Q·SIGHT N°01: EDITORIAL

What connects food and health? The desire to live healthier and longer. The new Q·Sight Venture Capital Trendletter from QC·Ventures highlights investment trends in the Food & Beverage and Health & Wellbeing sectors in order to deal more comprehensively with the investment landscape surrounding a healthier life. The current focus topic has been chosen accordingly: Longevity – products and services that enable us to live longer and, above all, healthier lives. The special explains how the mega-trend Longevity comes about (on the one hand through a new, proactive and preventive health culture and on the other hand through a technology push) and what the associated investment landscape looks like.

In the detailed observation of the funding activities of the last six months in the F&B sector, one can still see, both internationally and in the DACH region, a focus on alternative foods: from plant-based milk (USD 30M for NotCo), insects (USD 20M for Ynsect), cell-cultured protein (Legendairy Foods from Berlin) to cell-cultured fish (USD 4.6M for Shiok Meats). Delivery is the overall leader in deal amounts (USD 940M for Last-Mile automated Delivery Nuro; USD 600M DoorDash). Vertical Farming, Restaurant Software and Robots remain the theme. A new addition was a higher visibility for the topic Anti-Food-Waste (EUR 6M for Too Good To Go; USD 16.5M for Misfits Market). Corporate food investments focus on consolidation, verticalization and participation in other food venture funds.

In the Health & Wellbeing area one topic is above all: Digital Health solutions – EU and USA-wide. The focus of the investment activities is on the improvement of patient-doctor communication (e.g. USD 1M for Feedtrail; USD 17M for Legwork Software), including comprehensible data preparation (e.g. EUR 2.75M for Medicus AI; USD 12.7M for Abacus Insights), Telehealth: Diagnosis/Medication/Therapy (e.g. EUR 3M for Instahelp; USD 58M for Noom) and online doctor appointment booking tools (e.g. EUR 80M for DocPlanner).

In the American region, the topics of Mental Health (e.g. USD 21M for Neuotrack) and Meditation (e.g. USD 88M for Calm) as well as Interactive Fitness (equipment and personal training) (e.g. USD 45M for Tonal) are also in demand among investors.

The megatrend Longevity was also reflected in investments for cancer and cell start-ups (e.g. EUR 3M for Cytena) and supplements (3M for Longevity Labs). FemTech and FertilityTech but also Cannabis Production & Education (e.g. EUR 15M for Cannamedical; USD 20M for Green Flower Media) investments were likewise visible.