New Delhi, June 11 -- Global impact venture capital fund and agri-tech investor PeakBridge VC, which is a member of the Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity partnership, is evaluating its maiden investment in an Indian company, according to a top executive.
The Luxembourg-based VC firm typically invests in seed-stage investments of $3-5 million (around Rs 29 crore to Rs 48 crore) across various food-tech themes, such as alternative farming systems, alternative proteins and food digitisation systems, with follow-on investments of up to $5 million.
The fund, which has fully deployed from its first two vehicles into around 36 companies, according to its website, is currently deploying from its agritech-focussed third VC fund. Yoni Glickman, Managing Partner of FoodSparks (PeakBridge's seed-stage fund), told VCCircle on the sidelines of the Nutrafy Summit that the fund is also raising a separate vehicle which is nutrition and health-focussed.
"We're in negotiation with one company, potentially for our first investment in India, but certainly in the future, we would like to see how we can add to that. In the world of nutrition and health, it is difficult to ignore the largest population in India and how technology can come to bear in this country to improve health conditions," Glickman said.
While Glickman did not name the company, he said it was in the nutraceutical segment running a Series A round, marking its first investment in the country out of its third fund. The investment firm is in the process of getting regulatory approvals for the investment, he said.
PeakBridge FoodSparks is an early-stage venture capital fund managed by the EU-backed EIT Food (European Institute of Innovation and Technology) and PeakBridge Partners. The fund looks for opportunities in food products, agriculture, agri-tech, supply chain tech, food tech and information technology sectors for its investments.
The VC firm, which has so far invested in firms from the US, Europe and a handful of firms in Israel, Singapore and Australia, is now exploring investment opportunities in India, Glickman said.
Glickman noted India's progress from a specific ingredients-led market to "a much more specialised, clinically studied, packaged and branded ingredients" market, which aligns with the larger market trend. However, he remained sceptical about D2C brands' cross-border success.
"We still see that the DTC [or D2C] rollout is very much local. So, I'm a little bit sceptical about, not specifically India, but any kind of finished branded products being super successful in other geographies," Glickman said.
Before joining the VC firm, Glickman was President of flavour and fine ingredients firm Natural Solutions at Frutarom, acquired by global flavour, fragrance and food ingredient firm IFF for $7.1 billion. He also served as the chief executive officer of the water tech company Atlantium Technologies and CEO of Hanita Coatings, focussed on energy efficiency in buildings and appliances.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.