Investments in food sector: Bolton, Garavilla, Orizont and others

28/04/2015
Diego Gutiérrez
Investments in food sector: Bolton, Garavilla, Orizont and others
Investors in food companies are active in 2015. If February was in the news for the large number of operations that venture capital made in the sector, this April is characterised by the entry of foreign investors and the creation of a new startup incubator focused solely on the food sector.

 

Bolton Group buys 55% from Garavilla Canneries

Bolton Group, propietario de Rio Mare, la conserva de atún líder en Europa, ha comprado el 55 % de Conservas Garavilla,  que estaba en manos del fondo de capital riesgo MCH Private Equity since 2010. The rest is still in the hands of the founding family.

Garavilla Preservesbased in Mundaka, is present in the business of manufacturing and marketing canned fish in Europe, Latin America and North Africa, with a portfolio of historic brands, leaders in canned fish, such as Isabel and Cuca.

The operation is an opportunity for the Basque company to grow in the foreign market, taking advantage of the industrial synergies that Bolton will provide. Currently, 60% of Garavilla's sales are in Spain, where traditional canned fish products record the highest volumes of demand.

"Bolton Group had previously been interested in the Spanish food sector when it bought Calvo's 40 % in 2012," says Diego Gutiérrez from ABRA-INVEST.

Sodena creates the Orizont programme to accelerate innovative ideas in the food sector

In the absence of venture capital funds for the agri-food sector, only €8.5M was invested last year compared to €320M in the technology sector, Sodena has decided to create Orizont, a programme to accelerate innovative ideas in the food sector.

Orizont will invest 110,000 euros in each of the selected projects. Of this, €80,000 will be in the form of participative loans, €20,000 to acquire 9% of the company's capital and €10,000 in consultancy and advisory services provided by independent entities.

Orizont has already opened the deadline for the selection of the 8 companies that will be part of its acceleration process, which will last six months. During this time, the programme includes training, through the European Innovation Centre of Navarra (CEIN). After this period, the companies must remain in Navarra for two years.

Que cocino hoy chosen by Banco Sabadell for the BStartup 10 programme.

What I cook today is a recipe search engine. Its app is the number 1 in the App Store and Google Play in the section "cooking recipes". and has more than 1,500,000 downloads.

Its main added value is that users can also comment on the recipes. It has a e-commerce of kitchen products aimed at monetising the generated and segmented traffic".

Through this programme, Banco Sabadell will now invest 100,000 euros to boost its development and internationalisation.

Other posts that may interest you

mergers and acquisitions-en-febrero-2015/»>The food sector active in mergers and acquisitions in February 2015

Analysis of the Food tech sector in Spain

M&A analysis of the Spanish food sector 2014

 

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