Portfolio & Impact
Portfolio & Impact
Application generally yields results, which can be analyzed to measure impact and inform future decisions. The Re:food portfolio can be analyzed in many different ways. We certainly pay attention to the financial performance of our companies, but we also look for ways to monitor their progress towards achieving specific social or environmental objectives. We have partnered with motivated, mission-driven, innovative entrepreneurs across all four themes, working on solutions to some of the biggest challenges in our food system today. Keep reading to see the results of applying theory to food system investing, then visit our website to learn more about the companies we’ve partnered with.
When we founded Re:food, we sat down to formulate Food is Solvable, our guiding principle for investing in sustainable food system innovations. The first step was to zoom way, way out, to the planetary level to look at boundaries and the social level to think about foundations. We then narrowed our focus slightly to look at the food system and then narrower still to the sub-systems within it that correspond to our four prioritized investment themes. With the Three Horizons framework and the EAT-Lancet Shifts, we added a temporal dimension to the spatial analysis, thinking in terms of innovation horizons and 2050 deadlines for addressing the climate crisis.
The Segment Analysis work narrowed the focus even further to industries and innovation categories, and our sourcing and due diligence work went a step beyond that to focus in on individual companies. We’ve talked with thousands of founders and experts, read countless pages of research about cutting-edge innovations, and built strong relationships with other investors in this space. We’ve honed our investment approach and our segment theses and have partnered with sixteen companies that are directly and indirectly supporting five out of six required shifts. We believe these companies have very high potential to drive significant or transformative change and become leaders within their categories, thereby creating positive impact and financial value.
Now, after getting to this most granular level, it’s worth broadening our focus a small amount, zooming back out to look at the portfolio of companies we’ve partnered with over the last nine years. There are many ways to evaluate this portfolio, but a few things jump out to us when we look at it as a whole.
Our portfolio spans the food value chain, from upstream financial services for growers, through packaging and processing infrastructure and novel food and ingredient manufacturing, to consumer-facing platforms that improve access and information and reduce waste. The food system transformation is happening at multiple leverage points simultaneously, and collaboration is key. We’re excited to see our companies finding opportunities to connect and collaborate with each other at Portfolio Summits facilitated by the Re:food team.
Our portfolio is global, just like the food system. We back companies headquartered across Israel, Europe, and North America. Their reach expands beyond that through international teams, commercial partnerships with other continents, and global distribution networks.
Our portfolio is having an impact. Since we invested, these companies have achieved commercial milestones, reached new customers, improved their products and technologies to be more impactful and sustainable, and drafted new policies and procedures to continue to reduce harm and benefit stakeholders. We’ve shared some information in the Sustainability section of our website, and more in our 2023 Impact Report.
Re:food will continue to invest in and support entrepreneurs building category-defining companies at key leverage points in the food system. It's what gets us out of bed in the morning and gives us hope for a better future for us and for generations to come. But transforming a system is a heavy lift and not something a single investor or entity can do alone.
We invite everyone who shares our goal of a more sustainable food system to join us in this work.
This includes other investors but also regulators, chefs, researchers, consumers, and entrepreneurs — and, really, anyone who eats.
If you’ve reached this point and have a question, comments, relevant pitch, idea for collaboration, or anything else to share, please reach out. We look forward to starting a dialogue with you!
- 50% red meat consumption (EAT-Lancet)
- Eliminate animal factory farming
- Reduce beef & dairy consumption
- Eliminate overfishing
- Eliminate diet-driven zoonotic diseases and antibiotic-resistance
- 50% reduction in sugar (EAT-lancet)
- 50% increase in plant consumption (EAT-lancet)
- Increase the nutritional density and diversity of food
- Zero hunger (SDG2)
- Eliminate single-use plastic packaging
- Recapture and recycle nutrients from waste streams, especially +50% phosphorus recycling (EAT-Lancet)
- Reduce food waste and loss by 50% (SDG 12.3, EAT-Lancet)
- Improve the distribution of existing food supply to people lacking food security
- Repurpose unavoidable food waste
- Reduce synthetic and mined agricultural inputs
- Support the transition to regenerative agricultural practices
