Acre Venture Partners

Acre Venture Partners Research

Investment Thesis

Acre Venture Partners is a climate-focused, impact-aligned venture capital firm that invests in companies creating fundamental change in food and agriculture to address large-scale challenges in human and environmental health. The fund's core thesis is that driving positive, lasting change in food and agriculture creates exceptional financial outcomes. For Acre, impact and return aren't trade-offs—they're intertwined. Both are essential.

Founded in 2016, Acre evolved from a corporate-backed venture into a fully institutional investment vehicle. The fund originated as a $125 million fund created exclusively by Campbell Soup Company but later transitioned to institutional ownership when Campbell sold its stake to StepStone. This evolution demonstrates the firm's commitment to independent, mission-driven investing.

Investment Focus Areas

Acre invests in companies across four critical domains:

Population Health: Technologies and products that improve human nutrition, wellness, and food safety. This includes probiotic products (Infinanth Health), alternative meat proteins (Meati), functional beverages (Velvet Hammer, Rythm Health), and allergen-free food products (Safe & Fair). The firm recognizes that food is medicine and backs companies proving this at scale.

Planetary Well-Being: Solutions addressing climate change, soil health, and sustainable agriculture. Portfolio companies include Bonsai Robotics (vision-based autonomy for climate-smart farm equipment), Loam Bio (microbial products for carbon sequestration), TerraDot (enhanced rock weathering for gigaton-scale CO2 removal), Moss Earth (blockchain-based environmental assets), and Switch Bioworks (symbiotic microbes replacing chemical nitrogen fertilizer).

Responsible Production and Consumption: Infrastructure, technology, and business models enabling efficient, transparent, and sustainable food systems. Acre backs companies like Arado (food waste reduction), Corvium (in-plant food safety), Planet Fwd (carbon management for agriculture), Source.ag (AI for indoor farming efficiency), and Spoiler Alert (CPG inventory management).

Climate Solutions: Explicit climate impact ventures combining agriculture with decarbonization. Examples include PeopleScience Health (testing alternative medicines and food-as-medicine interventions), Impact VI (hyperspectral imaging for transparent food systems), and Mori (food preservation via naturally-derived silk protein).

Stage Focus and Check Size

Acre's Fund III ($140 million, closed March 2024) invests across a broad stage spectrum:

• Pre-Seed: Focus on exceptional founders with proof-of-concept, typical check: $500K-$1.5M
• Seed: Early product-market validation phase, typical check: $1.5M-$3M
• Series A: Proven unit economics and market traction, typical check: $3M-$5M
• Series B: Selected follow-ons for accelerating portfolio companies

Gareth Asten's public profile indicates a sweet spot of $1.5M at median investment. However, Acre demonstrates flexibility, supporting companies from 2-6 deals annually with average startup values in the $100M-$500M range, suggesting willingness to scale with founder success.

Recent Activity and Deployment

Acre is actively deploying from Fund III:

• December 2025: Investment in Velvet Hammer (female-fandom-powered wellness brand)
• October 2025: Participated in Ascribe Bio's Series A round
• 2025 YTD: Ascribe Bioscience and Bonsai Robotics investments
• Fund Status: Actively deploying with 5+ investments per year historically

The firm maintains a disciplined but steady deployment pace, averaging 5.12 rounds per year. With Fund III at $140M and operating since March 2024, the firm is roughly 1-1.5 years into deployment.

Portfolio Highlights

Acre has built a diversified portfolio of 47+ investments across the food and agriculture ecosystem:

Notable Active Companies:

• Bonsai Robotics: Vision-based autonomy for farm equipment enabling climate-smart agriculture
• Source.ag: AI platform for indoor farming efficiency and profitability at scale
• Inari: Pioneering plant breeding using true-to-nature technologies for yield + environmental benefit
• Farm-ng: Re-imagining farm tools with automation, sustainability, and accessibility
• Back to the Roots: Organic small-space gardening kits connecting consumers to food origins
• Meati Foods: Next-generation meat analogues from mycelium (nutritious, unprocessed, plant-based)
• Zucca.ai: Accelerating product development by reducing scoping time 90%, streamlining formulation to market launch

Acquired/Exited:

• Corvium (in-plant food safety via data intelligence)
• Farm-bg (family farmer optimization)
• Let's Highlight (consumer data for CPG portfolios)
• Zucca (product development acceleration) - merged/acquired

Team and Expertise

Acre's leadership combines deep operational experience, policy expertise, and entrepreneurial track records:

• Lucas Mann, Co-Founder & Managing Partner: Co-founded Acre with vision to align impact and financial returns. Strong track record in food and agriculture investing.

• Sam Kass, Partner: Former White House Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition to President Obama. Brings rare food-policy and regulatory expertise. His government experience is a significant competitive advantage when advising founders on food safety, labeling, and nutrition policy.

• Bill Helman, General Partner: Joined as equal partner from Greylock Partners, bringing enterprise venture expertise and network. Strong history with Lucas Mann.

• Gareth Asten, Managing Partner: Long-standing partner with deep food and agriculture domain expertise. Sweet spot investment size: $1.5M.

• Alex Bondar, Partner: Alongside Gareth and Sam, represents the decade-long core team built by Lucas Mann at Acre's founding.

• Maisie Kirn, Partner: Key team member driving recent deployment

• Jeff Dunn, Partner: Brings operational and sector expertise

• David Chang, Partner: Sector expertise in food and agriculture

The team explicitly positions itself as a service business, not just capital providers. This philosophy drives active collaboration in portfolio shaping, founder mentorship, and operational support.

Investment Approach and Decision-Making

Lead Tendency: Acre leads and co-leads rounds across stages. Portfolio evidence shows leadership participation in most investments, though the firm also co-invests strategically with other mission-aligned VCs.

Decision Process: The team structure suggests partnership decision-making. With 9 partners/advisors on the team and an investment pace of 5+ per year, decisions likely involve partner consensus, especially for Series A and larger checks.

Timeline: No explicit data on decision velocity, but typical for institutional VCs: 4-6 weeks from initial meeting to term sheet for well-prepared founders.

Warm Introductions: Strongly preferred given the partnership model and relationship-driven approach. Direct outreach possible but less likely to gain traction.

Board Participation: Team involvement suggests board seats likely for Series A+ investments, advisory board or standing check-ins for earlier stage.

Founder Profile and Selection Criteria

Acre backs:

• Mission-Aligned Founders: Belief that impact and returns are intertwined
• Operational Excellence: Companies addressing real problems with proven solutions (e.g., Bonsai's vision-based autonomy, Zucca's product acceleration)
• Regulatory/Policy Awareness: Especially in food/agriculture (Kass's influence evident)
• Science-Driven Teams: Heavy emphasis on biotech, ag-tech, and data-driven ag companies
• Diverse Founding Teams: Multiple female-led and underrepresented founders in portfolio
• Proven Market Traction: Even at pre-seed, evidence of customer interest or scientific validation

Geographic Focus

Primarily California-based with US focus (Santa Monica headquarters), but with portfolio diversity suggesting openness to other major US innovation hubs and selected international opportunities, particularly where agriculture and climate innovation are concentrated (Midwest US for agtech, Pacific Northwest for sustainability tech).

Fund Evolution and Status

Fund I: Original $125M Campbell Soup Company-backed fund (2016+) Fund II: Institutional transition fund with Bill Helman's join (2020) Fund III: $140M closed March 2024, fully institutional, actively deploying

With a decade-long team core and institutional backing, Acre demonstrates stability and long-term commitment to the food and agriculture impact thesis.

Competitive Advantages

1. Policy Expertise: Sam Kass's White House background is rare among VC partners, providing founders with regulatory and policy navigation advice
2. Operational Know-How: Deep portfolio of 47+ companies enables peer-learning and operational pattern transfer
3. Impact-Return Alignment: Genuine belief that these are complementary, not competing, goals attracts founders with dual mandates
4. Long-Term Deployment: Stable fund with multi-year runway reduces pressure for quick exits
5. Sector Depth: 10 years of food and agriculture investing has created proprietary deal flow and pattern recognition

Investment Landscape Context

Acre operates in the intersection of climate tech, agtech, and food-tech—three booming sectors. The fund's $140M size positions it as a strong mid-market player, large enough to lead substantial rounds but nimble enough to back pre-seed companies with significant upside potential. Recent portfolio successes and the team's reputation position Acre as a preferred VC partner for founders in the food and agriculture ecosystem.