Switzerland-listed chocolate maker Nestlé has made a corporate venturing investment of undisclosed size in Accera, which provides milkshakes for people with Alzheimer’s disease.
Luis Cantarell, president and chief executive of Nestlé Health Science, a subsidiary set up by the Swiss company last year, said: “The significance of this is not the [undisclosed] size of the investment, but the fact that it is our first step in developing our brain health portfolio.”
In December 2010, Accera, which also makes drugs for Nestlé’s pet food, raised €8m ($11m), according to a regulatory filing first seen by CB Insights.
Inventages Venture Capital, a Switzerland-based venture capital firm backed by Nestlé, and Posco BioVentures, the corporate venturing unit of Korean steelmaker Posco, had backed its three previous rounds.
Wolfgang Reichenberger and Gunnar Weikert, co-heads of Inventages, are also on Accera’s board.
Accera previously raised $35m in its series C round in November 2008 while Inventages and Posco also both participated in the company’s $6m series A and $7.5m B round in 2004 and 2006, respectively.
In 2006, Nestlé invested SFr25m in a collaboration with local university ETH Lausanne to develop food products that protect the brain against diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Nestlé plans to invest about $500m over the next 10 years to produce more food and drink products with health benefits.
Accera sells Axona, which is taken by 30,000 Alzheimer’s patients in the US and is derived from coconut oil.