Proterra Investment Partners’s Asian subsidiary, Proterra Asia, has closed its third food fund at over $200 million, according to a statement.
The food and agribusiness-focused private equity firm drew in limited partners (LPs) from institutional investors, international and regional foundations, and family offices from Europe and Asia. The Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) also joined as an LP, according to a September 2021 disclosure. Cargill also remains one of Proterra’s longtime LPs.
Proterra Asia Food Fund 3 is much smaller compared with its previous two funds — Food Fund 2, which closed at $700 million in 2015, and Fund 1, which closed at $460 million in 2011. The Singapore-based investor had launched Food Fund 3 in May 2019 but closed it only on October 26, 2022.
“We are very pleased to have successfully closed our first Proterra Asia fund as a Singapore-registered entity and to have done so despite market volatility and travel restrictions,” aid Tai Lin, Managing Partner of Proterra Asia.
“In the context of rapidly growing and urbanising populations in Asia, the demand for premium food products as well as the need to decarbonise diets and food supply chains is increasing at an extraordinary pace. The Proterra Asia Food Strategy is well positioned to capitalise on the associated trends,” he added in a statement.
The Singapore-based fund focuses on businesses capitalising on accelerating consumer demand which comes with growing urban populations in Asia a well as the emergence of a new generation of consumers looking for safe, high quality, healthy, and sustainable foods. These include fast-growing categories like premium yoghurt and alternative proteins.
Proterra Asia focuses on growth-stage opportunities, writing $30-50 million cheques into China and Southeast Asian markets. The firm added that it has deployed over $1 billion across three PE funds, building, buying, and investing in food companies across Asia since 2010.
Some of its portfolio companies from Proterra Food Fund 3 include Chinese nutrition and supplements business Zhong Hong; Chinese healthy beverage company No Ordinary Drinks (NOD); Chinese yoghurt brand Simple Love; Taiwanese premium soy sauce brand Wuan Chuang; Singaporean oat milk brand Oatside; and Singapore biofuel firm Apeiron Bioenergy.
Proterra is also known for its investment in US food manufacturing firm Eat Just.
In 2020, Proterra Investment Partners and a consortium of food and agribusiness firms announced that it will invest up to $100 million in Eat Just — a deal that led to the establishment of Singapore’s first and largest plant-based protein production facility to produce JUST Egg in Asia. Eat Just also has similar facilities in North America and Germany.
Proterra Investment Partners was carved out of US agribusiness giant Cargill unit Black River Asset Management in 2016. The Minneapolis-headquartered investor oversees $3.6 billion in assets under management across the food and agriculture sectors globally.