It’s fantastic to see more investors come into the vegan and plant-based space and even more exciting that more women are getting on board.
Here are 5 pioneering female vegan investors that you need to know about.
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Alicia Robb
Diversity and inclusion are at the forefront of Colorado-based Alicia Robb’s ventures and she’s particularly keen to support vegan businesses run by women, people of color and other traditionally overlooked communities.
A prolific author, she’s the creator of Next Wave Impact whose focus is on increasing diversity, inclusion, and impact in early-stage investing.
The company’s global fund has 99 female investors, 25 of them women of color, which is led by an experienced investment committee of 10 women.
As well as investing in vegan-led companies, Alicia – whose background is in economics – also founded Vegan Investors, an angel investor group focused on helping vegan companies scale to have massive impact. Vegan Investors hold regular virtual pitch meetings.
Watch this interview Alicia did with VWLN founder Katrina Fox for Vegan Business Media:
Visit the Next Wave Impact website
Visit the Vegan Investors website
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Claire Smith
Claire Smith’s 35-year career in finance and investment includes working at top-tier banks and investment houses. She’s carried out bespoke hedge fund research, as well as working as a derivatives broker, marketer and structurer, and credit analyst.
As well as investing in vegan and plant-based businesses, Claire is the co-founder of Beyond Investing, which created the US Vegan Climate Index, a stock index that screens out all animal exploitation and fossil fuel use from a US market benchmark, and is the sponsor of the US Vegan Climate Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).
Based in Switzerland, Claire is also the co-founder of the Beyond Animal integrated digital platform, which aims to accelerate the growth of the global vegan economy.
Watch this interview Claire did with VWLN founder Katrina Fox for Vegan Business Media:
Visit the Beyond Investing website
Learn about the US Vegan Climate ETF
Find out more about the Beyond Animal platform
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Heather Mills
Media personality Heather Mills is a vegan entrepreneur and investor. She’s the owner of VBites in the UK, which produces more than 130 plant-based meat, fish and dairy products that are sold in 25 countries.
Heather is so passionate about and invested in the plant-based space that she’s bought large factories once owned by multinational corporations in the north of England to create a vegan version of Silicon Valley.
As well as running VBites, Heather also invests in other vegan companies.
Listen to this interview with Heather on the Vegan Business Talk podcast:
Visit the VBites website
Check out Heather Mills’ website
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Lisa Feria
With more than 35 investments in the plant-based sector in the US, UK, Netherlands, Israel, and New Zealand, Stray Dog Capital is one of the most active venture capital funds in this space.
Its CEO and Managing Director is Lisa Feria who has more than 20 years’ experience in food operations and consumer packaged goods and led billion-dollar brands in multinational companies such as Procter & Gamble and General Mills.
Lisa has been selected twice to the “Top 100 Most Influential Latinas” and serves on the board of a number of vegan companies and nonprofits.
Watch this interview Lisa did with Elysabeth Alfano on The Plant Based Business Hour
Visit the Stray Dog Capital website
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Liz Dee
Running a business is in Liz Dee’s blood. Along with her sisters, she’s the co-owner and executive vice-president of her family’s business Smarties Candy Company in the US.
Keen to change the conversation around food production and sustainable business, Liz set up impact investment firm Baleine & Bjorn Capital in 2016 with her husband Nick Garin, which invests in vegan businesses that disrupt the status quo.
Liz gets credit for inspiring the creation of the Vegan Women’s Leadership Network as she set the ball rolling in 2018 by launching Vegan Lady Boss (now no longer in operation) which brought vegan women together.
Listen to this interview with Liz on the Vegan Business Talk podcast:
Visit the Smarties Candy Company website
Visit the Baleine & Bjorn Capital website
You can find a full list of vegan and vegan-friendly investors here.
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