Investeco Sustainable Food Fund

Investeco Sustainable Food Fund is the first Canadian private equity fund focused on sustainable food and agriculture. The management company, Investeco Capital Corp. has been active in this space for nine years, generating an average IRR of approximately 16% over three prior funds, and has been involved in growing some of the leading names in sustainable food in Canada, including: Organic Meadow, Rowe Farms, and Horizon Distributors. Based in Toronto, the Manager has unparalleled deal flow in Canada. The Fund’s strategy is to invest into high-growth private food companies that have a strategic advantage in the market by virtue of their brand, distribution channels, unique supply chain or unique processing capabilities. The Manager is a “hands-on” investor that gets actively involved in portfolio companies, helping to build strong management teams and to establish and closely monitor effective strategies for growth.

The Fund's first investment was made in Q4 2013 in Sunselect Produce, a leading North American sustainable greenhouse vegetable producer.

Financial description

The North American Sustainable Food sector has been growing at a rate of about 10% per year for the past decade and is likely now worth more than $50 billion annually. In Canada alone, it has been growing at 15% per year and is now likely worth more than $4 billion annually. This growth has enabled many small to medium-sized sustainable food companies to prosper. It has also attracted the attention of various large food companies that have increasingly been entering the Sustainable Food sector through strategic acquisitions. This market climate has created excellent investment and realization opportunities for investors in small to medium-sized Sustainable Food companies, such as the Investeco Sustainable Food Fund, L.P.
The Fund aims to capitalize on these opportunities by using a rigorous due diligence process to acquire investments in what it believes to be exceptional small to medium sized Sustainable Food companies. These investments will generally be made in businesses the General Partner believes to have some or all of the following characteristics: established revenues, strong growth prospects, excellent management and long-term competitive advantages.
The general partner intends to work closely with these companies to help them to capacity-build and accelerate growth by assisting them with operational, legal and financial management; the recruitment.
The Fund will look for a profitable exit opportunity within 4 to 7 years of each initial investment.