In This Issue:
- Food Venture Financing Trends
- CPG Corporate Venture and Private Equity Funds
Food Venture Financing Trends
- Elo Life Systems, a molecular farming startup, announced that it raised $24.5 million in its Series A round. The company plans to use the funds to develop its natural, plant-based sweetener products.
- According to a recent disclosure filed with the SEC, third Point LLC, an activist investor, purchased 2.3 million shares of International Flavors & Fragrances. The disclosure indicated that the shares are worth $240 million.
- International Flavors & Fragrances announced this week that it entered into an agreement with Exponent, a UK private equity firm, to sell its Flavor Specialty Ingredients business for $220 million in cash. IFF hopes to use the funds to strengthen its financial position and reduce its outstanding debt.
- Terraa, a B2B food distribution startup based in Morocco, announced that it raised $1.5 million in its pre-seed round. The company plans to use the funds to build collection centers in Morocco to store produce for farmers that will be distributed to customers.
CPG Corporate Venture and Private Equity Fund
This week's featured CPG Corporate Venture and Private Equity Fund is La Cocina.
- La Cocina is a kitchen incubator based in San Francisco. It supports businesses by providing an affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance and access to market opportunities.
- La Cocina's incubator program focuses primarily on providing resources to women from communities of color and immigrant communities who are launching, growing and formalizing food businesses.
- Since 2005, La Cocina has focused, exclusively, on the project of small business incubation, with a vision to increase inclusivity in the food industry and offer equitable opportunity for living-wage work and asset generation.
- Here is the link to La Cocina's Incubator Program: How the Program Works — La Cocina (lacocinasf.org)
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