In 2023, like so many of our peers, we navigated a banking upset, capital stagnation, and capital market swells. Yet, we continued deploying capital, supporting our portfolio, investing in our ecosystem, and operating in alignment with our values. In this annual reflection post, we share highlights and results from 2023.
Highlights
We closed our inaugural fund, at our $40M target1
Five new companies joined our portfolio: Robigo, Kadeya, Tendrel, Helios and Lasso
Our first Impact Report was published, highlighting the incredible work of our portfolio as of 2022
We hosted our inaugural pitch showcase, which surfaced over 150 early stage companies in food & ag tech led by women, and gave a $25k equity-free prize
We launched the Supply Change Foundation to catalyze emerging founders and provide onramps to VC
Fund I Overview
AUM: $40M
Vintage: 2021
Capital Deployed: $15.3M
Portfolio Size: 18
Initial Investment/Follow-on: ~92% / 8%
Food or Ag Tech / CPG: ~90% / 10%
Deals Led: 4
Increased Deal Flow
In 2023, we saw about 1450 deals, up from 1048 in 2022. 28% of deals came through our investor network, 45% came from either events or inbound (a huge nod to our work in the community), and 13% were reached via outbound searches thanks to our large team of graduate fellows.
We implemented a pre-screener checklist that helped us ensure that, beyond potential for financial returns, only companies that met one of our target impact areas (Environment, Health, Diversity) went through full diligence.
New Investments
We invested in 5 new companies: ag tech, supply chain AI, workforce optimization, closed loop hydration, and carbon insetting insetting. We led one deal, and made two follow-on investments. Read more about how we review deals here.
Zooming out, our portfolio HQs span 8 states as follows:
Portfolio Sightings
We collided with ~90% of our portfolio companies in person in 2023! We visited portfolio company HQs in Chicago, Emeryville, and Rosario, Argentina and visited with others throughout the country. We hosted our AGM in Chicago and had a great time showcasing the amazing work of our portfolio companies. In December, we also traveled to Argentina for Michroma’s R&D lab inauguration; see a recap by their team here.
A Growing Team
We continued to grow our team and capacity. We notably added finance, admin, and post investment fractional support. What a crew!
We also hosted 9 graduate fellowships (eight MBA and a PhD) to support deal flow, provide technical expertise in plant science and artificial intelligence, and more. We’re grateful for the partnerships with MIT’s Sustainability Initiative, UCDavis’ Innovation Institute for Food & Health, HBCUvc, Chicago’s Venture Lab, and a few others. For a glimpse into the incredible work of fellows, check out these thought pieces: Daniella Tello from Chicago Booth wrote about her 10 week experience here, Alena Marovitz shared her conversations with Fortune 500 retail and consumer companies here, and Maggie Edmunds wrote up the results of her research on cold chain innovation here.
A Flourishing Community
We were on the road a lot in 2023, and enjoyed catching up with our peers, investors, and portfolio companies. So many events gave us an opportunity to learn, share, and to be in community – some highlights include SOCAP, SXSW, Equity Alliance Summit, Mass Mutual GP Summit, fTalks Summit, the WSJ Global Food Forum, and the Chicago Future of Food Summit.
We co-hosted LA Techweek programming (shot below) and were a deep part of Chicago’s Future of Food Summit. More on where we’ll be in 2024 in our database of events!
We were chosen to participate in the Recast Accelerate program, a Melinda Gates/Pivotal Ventures funded program, which came with a $100k operational grant.
Shayna joined the Journey to Lead fellowship program and was recognized as part of Chicago Business Journal’s 2023 Women of Influence. Noramay was recognized as one of 8 VC Trailblazers by Venture Forward.
We wrapped the year in Los Angeles, with an incredible finale to our Female Founders in Food/Ag Tech Pitch Showcase (shot below), in alignment with our goal of supporting more women across the food & agriculture ecosystem.
And cheers to our parents (pictured with us below) who got to see us in action during this event!
What We’re Most Looking Forward to in 2024
So many things, but we’ll share the top 3:
Investments! We have some great companies in our pipeline and expect to make another ~10 investments out of Fund I over the next two years.
SXSW Food Tech House! We’ll continue our work showcasing food & ag tech innovation during SXSW in Austin with our Food Tech House production in partnership with Ajinomoto, General Mills, and other sponsors and partners. More to come!
Thesis refresh! It’s been three years since we developed our first thesis. This quarter, we’ll dive deeper into the data to refresh our perspectives, predictions, and areas of interest.
In Summary
2023’s peaks and valleys were grounding. The venture capital industry has seen declines in capital investment, M&A activity, and IPOs, and there are alternative ways LPs can grow their capital. For us, this work is about the future of the food ecosystem and the opportunity is massive – financially as well as around our health, and the availability of nutritious and diversified food options. We’re energized to continue to grow our platform and ecosystem and invite you to join us on the journey! How?