US-based packaged food producer Kraft Heinz has launched a strategic investment known as Evolv Ventures that will be equipped with up to $100m from its parent.
The fund will be headed by Bill Pescatello as managing partner. Pescatello was hired from venture capital firm Lightbank, where he had been a partner since 2011, overseeing investments in portfolio companies including Udemy, Fooda and Ovia Health.
Evolv Ventures will target developers of e-commerce, logistics and supply chain technology as well as direct-to-consumer projects, Pescatello told Bloomberg. Its formation follows Kraft Heinz’s launch of an accelerator called Springboard in March this year.
Prior to joining Lightbank, Pescatello had been a co-founder of Peacock Equity, the corporate venturing unit set up by media group NBC and industrial technology producer GE that was rolled into Comcast Ventures following mass media group Comcast’s merger with NBC in 2009.
Bernardo Hees, Kraft Heinz’s chief executive, said: “New technological innovations in the food industry create endless new opportunities to strengthen business models.
“Through Evolv Ventures, we will work with tomorrow’s most innovative founders and companies in the space, and use the full resources of Kraft Heinz to help them succeed.”
