Nongshim, a food and beverage company in South Korea, will invest a total of KRW 10 billion in venture funds to accelerate the discovery and development of food tech startups.
Nongshim will invest KRW 5 billion each in startup investment funds managed by StoneBridge Ventures and IMM Investment, two of Korea's leading startup investment firms.
Through the two venture funds, Nongshim plans to focus on fostering startups with technologies that can revolutionize the food chain, including cultured meat, smart farms, and digital transformation.
Cultured meat is expected to become an alternative meat food that most closely resembles conventional meat amid the recent global eco-friendly craze, and is considered a field with great potential growth.
In particular, as Nongshim has been promoting plant-based alternative meat business under the "Veggie Garden" brand, it is expected to enjoy great synergy effects by discovering and collaborating with startups with cultured meat technology.
In the case of smart farms, Nongshim started with an in-house startup team and recently established a formal team and is showing tangible results such as promoting exports to Middle Eastern countries, so it is expected that startups with related technologies will be able to achieve higher competitiveness.
An official from Nongshim said, "We expect that meeting with startups with new technologies and ideas in the food tech field can be an opportunity to discover new future foods."
Meanwhile, Nongshim started investing in startups in 2018 with the launch of the "Nongshim techUP+" program. Over the past five years, the company has invested in and collaborated with startups in various fields, and the value of Nongshim's investments is estimated to have doubled.
