A young Chicago venture capital firm is making investments in food and agriculture startups that are trying to change the future of our food system.
Germin8 Ventures, founded in 2017, is using a $20 million fund to make bets on promising food and ag upstarts.
It's selective in its investments, founder and Managing Partner Michael Lavin told me, investing in one or two companies a year. It has so far backed seven startups, with plans to ultimately invest in 10 companies from this initial fund.
Lavin, a former investment banker, started the fund and brought on Milena Bogdanova Bursztyn as an investor, who previously worked at Spotify and was head of growth at ScoreBeyond, a Silicon Valley startup acquired by LinkedIn.
The team also recently brought on Dr. Ashlie Burkart, an anatomic and clinical pathologist, as its chief scientific officer.
Germin8's portfolio includes Bushel, a Fargo, North Dakota-based startup making software for grain retailers and growers; Fieldin, a Bay Area-based AI smart farming platform; and Brightseed, a Bay Area company led by the former Hampton Creek head of research and development that identifies nutrients in plants that help boost human health.
"We’re an extremely high-conviction fund," Lavin said. "We’re not a spray and pray fund. We don't define being active investors as doing the most deals. We define active investors as actively supporting founders."
Lavin said Germin8's average check size is around $1 million, and reserves more than two-thirds of its fund for follow-on investments. Germin8 plans to raise a second fund, which likely won't be exponentially larger than its first, Lavin said, with the goal of putting its dollars and attention on a select group of startups.
"We like companies that are significantly enabled by science or technology," he said.
