March 28, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Launched in October 2016, Milltrust’s first British Innovation Fund (BIF) was established to direct much needed international and domestic institutional capital into the UK University-originated venture sector to commercialize world-leading IP, with a strong inclusion of agri-science and technology.

Following the broad success of BIF, Milltrust announced its launch of British Innovation Fund II, which will continue the work of leveraging deep connections with top British research institutions, universities, and NGOs to actively support promising startups with cutting-edge IP capable of industry disruption. 

“The successful exit from BIF I has enabled us to reinvest at an advantageous time, with valuation metrics far more appealing for investors today, and our connections with Asia and the continent set to open up new markets for our investee companies,” explained Alexander Kalis, managing partner and senior portfolio manager, BIF II.

Concurrently, Milltrust announced Milltrust Ventures, a dedicated venture capital platform that will target high-impact, early-stage companies that have links to UK University scientific innovation. 

Milltrust Ventures has already made big moves. At the end of January, GAI News shared the news that Milltrust Ventures, together with Earth First Food Ventures, a food tech venture capital platform with a presence in Switzerland, India, the U.S., Brazil, and Greece, had launched the Smart Protein Fund with a funding target of $300 million. 

In January, Milltrust explained that this Fund will build upon its first investment in alternative proteins made in 2016 when it provided Seed funding to help launch Roslin Technologies – a food and agtech company based in Edinburgh, Scotland, focused on disruptive biotechnologies with core capabilities in developing and commercializing research in the emerging global cultivated meat industry. 

“The creation of Milltrust Ventures represents a significant step forward in our strategy to foster Sustainable Prosperity across the globe, recognising the outsized positive impact that rapidly-growing, IP-rich companies can have and the unique alpha they can provide to investors,” noted Simon Hopkins, CEO, Milltrust International. 

Sustainable Prosperity

With offices in London and Singapore, Milltrust looks to address some of the most impactful global themes including rising food demand, emerging economies, technological revolutions, and climate change, offering tide-changing investment solutions to pension funds, sovereign entities, family offices, entrepreneurs, and high-net worth individuals (HNWIs).

Under its aforementioned mantra Sustainable Prosperity, Milltrust International has made 69 prior and 16 new fund investments including being a backer of Roslin Technologies – the Edinburgh-based biotech company and close tie-in to the Roslin Institute (the creator of Dolly the first cloned sheep) that is operating in the cultivated meat industry.

BIF II is already actively investing across three thematic verticals: Green Earth, Smart Proteins, and Future Health, providing critical capital and highly valuable support to early-stage companies in the sustainable food production, animal welfare, recycle and waste management, and medical and diagnostic fields. 

Overseeing and managing these endeavors is a team of investment managers and advisors including some notable recent additions to the team: 

~ Dr Bernard Ng, a medical and clinical affairs leader and former chief medical officer at Bayer consumer division, has joined Milltrust in the role of chief scientific officer.

~  Haydn Craig, a top agriculture and food systems specialist and former CEO of Capital Agri International and senior consultant for AbacusBio Limited, has been appointed to the Milltrust Ventures Board.

~ And Harry Paul – a veteran with 30 years experience in both medtech and agri investment including a former role in Milltrust’s farmland investments, sold to LPPI in 2022, and former senior roles at Boston Scientific and Roche – joins as a venture partner. 

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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