Verlinvest, a family-backed, “evergreen”, growth fund investor, that has previously funded a few well-known consumer brands like Oatly, Vita Coco, Tony’s Chocolonely, Who Gives A Crap, Pedego, Chewy.com, Hint and others, is getting into the venture game.
After putting around €50 million into VC initiatives globally, it’s now embarking on being the kick-starter LP in a new VC fund dubbed V3 Ventures, the idea being to invest up to €100 million into founders and brands directly.
While being independent of Verlinvest, V3 will still be able to leverage the former’s international network. The plan is to target startups in the U.K., Europe, U.S. and India, focusing on pre-seed to Series A investments across e-commerce, health and beauty and food and beverage.
Lopo Champalimaud, who previously founded hair and beauty booking platform Treatwell after a stint as MD of lastminute.com, is V3’s co-founder.
I spoke to Champalimaud about the move and what V3’s strategy would be: “I’ve got over 25 years of being an entrepreneur and I figured the next 25 years [I would spend] helping entrepreneurs build their businesses,” he said.
“With V3 we plan to invest in consumer-focused companies, be global and very much focus on ESG, because that’s where consumers are. It’s really about trying to think about how the consumer evolves and to remain at the forefront of that.”
V3’s Indian deals will be led by Arjun Vaidya, who sold the DTC Ayurvedic medicine brand Dr. Vaidya’s to the RPSG Group.
To date, V3 Ventures has already invested in U.K.-based personalized cat food brand KatKin, U.S. skincare startup Revea and French supplement experts Cuure.