Full Plates: Smart Money VCs Back Food Startups In Biotech Research, Animal-Free Meat & Dairy, And More

While top-tier VCs have traditionally focused on tech startups, rather than consumer goods, several “smart money” firms are beginning to steer funding directly toward food & beverage startups — albeit in several very specific areas. Nearly all the food & beverage startups that have attracted smart money are focused on transformational technologies such as plant-based protein and animal-free eggs — startups that may not only be selling products, but are designing new processes that could change what we eat.

We used our CB Insights Business Social Graph tool to look at which food & beverage companies have been backed by smart money VCs. Our analysis includes startups producing branded, packaged food products or food development technologies. We did not include food delivery startups or meal kit startups such as Blue Apron. 

Out of our list of 24 smart money VCs, nine have invested in food and beverage startups since 2013, backing 14 startups between them. Khosla Ventures was most active, funding eight food and beverage companies since 2013. Interestingly, Google Ventures (though a corporate venture arm, not a smart money VC and not included in the graphic) is actually the second most active investor in this cohort of smart money-backed startups, backing five of them since 2013.

For more on how we selected our 24 “smart money VCs,” please see the explanation and full smart money list at the bottom of this post.

Click to enlarge. Each green line represents one investment round.  

Key takeaways

Smart money VCs’ food & beverage investments nearly all focus on replacing common food items. These innovations may be more scalable than simple “flavor innovations,” or startups working on a new snack product or beverage flavor. Within that broad mission, the startups fall into several categories:

Note: To analyze smart money trends, we looked at the activity of 24 top VC firms, selected according to portfolio valuations and investment outcomes. Some of the investors are linked to relevant research briefs. Here’s our full list of 24 smart money investors:

1. Sequoia Capital
2. Benchmark Capital
3. Accel Partners
4. Greylock Partners
5. Andreessen Horowitz
6. Union Square Ventures
7. First Round Capital
8. Bessemer Venture Partners
9. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
10. New Enterprise Associates
11. Founders Fund
12. Lightspeed Venture Partners
13. Foundry Group
14. Index Ventures
15. Khosla Ventures
16. Social Capital
17. Emergence Capital Partners
18. True Ventures
19. Floodgate Fund
20. General Catalyst Partners
21. CRV
22. Spark Capital
23. Battery Ventures
24. Redpoint Ventures

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