Breakthrough Energy Ventures Backs $90 Million Launch of Motif FoodWorks from Ginkgo Bioworks for Precision Fermentation Meat Proteins
Breakthrough Energy Ventures joined Fonterra and Louis Dreyfus Company in a $90 million Series A to spin Motif Ingredients (later Motif FoodWorks) out of Ginkgo Bioworks. The company uses precision fermentation to produce proteins replicating dairy, egg, and meat properties for plant-based foods. BEV also participated in Motif's $226 million Series B in June 2021. Motif's HEMAMI — an FDA-approved plant heme iron protein — imparts authentic meaty flavour to plant-based products, addressing the sensory gap limiting mass adoption of animal-free proteins.
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January 2024
Gates Uses Shell Companies to Quietly Accumulate $113 Million Nebraska Farmland Portfolio
A January 2024 investigation by The Guardian and Floodlight News revealed that entities connected to Bill Gates's Cascade Investment had used a network of limited liability companies — including Cottonwood Ag Management — to quietly purchase approximately 20,588 acres of Nebraska farmland valued at roughly $113 million, without disclosing the beneficial owner to local sellers or county officials. The acquisitions were part of Gates's wider strategy to become the largest private farmland owner in the United States, with holdings exceeding 269,000 acres across 18 states, managed through Cottonwood Ag Management and its parent Leading Harvest, which develops regenerative agriculture certification standards.
2024
Breakthrough Energy Ventures Raises $839 Million Fund III with Food and Agriculture Focus
Breakthrough Energy Ventures closed its third fund at $839 million, with food and agriculture as one of five core investment sectors alongside power, transportation, manufacturing, and buildings. The fund holds stakes in approximately 20 agricultural companies and requires each portfolio company to demonstrate a credible pathway to avoiding at least 500 million tons of CO₂-equivalent emissions annually by 2050. The 20-year investment horizon is deliberately longer than standard venture capital to reflect the time required to change biological and physical infrastructure at scale.
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