Hong Kong's Lever VC hits $46m fourth close on food fund

A first close of $23 million was confirmed in August last year, with about 70% of LP commitments coming from Asian family offices and consumer-oriented conglomerates, including food companies. The third and fourth closes featured a stronger showing from high net worth individuals in the US and Europe such as sports starts from the NFL and NBA and British nobility.

A mix of international family offices also took part, as did an unnamed agriculture and food group, identified as the largest company in its field with annual revenue of more than $50 billion. The fund, which invests globally in early-stage plant-based and cell-cultivated meat and dairy companies, is targeting $50 million. A final close is expected in June.

The capital will be used in part as follow-on funding for portfolio companies in Lever's existing China fund, which had secured RMB40 million ($6 million) as of mid-2020. As such, the China vehicle's planned capacity of RMB200 million is now firmly in place across the two funds. The strategy will leverage a partnership with Brinc, a Hong Kong accelerator focused on manufacturing.

Lever has invested 14 start-ups to date, which have grown 2.3x in cumulative value since July 2019 based on the companies' most recent funding rounds. Standouts include Hong Kong-based Avant, a cultivated meat company targeting Greater China and Singapore's TurtleTree Labs, which creates milk from cells with no animal needed. Asian exposure also includes Marvelous Foods, a plant-based dairy brand in China.

The venture capital firm was established in 2017 by Lawrence Chu and Nick Cooney, both early investors in sector leaders Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. Chu heads Lever's Asian operations in Hong Kong and is also a co-founder of local financial technology start-up Oriente. He has made more than $450 million of private equity investments in the conventional animal protein space. The team also has a presence in Singapore, China, India, the US, UK, Netherlands, France, and Israel.

Investment in food innovation is surging on the back of several trends related to food safety concerns, environmentalism, and increased health consciousness that are seen as particularly attractive in Asia. Previous fundraising activity in this space includes Singapore's VisVires New Protein launching its second fund with a target of $150 million; its debut raised $40 million in 2016. Last year, Big Idea Ventures, a specialist investor based in Singapore and the US, launching its debut fund with a target of $50 million.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Greater China
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Cleantech
• Consumer
• Hong Kong (China)
• Lever VC
• Food