Verlinvest, a family-backed, “evergreen”, growth fund investor, has previously funded a handful of well-known consumer brands such as Oatly, Vita Coco, Tony’s Chocolonely, Who Gives A Crap, Pedego, Chewy.com, Hint and others. It’s getting into the venture game.
After investing around 50 million euros in VC initiatives worldwide, it has now launched a new VC fund called V3 Ventures as a foot-starting LP, with the idea of investing up to 100 million euros directly in founders and brands.
Independent of Verlinvest, V3 can still use the former’s international network. The plan is to target startups in the UK, Europe, US and India, from pre-seed to Series A investments with a focus on e-commerce, health and beauty and food and beverage.
Tretwell is the co-founder of V3 after Lopo Champalimad, who previously founded the hair and beauty booking platform, was MD of lastminute.com.
I spoke to Champalimad about the move and what V3’s strategy will be: “I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 25 years and I thought I’d help entrepreneurs build their businesses in the next 25 years.
“At V3 we plan to invest in consumer-focused companies, to be global and very focused on ESG, because that’s where the consumers are. It’s really about thinking about how the consumer is changing and trying to stay at the forefront of that.
V3’s India deals are headed by Arjun Vaidya, who sold the D2C ayurvedic medicine brand to the Dr. Vaidya brand.
To date, V3 Ventures has invested in UK-based private cat food brand Katkin, US skincare startup Revia and French supplement specialist Pond.
