FoodLabs closes its third fund for € 105 million

Berlin — FoodLabs has closed its third venture capi­tal fund with a volume of over EUR 105 million. FoodLabs is a Euro­pean early stage inves­tor and venture studio specia­li­zing in invest­ments in the food, health and sustaina­bi­lity sectors. The approach combi­nes venture capi­tal with active venture buil­ding and a strong indus­trial network. Invest­ments are made along the entire value chain of the food indus­try — in parti­cu­lar in tech­no­lo­gies, infra­struc­ture and scalable busi­ness models that bring inno­va­tion effi­ci­ently from rese­arch to the market. 

With the third fund FoodLabs is further expan­ding this approach. The fund is supported by stra­te­gic indus­try part­ners such as Rewe Group, Henkel and Bitbur­ger Holding as well as the Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund and Renten­bank, among others, and addres­ses topics such as agri­cul­tu­ral tech­no­logy appli­ca­ti­ons, indus­trial auto­ma­tion, new produc­tion and proces­sing tech­no­lo­gies as well as market-ready solu­ti­ons in the field of nutri­tion and health. 

YPOG advi­sed FoodLabs in parti­cu­lar on the legal struc­tu­ring of the fund, inclu­ding the design of the fund and manage­ment struc­ture and the imple­men­ta­tion of regu­la­tory requirements.

“For initia­tors who combine venture capi­tal funds and indus­trial co-inves­­tors with venture buil­ding, the struc­tu­ring is much more complex than with tradi­tio­nal VC funds. It is a matter of balan­cing econo­mic inte­rests, gover­nance struc­tures and regu­la­tory requi­re­ments in such a way that they enable long-term growth and at the same time reflect the stra­te­gic added value of the indus­trial part­ners. FoodLabs pursues a clear and profes­sio­nal approach here, which we were happy to support in struc­tu­ring the third fund,” says Jens Kretz­schmann, Part­ner at YPOG.

Consul­tant FoodLabs: YPOG

Jens Kretz­schmann (Lead, Funds), Part­ner, Berlin
Michael Blank (Funds), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Johan­nes Gehring (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Alina Shchukina (Funds), Legal Project Mana­ger, Berlin

About FoodLabs

FoodLabs is an early-stage venture capi­tal fund and venture studio based in Europe with a growing inter­na­tio­nal presence. FoodLabs works with foun­ders to turn scien­ti­fic breakth­roughs into indus­tri­ally viable compa­nies that contri­bute to a more resi­li­ent, safer and healt­hier food system. The team invests along the entire food value chain, combi­ning seed capi­tal with hands-on opera­tio­nal support with a “from mole­cule to market” approach. Since its foun­ding in 2016, FoodLabs has supported more than 90 early-stage start­ups and worked with foun­ders to over­come tech­ni­cal, regu­la­tory and opera­tio­nal chal­lenges early on. — www.foodlabs.com

About YPOG

YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers and forward-looking tax and legal advice. The firm advi­ses compa­nies focu­sed on future tech­no­lo­gies with the aim of using change as an oppor­tu­nity and jointly crea­ting opti­mal solu­ti­ons. The YPOG team offers compre­hen­sive exper­tise in the areas of Funds, Tax, Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate, Banking, Regu­la­tory + Finance, IP/IT/Data Protec­tion, Liti­ga­tion as well as Corpo­rate Crime + Compli­ance + Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses in Germany for venture capi­tal, private equity, fund struc­tu­ring and appli­ca­ti­ons of distri­bu­ted ledger tech­no­logy (DLT) in finan­cial services. The firm and its part­ners are regu­larly reco­gni­zed by renow­ned publi­ca­ti­ons such as JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Cham­bers and Part­ners, Leaders League and Legal 500. YPOG employs more than 180 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors and tax specia­lists as well as a notary in its offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne, Munich, Cambridge and London. — ypog.com