Dive Brief:

• Ahold Delhaize along with four other global grocery companies established a collaborative venture capital fund called W23 Global, according to a Monday announcement.

• The fund will seek to invest $125 million over five years in start-ups and scale-ups that deploy technology to improve customer shopping experiences, address the industry sustainability challenges and more. 

• Ingrid Maes, who currently leads Australian Woolworth’s Group’s innovation fund, W23 Australia, will lead the venture capital fund.

Dive Insight:

Ahold Delhaize, Tesco, Woolworths Group, Empire Company Limited/Sobeys Inc. and ShopRite Group all serve as equal funders and partners in W23 Global, according to the announcement. 

The start-ups and scale-ups the collaborative venture capital fund plans to invest in will drive faster, more personalized and connected in-store and online experiences as well as create more efficient grocery value chains to benefit stakeholders, according to the announcement. W23 Global will also invest in sustainability challenges “from farm to household,” focusing on emissions and waste reduction, packaging innovation, product traceability and transparency, healthy choices and biodiversity. 

W23 Global’s portfolio companies will also be able to contract with any customer, regardless of whether they are a W23 Global partner, to pursue innovation and investment strategies on “whatever terms they decide,” the announcement noted.

Maes, who serves as W23 Global’s CEO and chief investment officer, has more than 25 years of experience in the grocery and fast-moving consumer goods retail sector, per the press release. Each of W23 Globals' five grocery partners’ CEOs will sit on the venture capital fund’s investment committee. 

Woolworths originally established the W23 venture fund in 2019, according to Australia’s Financial Review.

“We aim to offer our investors incomparable access to transformative innovation in grocery and sustainability worldwide,” Maes said in a statement. “W23 Global will work with its investors to identify common unaddressed challenges and support entrepreneurs to develop solutions, offering faster pathways to global scale for portfolio companies.”

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