Vegan Women Summit Announces Inaugural Awards for Top Investors for Women in Food

    LOS ANGELES, CA, February 23, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Vegan Women Summit (VWS), the world's global platform for women in the future of food, has announced the results of the inaugural Top Investors for Women in Food. Over 120 women founders and CEOs in the food industry spanning across six continents participated in the voting process to determine the best global early-stage investors for women founders in the plant-based and food technology industries.

This year's 2023 list includes investors across four countries and three continents, including:

Breakthrough Energy Ventures (Kirkland, USA)
CULT Food Science (Vancouver, Canada)
Good Startup (Singapore, SI)
SOSV (Princeton, USA)
Stray Dog Capital (Leawood, USA)
Sustainable Food Ventures (Raleigh, USA)
Unovis (New York, USA)
Veg Capital (Loughborough, UK)
Wefunder (San Francisco, USA)
Y Combinator (San Francisco, USA)

"It's important to note that Unovis did not have a deliberate system to level the playing field from the beginning," said Chris Kerr, GP of Unovis, one of the field's leading investor firms. "Women were simply among the top pioneers in the sector. Since this realization, Unovis has become proactive in addressing diversity through policies and protocols - a perpetual work-in-progress. If we want to attract game-changing innovators, we need a team that reflects society beyond men."

Kerr isn't the only investor noticing women helming the food innovation cause. "We're continuing to see an accelerating pace of innovation in the alternative protein sector," stated Gautam Godhwani, Founder & Managing Partner of Good Startup. Godhwani also mentioned the gargantuan nature of the food sustainability industry's issues as a whole. "Given the scope of the challenge ahead, we must have full engagement from our ecosystem to ensure we are bringing the best technologies and products to market. Women founders must engage investors not just in the alternative protein sector, but more broadly across the investor community."

Despite encouraging words and metrics from the aforementioned firms, last month, industry reports revealed that only 2 percent of venture capital investments went to women founders – a drop from the nearly 3 percent the year prior. Women founders face further challenges as funds dry up.

"We know for a fact that women represent more than 90 percent of all consumer food purchases, yet they continue to be underfunded and underrepresented as founders in the industry," stated Jennifer Stojkovic, Founder of Vegan Women Summit, who is no stranger to the vitality of leaders in the food innovation sphere. "This stands despite the data showing that women founders produce better returns for investors. If we want to change the way we eat, we need to invest in the people who control the grocery carts of this world – women."

The full report, The State of Women in the Future of Food, will be published on March 13, 2023 by VWS. To sign up to receive the full report when it becomes available, go to veganwomensummit.com/top-vcs.

About Vegan Women Summit

Vegan Women Summit®(VWS) is a global events and media organization created to empower women to build a kinder, more sustainable world. VWS events foster a community working to bring compassion to their careers in plant-based and animal-free industries. www.veganwomensummit.com

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