Tate & Lyle Backs VC Fund

DECATUR, Ill.—Tate & Lyle Ventures is a new limited partnership venture capital fund, led by Managing Partners Simon Barnes and David Atkinson, that will invest in start-ups and expansion-stage companies to complement Tate & Lyle’s strategic growth in next-generation food ingredients. The fund will have $45 million and is looking to back eight to 10 deals with investments between $2 million and $5 million.

Barnes and Atkinson will make investment decisions and longterm fund strategy will be developed in conjunction with an Advisory Board, headed by Mark Robinson, head of mergers and acquisitions at Tate & Lyle (www.tateandlyle.com). “We are seeing a real change in consumer attitudes toward health and nutrition and, in particular, the growing acceptance of functional foods,” Atkinson said. “Food and health care are moving closer together. Busy lives and an aging population mean consumers are beginning to look to food to offer lifestyle solutions and bring added benefits such as vitamin fortification and enrichment. New technologies will be instrumental in this convergence as the world’s major food companies reposition themselves with a focus on innovation and health.”