By Lynda Kiernan
Leading global food and agtech venture capital investor Finistere Ventures has joined with three Israeli partners: OurCrowd, the largest and most active venture investor in the country; Tnuva, the largest food manufacturer in the country; and Tempo Beverages, the top beverage company in the country, to launch the largest consortium focused on backing food and agtech innovation in Israel.
The announcement of this new partnership follows the launch of a foodtech innovation incubator by the Israeli government in the north of the country. Together, Finistere, OurCrowd, Tnuva, and Tempo will bid to operate the incubator, which is being established as part of the innovation center planned by Kiryat Shemona.
With intentions to invest up to $100 million in best-in-class ag and food startups, the Israeli consortium will focus on Israeli technologies touching upon the entire supply chain from alternative proteins, functional ingredients, nutritional improvement, and supply chain efficiency.
“Israel has become a top innovation hub in the FoodTech and AgTech arena,” said Arama Kukutai, co-founder and partner, Finistere Ventures. “We are committed to expanding our local partner network and, most importantly, increasing our investment in, and support of, Israeli disruptors across the entire food and ag value chains as they look to penetrate the global market.”
Well-Rounded Collective
The consortium is a very well-rounded collective of players bringing together partners that aim to build out new companies that will be part of an evolving ag and food supply chain. Each partner can offer unique experience, knowledge, and resources to the whole, enabling the consortium to give entrepreneurs guidance that touches upon a range of factors from tech and business development, due diligence, team building, Seed Series and Series A investment strategies, to food production and marketing.
Included are two of the top venture investors in the space: Finistere, a global $150 million fund dedicated to agtech and food tech investment opportunities, and with backers that include AVAC, Bayer, Nutrien, PepsiCo, Ireland’s Strategic Investment Fund, and Unigrains.
“Canada, NZ, Australia, Israel, and LatAm: All of these geographies have strong research and education systems underpinning the ecosystem,” Kukutai told GAI News in an interview in December 2018. “The biggest differences have been access to experienced talent (usually correlated with ecosystem maturity), with an understanding of VC, and access to capital. The U.S. and Israel have had much better access to these key factors than the other ecosystems, and as such, have produced more agtech opportunities.”
Meanwhile, OurCrowd has $1 billion in commitments and has made 170 investments in companies and funds including Beyond Meat which recently made news for its extremely successful IPO that has it currently valued in excess of $4 billion.
With 30,000 registered investors from more than 180 countries, OurCrowd comes to venture capital from a position of power. Indeed, OurCrowd and Finistere are already partners along with U.S.-based Radicle Growth Fund. Headed by CEO and managing partner Kirk Haney, Radicle Growth has recently announced its intention to make Seed-stage investments in Israeli food tech and agtech startups.
“We want to bring more capital to the sector, so if we can share with the world the areas that we think are ripe for opportunity that brings more capital to the sector, then everyone benefits – entrepreneurs, growers, acquirers, customers, and our co-investors,” Haney told GAI News in a recent interview.
Rounding out the consortium are Tnuva and Tempo, Israeli’s two leading food and beverage companies that each have a strong history of working with academic institutions and startups to foster food tech innovation.
Based in Northern Israel, both companies are cornerstones of the country’s food industry with an extensive ecosystem of farmers, employees, and industry connections that can be leveraged for emerging startups.
“Today, more than half of Tnuva’s activity is located in the north of Israel,” said Eyal Malis, CEO, Tnuva. “The Ministry of Economy’s decision to establish the FoodTech project in the Northern city of Kiryat Shemona is a unique opportunity for us to reach groundbreaking results, and the fact that we have joined a number of strong partners with extensive activity and experience creates a strong foundation to promote and advance FoodTech innovation around the world.”
“The food industry, a traditional industry at its core, is experiencing the challenges of the new world, one of rapid change and innovation, in both product and process,” added Jacques Beer, chairman and CEO, Tempo.
“At Tempo, having internalized the need and desire to be at the forefront of this development, we have innovated and renewed all our areas of activity. In both products and processes, we have worked closely and intensively with our international partners. This is the knowledge and experience we seek to bring into the consortium.”
~ Lynda Kiernan