iSelect Invests for Impact and Performance: 3 Case Studies

At iSelect, we invest for impact AND performance. We are a research-driven organization dedicated to deep diligence and careful execution.

We invest in companies addressing critical global issues in large markets with a projected financially attractive business model. Our portfolio companies produce low glycemic sugar, design technology to reduce agricultural inputs such as water or fertilizer, breed higher nutrition crops, and make plant-based protein ingredients. They design deep tech diagnostics and treatments for food-related illnesses. Our careful diligence portfolio of companies seeks to improve health and quality of life AND provide investors with an attractive return.

We strongly believe that, by investing in innovative agricultural, food and wellness technology companies, and by continuing to support them as they develop, we are extending the impact of the work they are doing to all stakeholders. We are scaling our impact

For example, consider just a few of the 50+ companies in the iSelect portfolio that have gone through Series A and Series B financing rounds and continue to grow

Geltor: By developing and producing non-animal based collagen, Geltor’s platform technology is making it cost effective to provide sustainable and beneficial proteins to the cosmetic, food, beverage, nutritional supplement, and healthcare industries. But that is just the beginning. The company’s mission is to improve billions of lives through biodesign, creating the world’s most advanced designer proteins that are 100% animal- and GMO-free, globally scalable, and sustainably cultivated.

Brightseed: An artificial intelligence-powered nutrition company, Brightseed is mapping unique micronutrients in the plant kingdom to specific human health conditions where they can have the highest impact. So far, its work has identified compounds to treat food-related conditions like Fatty Liver Disease and it has partnered with Danone to accelerate its research and usher in a new era of discovery and precision nutrition.

Growers Edge: Low profitability has made farmers risk averse, limiting the adoption of innovative technologies that can drive yield, nutrition, sustainability, and, as a result, farmer profitability. Growers Edge is partnering with agribusinesses to create financial products that guarantee outcomes for growers, accelerating the adoption of new technology and limiting the risk to the farmer. Better growing decisions, more profitable farms, and a more sustainable food system are the result.

iSelect was not conceived as an impact investment fund. Our focus has always been on finding the best and brightest entrepreneurs and investing to support them in their ventures in ways that generate positive economic returns. When the winners emerge, we double down on those. The best and brightest are currently revolutionizing agriculture and personalized medicine. They are solving big problems. And that impact drives actual performance.

Consideration

With 2021 well underway and with public markets still strong, we think it is an important time to highlight some of the key private market, venture investment themes that iSelect fund has identified for the year. We believe technologies transforming the Agriculture, Food and Wellness markets will flourish, with a focus on four areas: technologies that enable better food choices to drive better health outcomes, technologies that drive better, more profitable farm operations, technologies that drive the Consumerization of Healthcare, and biome-based treatment technologies. At iSelect, we invest for impact AND performance. We offer qualified investors access to emerging growth companies through our national venture capital strategy. Our unique structure allows our investors to continue to invest in these companies as they develop.

Timing

Why is now the right time for venture? The answer is that now is not explicitly the right time. Venture is something we need in our economy at all times. Now is not better than any other particular time. The question is, why ever stop? When we look at the challenges we’re facing in food and healthcare the reality is there is someone, somewhere who has an insight about how to build a product that will solve those problems. And if they put the right resources to it, they will succeed. As long as we need new technology to make life better or make our lives more enjoyable, we need venture capital to help fuel those entrepreneurs.

What is iSelect as a product?

iSelect is a very unique product, but when you break it into its parts it’s fairly easy to understand. On the front end we’re a traditional venture capital fund. We have a diligence process. We have an investment process. We have categories of industries where we have focus and real expertise, and we invest in companies in those areas that meet requirements for the fund. On the back end we’re unique in that we don’t raise a large amount of capital at one time and deploy it over the life of our fund. Each deal that we bring onto the fund, our investors have to prove and determine to invest in that deal. We have to constantly prove our diligence standards. It’s accessible, transparent and easy for investors to come in and see our comprehensive process.

What is the ideal iSelect company?

We are looking for founders that are passionate and we want the problem they’re trying to solve to be big, real, and painful. We want the solution to be revolutionary and we want our capital to be able to help them solve that problem. We want to know that they have customers involved and that the solution they’ve come up with actually meets those customers’ and market needs. And we want the team to be capital efficient with the money they’re spending.

What does the ideal iSelect company look like?

We’re looking for a company that has an opportunity to have a 10x return to our investment or greater in a period of three to seven years. What excites us at iSelect are companies that are solving big problems. We want companies that are going to be the Monsantos of the future. Not just in the size and the scope, but the impact they have on people’s lives. We want to create positive impacts on people’s lives, so we invest in areas like agricultural production and areas like producing healthy foods for our kids. They are problems that impact real people’s lives on a daily basis. That’s what we’re trying to do at iSelect. We’re trying to solve the big problems out there. Find ways to bring capital to the entrepreneurs who are the real heroes out there getting up every morning, beating away at these things that are problems that you and me and everyone else faces in their everyday lives.

What is iSelect?

iSelect is a venture capital firm. What that means is we look at hundreds and hundreds of different companies and we apply tough diligence standards to each of them, looking at whether the team has a good plan for growing the business, whether the team is qualified and credible, and more. We do that to resolve the few who provide the best opportunities for investors. And then iSelect takes that smaller set of investments and goes to investors who are interested in venture capital and provides a way for them to invest in these companies, either individually or all at once. We co-invest alongside other venture capitalists. We source transactions through to an exit where the company would become public or get bought. And we manage that whole investment process on behalf of our investors.