S2G Ventures sets sight on seafood investments with new fund
The venture capital firm has secured $100 million to back early- and growth-stage companies producing seafood sustainably
S2G Ventures is launching the Oceans and Seafood Fund, a new investment vehicle to focus on businesses with solutions to ocean health and producing seafood sustainably. The Chicago-based venture capital firm has secured $100 million for the new fund and has recruited Kate Danaher, previously with RSF Social Finance, and Larsen Mettler from Silver Bay Seafoods, as the fund’s managing directors.
Since its inception in 2014, S2G Ventures has been a multi-stage impact investor, backing companies in the US across the agrifood and foodtech arenas, with a particular focus on production, supply chain, and consumption.
“We believe a healthier food system is the under-recognised solution to critical global challenges like climate change, healthcare and nutrition,” the company said in a statement on its website.
The statement continues: “Food should be produced in a way that considers human and environmental health just as much as taste and profit – and we back trailblazing entrepreneurs with the big ideas to help make that dream a reality. Together, we’re harnessing the power of food innovation to create better outcomes for people and the planet.”
Investing in the food ecosystem
S2G Ventures has made 52 investments to date. It invested in first-movers like plant-based food producer Beyond Meat, which today is a $9 billion-valued publicly traded company.
Other brands in S2G’s portfolio are MycoTechnology, a US company developing mushroom-based food ingredients, cell-based meat producer Future Meat, and the upcycled coffee company Atomo, to name but a few.
FishPeople is S2G’s only portfolio brand in the seafood space. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Oregon, FishPeople supplies sustainably sourced seafood to grocers and retailers in the US.
The company is now expanding its scope of investments and seeks opportunities with companies in ocean cultivation and seafood innovation.
The new fund aims to back early- and growth-stage start-ups developing science and technology around alternative proteins, aquaculture and supply chain innovation, traceability and transparency, algae and seaweed, ecosystem services, and ocean health.
The Oceans and Seafood Fund joins other investment vehicles tapping into the seafood and ocean cultivation spaces, including Dutch fund Aqua-Spark, which focuses on sustainable aquaculture businesses around the world, and Mirova’s Althelia Sustainable Ocean Fund, a vehicle dedicated to making pioneering impact investments into marine and coastal projects and enterprises. Last week, the fund closed its final capital raise totalling $132 million.
