Kraft Heinz launches $100m fund to invest in emerging tech companies

Kraft Heinz has launched a venture fund called Evolv Ventures, which will focus on investing in emerging technology companies that have the potential to transform the food industry.

Kraft Heinz will invest up to $100m in Evolv Ventures, venture investor Bill Pescatello has been appointed to lead the fund.

With more than a decade of venture investing experience, Pescatello worked as a partner at Lightbank and was a founding member of the Peacock Equity Fund, a $250m global capital fund of GE Capital and NBC Universal.

Pescatello said: “At Evolv Ventures, we will move beyond brands to have a committed first look at our industry’s most promising and disruptive tech-enabled companies.

“With the insights, data and access available at Kraft Heinz, we look to take full advantage of our unique position and be the foremost value-added investor in the space.”

The new fund will be based in Chicago and will focus on accelerating the company’s exposure to emerging technologies and businesses, providing leverage to its position in the industry.

Kraft Heinz CEO Bernardo Hees said: “New technological innovations in the food industry create endless new opportunities to strengthen business models.

“Through Evolv Ventures, we will work with tomorrow’s most innovative founders and companies in the space, and use the full resources of Kraft Heinz to help them succeed.”

In March this year, Kraft Heinz launched a new platform called Springboard in order to develop and accelerate the growth of promising brands within the food and beverage segment.

Through this platform Kraft Heinz supported the development of potential brands within one of four sectors, which are natural and organic, speciality and craft, health and performance, and experiential brands.