US-based food product producer Campbell Soup has sold its stake in Acre Venture Partners, the venture capital firm it formed in 2016, to investment firm StepStone Group, AgFunderNews reported yesterday.
Campbell launched the vehicle with $125m of capital to invest in food and agriculture technology developers, and was its sole limited partner. It had invested $85m of at the time of the sale to StepStone, in May 2020, according to a regulatory filing.
Stepstone paid about $40m for Campbell’s stake in Acre Venture Partners Fund I and has committed an undisclosed amount of dry powder capital for follow-on investments in its portfolio companies.
StepStone has also made a capital commitment to Acre‘s second fund, which held a first close in January 2020 and which has set a $125m target for its close.
Campbell reported a $45m loss on its investment in Acre Venture Partners in its most recent financial results. The firm’s portfolio includes agriculture data and analytics provider Farmers Business Network and probiotics developer Evolve BioSystems.