Dive Brief:
- Edible Ventures launched four months ago as an angel group dedicated to investing only in high growth, ready-to-eat, ready-to-drink food and beverage companies.
- The group aims to help rising food and beverage companies with what is often their biggest struggle, raising capital. Members select promising companies and invest between $250,000 to $500,000 on a case-by-case basis determined by the investors rather than operating as a fund, where the group would collectively invest in these companies.
- Each member of Edible Ventures has food and beverage expertise, whether that's as an experienced CPG company investor, a brand operator, or someone who has worked for an industry supplier.
Dive Insight:
Angel investors have been primarily focused on technology and life sciences with less attention paid to food and beverage companies, namely because many angel investors have little to no experience in these industries.
Once limited to tasting demonstrations for customer interaction, technology and social media have made it easier and more affordable for food and beverage manufacturers to communicate with consumers and receive product feedback. This also makes it easier for investors to identify which companies stand out.
In addition to finding angel-type investors or raising the capital, manufacturers today also have the option of crowdfunding opportunities like Kickstarter and CircleUp, the latter of which had raised $140 million for 120 companies as of November with an average investment of $100,000, Rory Eakin, CircleUp's cofounder and COO, told Fortune at that time.