Bread & Butter Ventures announced Tuesday it closed on a $27 million fund to invest in seed stage companies around the world.
The Minneapolis-based firm's third fund was backed by a diverse group of organizations and investors including Los Altos, California-based Toyota Ventures, Chris and Crystal Sacca of San Francisco-based Lowercase Capital, Washington, D.C.-based Revolution Ventures and many others.
“We’re investing in the core ‘bread and butter’ sectors of the modern economy moving forward, addressing how we feed ourselves, care for one another and what the future of work looks like," said Managing Partner Mary Grove. "2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic have underscored that we can never afford to underinvest in these sectors.”
The latest fund has already led to investments in Nova Scotia-based Milk Moovement, a supply chain software company for the dairy industry, and New York-based Orbiit, an AI-powered engine that powers one-on-one connections within a community.
The funding announcement also coincides with the launch of the Bread & Butter Innovation Circle. The group consists of 16 Minnesota-based companies that will work alongside Bread & Butter to develop their relationships with startup companies.
Companies involved with the Innovation Circle include: 3M Co., Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America, Bremer Bank, Ecolab Inc., C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc., CHS Inc., General Mills, Hormel Foods Corp., Mayo Clinic, U.S. Bancorp and Xcel Energy Inc.
Since 2017, Bread & Butter Ventures has invested in 47 companies in the food tech, health tech and enterprise software industries which have gone on to create over 650 new jobs.
