4. Large and Small Investors

Food technology would not have reached such a pinnacle of success in the past 5 years, without the boost provided by those investors who have backed its new ideas and development.

The Internet of Food certainly thrives thanks to technology and innovation, but it owes its vitality to the large and small angels, accelerators and incubators and venture capitalists who have chosen to finance good ideas, also with the help of crowdfunding platforms at times. Let’s see what this is all about.

Food industries and private investors

The first operators interested in developing innovative ideas are the large companies already operating in the food and beverage market, which want to stay there and continue to be successful. In fact, many of them (Campbell Soup, CocaCola, General Mills, Kelloggs 1894, Nestlè, Mondelez and Unilever among others) have chosen to allocate funds to support the best ideas in the industry.

Also some individual entrepreneurs have financed food technology projects: Bill Gates, for example, is among those who have enabled Impossible Foods to create their first meatless burger.

Venture Capital Firms

There are plenty of venture capital firms in the world. One of the best known active in the food sector companies in the US is Circle Up. Every year, it recognises the 25 best ideas to have innovated the market with interesting products comprised food.

Seed2Growth is behind the success of Beyond Meat and specialise in backing start-ups focused on healthy, sustainable, and local food. Other examples of ‘angels’ also from the US include: Accel Foods and Cavu Ventures, while those wishing to open a successful restaurant can turn to Gluttonomy.

Crowdfunding for the Food Business

Crowdfunding platforms (fundraising through a portal) attract great interest from the public, often with success. Who hasn’t heard of Indiegogo and Kickstarter? Today there are several platforms specialising in the food business such as the British-based Crowdfooding. PieShell (formerly Fundafeast) from New York, utilises the “All of Nothing” funding model: projects are required to create three stepping-stones and each must be reached for the money to be guaranteed to the campaigner. If they fail to reach any stepping-stone they only get the funds that successfully got them to the previous stepping-stone; Californian Barnraiser specialises in Internet of Food projects associated with sustainability, environmental protection and natural foods; while the Dutch platform of Farmers Funding is dedicated to sustainable farming.