Tyson Foods launches $150 million VC fund in Chicago
Tyson Foods has launched a $150 million corporate venture fund that will be run from Chicago.
Tyson, which is the world's top meat processor, is based in Springdale, Ark., but it bought Chicago-based Hillshire Brands, the packaged-meat spinoff of Sara Lee, for $8.55 billion in 2014.
Tyson joins Motorola Solutions, Baxter International, Abbott, Zebra Technologies and General Electric among companies with corporate venture capital groups in Chicago.
Large companies are feeling pressure to come up with new sources of innovation in hopes of not becoming the next industry to get “Ubered.” The number of corporate VCs has doubled in the past four years, according to New York-based research firm CB Insights.
Tyson New Ventures LLC will be run by Mary Kay James, who was at DuPont Ventures, the corporate venture arm of the chemical giant, for 13 years.
The company will concentrate its investments in three areas: alternative proteins, food security and using the internet in the food chain. Its first investment was in Beyond Meat, a startup in El Segundo, Calif., that created a plant-based protein.
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