Podcasts Culture Species Unite Chris Kerr: The Godfather of Vegan Venture Capital

Chris Kerr: The Godfather of Vegan Venture Capital

Published: Jan. 14, 2021, 4:30 a.m.

\u201cWe spent 50 years fighting industry and I mean, fighting industry. And we were poking a bear and poking a bear and poking a bear. And then one day that bear came up and just nuzzled us under the neck and said, \u201cokay, we're interested.\u201d \u2026It was industry, it was the big players that came in and said, \u201cwhy are we fighting this? If consumers are asking for plant-based, we can sell plant-based.\u2019\u201d \u2013 Chris Kerr

Chris Kerr is on a mission to upend the entire food industry. \xa0\xa0

Chris is the Chief Investment Officer at Unovis/New Crop Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in entrepreneurs whose products or services replace foods derived from animal agriculture. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Gathered Foods, known for its\xa0Good Catch\xa0plant-based seafood products, the co-founder and Director of Wicked Foods, and the director of Cultivated Food Labs.

Chris is one of the first people that helped direct early-stage investments for plant-based food companies. He\u2019s been focused on impact investing with a concentration on the plant-based food sector since 2007, when he worked with the Humane Society of the United States to manage their investments into the plant-based food industry and played a key role in helping Daiya cheese secure distribution in Whole Foods Market.

\u201cYou can't rescue your way out of the animal protection world, you just can\u2019t. So, what can we do to actually do to change it at its base? If we can change people's opinion about eating plants, eating something other than animals, then maybe we wouldn't have to keep hitting them over the head with the ethical and moral baseball bat.\u201d \u2013 Chris Kerr

Chris is helping some of the top plant-based companies through investment funding and mentorship, all with the goal of accelerating the plant-based food industry and moving the world away from eating animals.

I hope that you learn as much as I did from Chris and are as excited about what\u2019s happening with the future of food. Please listen and share.