Big Food’s stake in the future – in-house venture-capital funds’ investments

Andy Coyne
21 min read

In This Article:

For Big Food companies looking to gain exposure to new, exciting, potentially faster-growing categories, M&A remains a popular route. But an alternative, especially when it comes to start-up companies, is to make equity investments.

And, over the last few years, an increasing number of major food companies have established in-house venture-capital arms to back innovative young companies with bags of potential, with a view to helping them to grow.

This is not altruism of course but such investments should, in theory, benefit both parties, enabling so-called Big Food to tap into evolving consumer trends and learn more about how to innovate and do business in a more agile manner.

Start-ups benefit from the investing company's vast experience and resources.

Here we look at what some of the major companies have done in this area and at some of their key investments.

General Mills

In 2023, General Mills set out a fresh strategy for its corporate investing.

The US giant’s two units used for external investment are housed under a division called Gold Medal Ventures.

Once the company’s innovation unit and then its sole in-house investment vehicle, 301 Inc will remain General Mills’ venture-capital arm and make minority investments “but it will also function to source deals for the new growth equity fund”, the company said in November 2023.

That new fund was unveiled that month alongside its first investment. General Mills used the fund to snap up Fera Pets, a US business that develops and sells supplements for dogs and cats.

Gold Medal Ventures’ third pillar is G-Works, set up in 2019 and through which the company develops and launches its own products.

As of November 2023, the companies residing in the Gold Medal Ventures investment portfolio include Urban Remedy, a California-based plant-based food company General Mills backed in 2018 and PetPlate, a US direct-to-consumer dog-food firm in which the company invested three years earlier.

Other investments include:

Smalls, a cat-food start-up based in New York (2023)
Everything Legendary, a US supplier of plant-based meat products (2022)
US snacks firm Rhythm Superfoods (2016)

Hershey

The US snacks giant has an in-house arm, C7 Ventures, to make equity investments.

In 2019, Hershey acquired minority stakes in Irish snack brand Fulfil and US confectionery maker Blue Stripes through the investment vehicle.

Two years later, the company used C7 Ventures to take part in a Series B funding round for US firm Bonumose to support the commercial production of allulose and tagutose.

Tyson Foods

Tyson Foods, the US meat giant, has a venture capital arm, Tyson Ventures, which was established in autumn 2016 to invest in companies developing breakthrough technologies, business models and products to sustainably feed the growing world population.

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