related startups.
Acre will be solely funded by Campbell but will operate independently. It has not revealed its management team, but Campbell’s representative on the investment committee will be Jeff Dunn, president of its fresh packaged food division, Campbell Fresh.
Campbell chief executive Denise Morrison announced the fund at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference, saying: “We believe that defining the future of real food requires new approaches, new business models, smart external development and an ecosystem of innovative partners.”
The move comes during an interesting time in the food VC space, and Morrison said Campbell was responding to economic and demographic shifts such as the declining middle class in the US and an increasing desire among consumers for fresh food.
Impossible Foods and Hampton Creek have pulled in substantial amounts of funding for meat substitutes, while fresh juice supplier Juicero raised $100m from investors including Campbell in early 2015.
Meanwhile, other food manufacturers, such as General Mills and Chobani, are establishing their own corporate venturing subsidiaries. Morrison stated that some 400 food-related companies have received a total of more than $6bn in VC funding since 2010.
– Photo courtesy of Campbell Soup Co.