DISRUPTIVE CHANGE within Food & Beverage
We fundamentally believe disruptive nutrition can positively impact the major health & wellness issues confronting modern society. We seek technology solutions that can affect nutrition at a societal level. This has extraordinary implications for humans everywhere while offering our investors best in class returns.
At our core, we’re experienced industry executives who understand the key dynamics of the global food industry such as consumer eating habits and trends, nutritional science, food manufacturing and supply chains, and food retailers. We leverage this expertise to partner with founders, other investors, functional experts and strategic stakeholders to maximize the full potential of each business.
Why do young companies fail?
New company failure rates are VERY high
as many as 20% fail in the first year, & 50% will fail by year 5
The key factors in these failures
Entrepreneurs are often not 100% focused on building their business, because they are distracted by the constant need for fundraising. They often fail to scale beyond the seed stage due to the lack of cross-functional business expertise needed to attract best-in-class capabilities in manufacturing, supply chain, broker/distributors, marketing, e-commerce support, etc. Finally, failure can be the result of misaligned objectives among (competing) stakeholders.
PRODUCT ISN’T INNOVATIVE/DISRUPTIVE
Food offerings and/or business models often don’t create true market disruption.
Inexperienced Leaders & MANAGEMENT
Entrepreneurs usually don’t have experience at running companies and leading growing teams. They often lack the ability to envision the true potential of their business, the put the plans in place (including raising capital) to maximize value creation.
INSUFFICIENT CAPITAL
Companies are usually underfunded to drive real growth and handle contingencies. Entrepreneurs tend to focus solely on fundraising and often fail to run the business appropriately.
OPERATIONAL MISTAKES
Suboptimal execution of key value drivers leads to wasted funds (e.g. pricing, product offerings, marketing and customer management problems, supply chain) with a high risk of making existential mistakes.
WHAT IS NGN’S DIFFERENCE & COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE?
NGN’s experience and investment approach is specifically expert in assisting entrepreneurs avoid difficulties and build their business to its fullest potential. Our team has a unique set of experiences and skill-sets. Our two lead Partners have more than 60 years of combined experience in the food and beverage sector. Our third Partner is a successful entrepreneur himself and now manages his own multi-family office and boutique investment bank. This combination has demonstrated the ability to source more compelling investment opportunities, structure investments with better terms, and partner with Founders to achieve full potential for their companies – with the goal of delivering strong exit values to investors. For more perspective:
Deal Sourcing: The Fund will focus on the high growth, high impact sectors of the food and beverage industry, particularly in areas where health and/or wellness with superior nutrition is essential, and where the application of emerging and sustainable nutrition and food sourcing technologies provide long term competitive advantage. Market trends are driving above average growth in these sectors, and the Fund’s intended combination of Investments seeks to deliver a double bottom line impact, delivering financial benefits for investors and societal impact for future generations. Our network and relationships in the food and agriculture investment eco-systems deliver a unique set of investment opportunities. Moreover, our General Partner’s experience is very attractive to target company Founders and Chief Executive Officers, which allows us to be highly selective in making Investments in only the most compelling companies.
NGN Repeatable Business Growth Modeling: We have a disciplined strategy and planning process that is honed from our experience in food and beverage business planning, which addresses typical founder weaknesses in strategic focus and failure to see the full potential inherent to their business. The planning process starts with envisioning the true potential of the business, prioritizes those business drivers that maximize growth, establish test and learn scenarios to realize upside potential, and implement the right KPIs to ensure executional excellence. There are three main components: i) business model development that pushes the Founder to achieve maximum results on their business; ii) our investment plans (with funds from NGN and other investors) allow the entrepreneur to focus on scaling the business and not on fund raising; and iii) establish KPIs to drive execution and accountability.
Execution Excellence: Being highly engaged with Founders, we can ensure outstanding execution of mission critical components such as food development, packaging, innovation, marketing (branding and consumer communication), customer development including e-commerce, and manufacturing/supply chain. This delivers stronger returns from our investments and helps companies avoid the existential mistakes common to start-ups.
Exits with an Insider’s POV: We have experience on the corporate acquisition side, so know what strategic acquirers are looking for and how to prepare a company for sale. We can leverage existing networks with strategic investors, corporate venture capital and PE. By developing additional revenue stream for our companies, we increase our target acquirer list.
As a result of these differentiators, we believe that we will be able to better influence the outcomes of the Portfolio Companies, both by downside mitigation and upside maximization. We expect this will deliver a superior return to our investors.
Where Does NGN Invest?
the food sector is undergoing massive disruption, leading to enormous growth opportunities.
Within the enormous Food & Beverage industry the best opportunities have a blend of science facts, market trends data, and human behavior. We seek companies that have a highly differentiated offering with business model sustainability, are technology based with secured Intellectual Property or other “moats”, have multiple application/revenue stream potential, have their proof of principle in place to “de-risk” from a technology and commercial perspective, and are at a critical growth inflection point for achieving full potential.
within the industry, we will invest in sectors with the highest growth potential…
HEALTHY BEVERAGES, SNACKS & MOBILE MEALS
Traditional meals are being replaced by beverages, snacks and mobile mini-meals. Clean, raw, gluten and allergen-free, functional and nutrition rich products are gaining traction in snacks and beverages.
FOOD TECHNOLOGY
Consumers are increasingly demanding non-conventional food forms and experiences or reasons of health and environmental sustainability. Tech enabled solutions include lab based alternative proteins and AI to provide better, personalized food and food experiences.
FUNCTIONALLY SUPERIOR INGREDIENTS
Food manufacturers are seeking to satisfy consumer demand for added functionality from ingredients that add inherent nutritional benefits or improved environmental impact - examples include plant base protein alternatives and nutrient rich upcycled ingredients.
…Matched with the territories with the most disruption
Within the above sectors, there are specific benefit territories worth prioritizing, driven by emerging, changing or rapidly expanding consumer trends.
NATURAL TODAY & TOMORROW
Going beyond “organic”, plant-centric foods:
Clear provenance/Clean label/Minimally Processed
Nutrition-enhanced ingredients
Reduced Impact to the Planet:
Progressive agriculture
Upcycling
Environmentally friendly, sustainable ingredient sourcing and packaging
ENHANCED NUTRITION & HEALTH
Foods with superior nutrition to help societal Health & Wellness:
Plant-based proteins/clean meat
Microbiome/Gut health
Superfoods
Natural low/no sugar alternatives
PERSONALIZATION & INDIVIDUALIZED
Foods that meet individualized needs:
Customization, often AI enabled
Food tribes (e.g. Allergens avoidance, Vegan, Functional Diets)
Nutrition needs associated with illness or lifestyle
New retail channels & delivery