Mission Ventures

We love a good founder story, and Harry Turpin at The Savourists LTD has a great one. He shared a tale of resilience, learning & humility at an event hosted by our partners Impact on Urban Health. He also shared delicious Crunchy snacks! 🌎 Our audience was a group of MBA students from University of Wyoming College of Business on an international study trip. 🚀 Our Good Food Programme is about demonstrating that healthier challenger brands CAN compete with the mainstream to deliver health by stealth for ALL families. They need expert guidance, funding and deep consumer insights, all of which they secure via the programme, thanks to the foresight of our charity partner. 💰 The #startup and #scale-up food industry is facing challenging times for #fundraising in the current climate. We are preparing a report on the Funding Gap, due to be published this Summer. If we are to help change the health of the nation we need more action; by industry, investors and government. 🔭 Watch this space....

#BAME founders of #foodbrands, checkout the 2nd "Spill the Beans" event from Colin Mordi of Food Sauce Media. 22nd April, London. Great chance to meet-up with fellow founders, industry specialists and those all elusive retail buyers... Check out the Eventbrite page below for more details. https://lnkd.in/eGw5jYPT

Is the food industry failing when it comes to feeding babies? A new report from Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI) believes so, highlighting the astonishing fact that of nearly 1,300 infant foods tested, not one was fit to be promoted to infants. The nonprofit ATNI draws heavily on the World Health Organization for its assessment methodology. Across ten markets they scored the six largest suppliers, including Nestlé, Danone, The Hain Celestial Group and Kraft Heinz. This is not the first time that these independent bodies have shone a light on products that the producers would rather they didn't. The corporates correctly point out that they comply with local laws and claim that they are being unfairly marked against voluntary guidelines. ⚖ But is that fair? Abiding by local food laws means that consumers' health is better served in some territories than others. After all, why spend shareholders' profits on raising the bar in a given country when you don't have to? 🤔 Surely the industry should live by higher standards. We believe so. We also believe that old ways of thinking are best challenged from outside, harnessing the vision and purpose that innovative founders can bring to the table. That is at the heart of the work we do with our partners. And this is why we are so proud to be working with our long standing partners at Impact on Urban Health on an infant feeding project. This may - just may - demonstrate that it is possible to launch age-appropriate baby-foods that meet labelling and nutritional standards. We may fail, in which case we take the learnings and try again. We believe we owe it to the next generation to do so. Brave producers will always seek to live by higher standards, doing what's right for their consumers, not just what is legal. We see this increasingly through the adoption of B-Corp, an initiative embraced by many SMEs. ❓ How brave is your organisation? Would listening to some visionary and disruptive founders help shape your thinking? Contact us - we know a few 😉 #innovation #babyfood #nutrition Link to the FoodNavigator article in the comments below.

Delighted to see one of our Good Food Programme cohort Steve Laurence, Founder of SweetAble, pick-up the "New Ingredient from a Startup" award at IFE Manufacturing. 👨🍳 Motivated by his family and his work as a chef, Steve and his team have developed innovative sugar and mass replacement ingredients that can transform the health credentials of everyday foods. ⏳ Many years of trial and error have led Steve to this worthy recognition from the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST), demonstrating that a fundamental quality of an entrepreneur is resilience in pursuit of a vision. 👏 Congratulations Steve and team - we look forward to helping you continue on your journey to commercialise Sweetable and improve the nation's health. Impact on Urban Health #health #nutrition #food

🚀 APPLICATIONS CLOSE IN 6 DAYS 🚀 Are you looking for support to accelerate your #Food business growth? Launchpad is the antidote to the traditional packaging industry; it's rapid, insight-driven, and bespoke to #entrepreneurs Launchpad is a free three-month programme that will give #foodanddrink challenger #brands access to world-class digital packaging solutions and experienced business mentors, with support worth over £10,000. To bring Launchpad to life, Mission Ventures has found the perfect partner in Foxpak - Now Part of SEE. If you're a challenger brand using, or looking to use flexible packaging, this one is for you. Applications are now open and will close on 13th December. Link in the comments! 👇 Louis Bedwell | Paddy Willis, FRSA | John Stapleton | Nigel Parrott | Frankie Severn | Matt B.

Today, we're launching a new programme... Lauchpad is a free three-month programme that will give Food and Drink challenger brands access to world-class digital packaging solutions and experienced mentors, with support worth over £10,000. Start-ups have the power to reshape our industry, but they need the tools to thrive. Accessing packaging can be challenging, complex and expensive. Launchpad is the antidote to the traditional packaging industry. Inflexible payment terms and high MOQs are out. The future of the packaging is rapid, insight-driven, and bespoke to you. To bring Launchpad to life, Mission Ventures has partnered with Foxpak - Now Part of SEE, part of Sealed Air Corporation, so there's some serious knowledge, expertise and fire-power on offer. Applications open today and will close on 13th December. Link in the comments!

The best ideas need funding. Today, we're launching an Angel Investment Network to harness interest in backing the best, brightest and most impactful mission-driven Food and Drink brands. Between 2018 and 2022, just 450 of the 8,000+ UK Food and Drink brands received investment. This needs to change. At Mission Ventures, we see 1,500+ Food and Drink innovations each year. We're now creating a dedicated space to syndicate investments and support the growth of Mission-driven businesses. Start-ups are well placed to disrupt and influence broad industry change. As issues of health and climate change become more urgent, start-ups play a critical role in helping us rethink how we grow, produce and sell food. We're ready to help the best of them. If you're an entrepreneur, angel, family office or VC investor and want to find out more about backing the Future of Food, click the link in the comments below 👇 John Stapleton| Paddy Willis, FRSA | Nigel Parrott | Frankie Severn

Timing is everything. Watered-down HFSS regulations have stunted the growth of innovative Food and Drink brands. This commercial perspective is often overlooked in the debate around Food policy. Entrepreneurs can be a progressive force to incentivise change, but only if supported. Mission Ventures was quoted in the Financial Times this weekend (below). The full article is in the comments. 

Our second big Good Food Programme announcement of the week... We've appointed Bremner & Co. as our Evaluation and Learning Partner for the Good Food Programme. They'll be working alongside North Star to maximise the success of this fantastic programme. Bremner & Co are food education, systems, policy and economy experts. They'll be helping us to ensure we're constantly learning from our programme of support and sharing learnings externally to create a better Food and Drink industry. The Good Food Programme is backed by Impact on Urban Health and aims to support Challenger brands to drive change and make healthier food options more accessible. Bremner & Co's (Myles, Rob and Dayna) support and insight will be an integral building block to ensure we reach our goal. Watch this space for more updates! 

Embracing innovation in our agri-food sector is key to a sustainable, healthy and prosperous future for the UK - and the globe. Our Good Food Programme, backed by Impact on Urban Health, was set up to support the growth of disruptive entrepreneurs and their challenger brands. We're delighted to see FUNKi from our current cohort as a recipient of the latest £17.4m pot of funding for Better Food for All at UK Research and Innovation | Innovate UK Paul and his team will be working to develop a new science-backed soft drink enriched with a proven fibre blend to support gut health. Congratulations! More below 👇