Last month Efko, an agroindustrial group founded in 1994 in the Belgorod region, launched a $50 million corporate venture fund, Firrma.ru reported.
Dubbed ‘Fuel for Growth,’ the new fund will target early-stage foodtech startups — those that can potentially disrupt the food industry, promote a healthy lifestyle, support the ecology or food security.
According to Efko CEO Evgeny Lyashenko, the most promising foodtech segments today are new products based on vegetal proteins (including vegetal meats and milk substitute drinks), next-generation sugar substitutes, smart packaging, biotech solutions and the digitalization of food production processes.
The fund is geographically agnostic; a dozen of foreign projects are already on the table with the first deals expected by the end of 2019. Portfolio startups will benefit from Efko’s industry-specific expertise, business application capacity and access to markets.
