Bluestein Ventures raises $45 million for third food tech fund

Image credits: Sean Su, Purple Photo Group / Ashley Hartman and Andrew Bluestein, Bluestein Ventures Managing Partner;

Food tech investing may have declined along with venture capital overall, but Bluestein Ventures has no plans to slow down. The Chicago-based early-stage venture capital firm has completed his $45 million capital commitment to Fund III.

Andrew Bluestein, co-managing partner of Bluestein Ventures, founded the firm in 2014 and brought on fellow co-managing partner Ashley Hartman eight years ago. They join other venture capital firms such as Cost Capital, Supply Change Capital and Joyful Ventures, which have recently raised new funds to invest in food technology.

Bluestein Ventures has invested pre-seed up to Series A and amassed a portfolio of over 50 companies targeting consumer technology across the food supply chain, including health and wellness, proprietary food tech, commerce, and digital technology. I’ve been doing it.

Previous investments include Factor75, a prepared meal delivery service that HelloFresh acquired in 2020. Foxtrot, a group of technology-enabled corner stores; FourKites has developed cargo visualization software. Meati is a mycelium-based alternative protein. We are also an early investor in New Culture, a company developing animal-free cheese products.

The first two funds were backed by the Bluestein family, including Eileen Gordon, former chairman and CEO of ingredients company Ingredion, and company advisor Bram Bluestein.

In addition to family offices, the third fund includes a group of outside investors for the first time. The group includes food sector strategists, additional family offices, executives and entrepreneurs. In connection with the new fund, Bluestein and Hartman will be joined as venture partners by Lindsay Levin, who previously served as chief marketing officer at RXBAR.

“When we started Bluestein Ventures, people asked why we would invest in food,” Bluestein told TechCrunch. “We’re seeing a lot of trends where consumers are changing their spending habits and focusing on health and wellness, so it’s become a lot easier to have that conversation.”

The company plans to roll out Fund III to 20 to 25 companies. The company has already invested in several companies, including BiomeSense, an end-to-end platform for expanding research and testing of the gut microbiome. WECO Hospitality is a chef-quality prepared meal delivery service. Attane Health is a marketplace for food prescriptions for people with chronic illnesses.

Food technology, like healthcare technology, can take some research and development time to fully develop. Bluestein Ventures believes the sector is at a major inflection point, with innovation accelerating in the coming years, especially as more consumers prioritize health and wellness, Hartman told TechCrunch. Ta.

Add evolving technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and synthetic biology fermentation. On the regulatory side, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is approving new ingredients and devices to help rebuild health.

“We take a process approach to investing across the supply chain, investing early in a company’s lifecycle,” Hartman told TechCrunch. “At Fund III, we continue to build a portfolio focused on how we transform food systems. Our broad themes this time around are nutrition, sustainability and digitalisation. We’re looking for what’s happening in the early stages of innovation within these areas.”