Oprah, Jay-Z becoming keen foodtech funders after joining Blackstone for $200m Oatly round
Swedish alt-milk maker Oatly has raised $200 million in a funding round led by Blackstone Growth, the new growth equity vehicle of US investment giant Blackstone Group.....MUCH MORE
Dutch bank Rabobank‘s Rabo Corporate Investments and New York-based Orkila Capital also joined the round, alongside a bevvy of celebrity investors including TV personality Oprah Winfrey, rapper Jay-Z’s label Roc Nation, Hollywood star Natalie Portman, and former Starbucks chairman and CEO Howard Schultz.
Oatly’s co-founders also participated in this latest round of investment, which reportedly values the company at around $2 billion and could see it accelerate plans for an IPO.
The Malmö-based business was originally launched back in the 1990s, built around research carried out at Lund University. It produces a plant-based dairy alternative from oats by using enzymes “that [copy] nature’s own process” to transform the cereal into milk and other products.
Relaunching as a sustainability-centric consumer brand in 2013, Oatly says it currently employs close to 550 staff in Europe, Asia Pacific, and North America, and its products are available in over 50,000 locations across 20 countries. The latest funding will be used to expand its presence in existing markets and open new production facilities in all three regions, as well as to hire talent to fill new roles created by this growth plan.Oatly’s co-founder talks on scaling alt-milk and the need for local food production. Listen to the interview here
“Leaders in asset management like Blackstone play an essential role in order to create real sustainable change. It is my belief that capital has to turn green and do so for the right reasons,” Oatly CEO Toni Petersson said in a statement.
“I understand that it may sound naive at times to actually believe that Oatly can change the world — that the impact of what we do can inspire others to make changes that will lead to a global behavioral shift among consumers — but that’s fine. Investments from firms like Blackstone […] is a critical step in securing a future of focused green investment that transcends traditional [corporate social responsibility] work and focuses on urgent, systemic efforts to address the climate crisis.”
Keen foodtech funders
Celebrity investors appear to have become increasingly active in the VC space in recent years, with Winfrey and Jay-Z in particular turning their interest to foodtech and agtech startups of late....
