Chef Dan Barber Invests in Food Sustainability

Attention food-tech companies looking to change the hospitality industry. This week, chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill, and Blue Hill Stone Barns, announced a new, $30 million fund to invest in CPG, experimental retail, agriculture, and hospitality technology companies.
Named Almanac Investments, they have already invested in three companies, so far- BlueCart, a streamlined mobile platform for ordering restaurant supplies, Nona Lim, an all-natural soup and broth company found in stores like Whole Foods, and Pilotworks, who rents out co-work kitchen spaces in six cities.
The company looks to set itself apart from other investment ventures by curating resources like data, public relations and marketing, so that it can vet the companies they are seeking to invest in, and use the information to allow those companies to collaborate with others.
“I found it shocking that service providers don’t talk to each other that much about the companies that they are simultaneously working on.” Barber says. “They are working adjacently but they aren’t actually collaborating. So our idea is to get them collaborating on our behalf. It’s a huge value add to the entrepreneur.”
For Barber, the focus has always been on sustainability-focused food businesses. “I fervently believe that the long term value and best returns and best opportunities that positively affect the food system all lie in elements and principles of sustainability and regenerative agriculture.”^[1]