Unllever Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever has made plans to increase its assets under management with its latest $450m fund from its parent, it has emerged.
The 11-year-old Unilever Ventures unit agreed the funds at the end of last year, and has already sealed its first deal, although it is yet to be disclosed.
Martin Grieve, global managing director of Unilever Ventures, said: “The fact Unilever is committing to our third fund is recognition we can continue delivering financial and strategic benefits for Unilever.” Grieve declined to comment on the group’s financial returns to date.
Grieve added the group had focused on four sectors – personal care, refreshment, digital marketing and sustainable business. He said: “Looking at our current portfolio, we have investments in each of these four areas. What this does is clarify the areas we are most interested in. This is not to say we have radically changed focus. We are actively hunting for deals which can receive significant added value from Unilever.”
He added: “We will have an advisory board for each of these four sectors, so we are in touch with the key stakeholders within Unilever. This is something new we are setting up alongside fund III so we continue to be aligned with what Unilever wants and engage on individual portfolio companies and what we are seeing that is new from an external Unilever Ventures perspective. We are hoping this will be quite instrumental in shaping the sector focus of areas as we move through the fund.”
The sector split will result in the corporate venturing unit backing start-ups in two core sectors of its parent, which owns more than 400 brands, such as health and beauty brand Dove and ice creams Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s, through its focus on personal care and refreshment.
This is a news write-off from a profile of Unilever Ventures in our April issue.