Sustainable Food Ventures

What Sustainable Food Ventures does

Sustainable Food Ventures (SFV) is a private venture capital firm that invests at the earliest stages in companies building the future of food across three categories: cell-based, plant-based, and recombinant. Founded in 2020 and structured as a Rolling Fund on the AngelList Platform, SFV accepts new limited-partner commitments at the start of each quarter and deploys capital globally into startups developing cultivated meat, dairy, and seafood; plant-based food products; and fermentation- or recombinant-derived ingredients such as honey and collagen. The firm explicitly excludes animal agriculture from its mandate and targets a global food and grocery retail market estimated at $12 trillion.

SFV's portfolio spans roughly a dozen-plus disclosed companies, including JellaTech (recombinant collagen), MeliBio (recombinant honey), Blackbird Foods (plant-based pizza/seitan), Opalia Foods (cell-based dairy), Hoxton Farms (cultivated fat), Newform Foods (cultivated meat), NovelFarms (premium cultivated meat), Umami Bioworks (ML-enabled cultivated production), Magic Valley (Australian cultured meat), Shiok Meats (cell-based seafood), Atlantic Fish (cultivated seafood), Infinite Foods (plant-based Sub-Saharan Africa ecosystem), and Wild Earth (D2C plant-based pet food, US). The fund's core offering to founders is early-stage venture capital combined with specialized scientific diligence and an industry network curated for alternative proteins.

SFV is led by Managing Partner Ryan Bethencourt — the first investor in Upside Foods, Geltor, The Not Company, and Shiok Meats, former Program Director & Venture Partner at IndieBio where the portfolio reached a $3.2B market cap, and co-founder of Wild Earth (which raised $20M) — and Partner Mariliis Holm, former Head of Food Science at Finless Foods with prior R&D experience at Mondelez International and IFF and research backgrounds at INRAE and CFFT. The two-person leadership team runs a lean, thesis-driven investment operation out of Raleigh, NC, distributing the fund through AngelList to accredited investors globally.

Name

Sustainable Food Ventures

Website

https://sustainablefoodventures.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Sustainable Food Ventures (SFV) is a venture capital Rolling Fund on AngelList that backs early-stage founders building cell-based, plant-based, and recombinant food companies, led by Managing Partner Ryan Bethencourt and Partner Mariliis Holm from Raleigh, NC.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Venture Capital / Alternative Protein Fund Management

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940), Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles (525)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funds (FSANAJAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

SDG / Thematic Sustainable Investment Funds (FSANAJAN), Sustainable Private Markets (Impact PE/VC, Private Credit, Infrastructure) (FSAAALAG)

Keywords

• Venture capital funding
• Alternative protein investing
• Food technology startups
• Early-stage venture capital
• Sustainable food ventures

Headquarters

HQ city

Raleigh

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Venture Capital Fund Management: SFV operates as a Rolling Fund on AngelList, generating returns through equity investments in early-stage food technology companies across cell-based, plant-based, and recombinant categories. The fund accepts new investor commitments quarterly and deploys capital into portfolio companies.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Sustainable Food Ventures (SFV) is an early-stage venture capital firm structured as a Rolling Fund on the AngelList platform that invests in and supports founders building cell-based, plant-based, and recombinant food companies. The firm accepts new investor commitments at the beginning of each quarter and deploys capital across a global portfolio of alternative-protein startups, while providing scientific diligence and operational management support through its partners.

Product overview

Sustainable Food Ventures is a venture capital firm structured as a Rolling Fund on AngelList that invests in early-stage founders building sustainable food companies. The firm focuses on three categories: cell-based, plant-based, and recombinant food technologies. SFV does not invest in animal agriculture. The company accepts new investments at the beginning of each quarter.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Sustainable Food Ventures Rolling Fund An early-stage venture capital Rolling Fund on the AngelList platform that accepts new LP investments at the beginning of each quarter and deploys capital into founders building cell-based, plant-based, and recombinant food companies; provides portfolio founders with venture funding, scientific diligence, and operational support.
• Cell-Based and Fermentation Portfolio Investment portfolio of early-stage startups developing cell-based and fermentation-derived food products, including cultivated meat, cultivated dairy alternatives, cultivated seafood, and recombinant ingredients such as animal-free collagen, gelatin, and honey.
• Plant-Based Portfolio Investment portfolio of plant-based food startups developing alternative proteins, dairy alternatives, and sustainable food products using plant-based ingredients across global markets including Sub-Saharan Africa.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• IndieBio: Accelerator/venture firm where SFV Managing Partner Ryan Bethencourt previously served as Program Director; both invest at the earliest stage in food-tech and biotech founders using biology-based approaches.
• CPT Capital: Long-running London-based alt-protein/cellular-agriculture dedicated investor with a portfolio overlapping SFV's space (e.g., cultivated meat, fermentation, plant-based).
• Lever VC: Early-stage VC fund exclusively focused on alternative protein and food-tech founders across plant-based, cell-based, and fermentation — directly comparable thesis and stage to SFV.
• Agronomics: London-listed investment company focused on cellular agriculture and alternative proteins — comparable mandate at larger scale and public-market visibility.
• Big Idea Ventures: One of the most prominent dedicated alternative-protein VC funds globally, running accelerator and fund vehicles focused on plant-based and cell-based startups — the closest direct comparable to SFV's mandate.
• Blue Horizon: Impact-driven VC focused on food-tech and alternative protein across plant-based, fermentation, and cultivated meat — directly comparable investment thesis.
• New Agrarian Capital: Early-stage VC fund focused on next-generation food and agriculture technologies, including alternative proteins; closely comparable mission and check size to SFV.

Broad incumbents

• Tyson Ventures: Corporate venture arm of Tyson Foods investing in alternative protein including plant-based and cultivated meat; broader incumbent with much larger check size and corporate synergies.

Emerging players

• Clear Current Capital: Emerging alt-protein/cellular-agriculture-focused early-stage fund with overlapping thesis on the future-of-food categories SFV targets.
• Good Seed Ventures: European early-stage food-tech VC investing in plant-based, fermentation, and cellular-agriculture founders — adjacent alt-protein thesis with comparable check size and stage.

Market position

Competitive moat3 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SFV_RollingFund
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sustainable-food-ventures

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments35 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sustainable Food Ventures