Pitch & Plant 2020: Vevolution Launches Global Plant-Based Funding Competition

Vevolution, the London-based hub dedicated to accelerating the plant-based movement, has just launched its first global edition of its plant-based investment competition. Called Pitch & Plant 2020, the virtual competition targets plant-based and animal-free startups with a minimum total of £100,000 (US$128,440) in investment on offer to finalists. 

Announced on Monday (September 28), Vevolution has launched Pitch & Plant 2020, a global investment competition targeting startups and entrepreneurs from all plant-based and animal-free sectors, from food tech to fashion. Applications are now open until November 8 and startups from all over the world are invited to join and compete to attract funding from some of the world’s leading investors in the alternative protein world who have previously backed leading plant-based companies such as Impossible Foods, Heura, THIS, Mighty Pea and more. 

Among the list of investors lined up include Michiel van Deursen of Capital V and a partner in Vevolution, Veg Capital’s Simi Valecha Johnson and Cliff Johnson, Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni and Miray Zaki of Dismatrix, Willem Blom of Plantbase and S2 Capital’s Silla and Maarten Scheepens. 

Hopefully Pitch & Plant will lead to many businesses finding the community support and investment they need to reach their business goals and positively change the world.

Damien Clarkson & Judy Nadel, Co-Founders of Vevolution

“Pitch & Plant 2020 is our first global investment competition and we are proud to have partnered with such a great group of investors who are responsible for backing some of the plant-based startup movement’s biggest success stories,” said Vevolution co-founders Damien Clarkson and Judy Nadel. 

This year, the competition will be held virtually and each investor has committed to a minimum of £20,000 (US$25,695) in funding, making the minimum total £100,000 (US$128,440) on offer to finalists, with potentially higher sums injected if the right opportunity emerges. Finalists will be chosen to pitch at the live online event taking place on December 10 this year. 

“All the startups who apply this year will go onto the BETA of the new Vevolution platform and will be seen by investors from all across the globe. Hopefully Pitch & Plant will lead to many businesses finding the community support and investment they need to reach their business goals and positively change the world,” added Clarkson and Nadel. 

I am delighted to be a partner in Vevolution and excited to co-invest alongside my fellow Pitch & Plant competition investors and many of the new investors who join the new Vevolution platform designed to connect great investors with startups.

Michiel van Deursen

Earlier this year, four years after Vevolution first began, the co-founders announced the beginning of a “new phase” and partnered with former tech entrepreneur and plant-based investor Michiel van Deursen, who is also participating in Pitch & Plant, to build a new digital technology hub for plant based innovators. The new platform, which aims to help vegan startups get funding quicker and accelerate their business, is slated to launch fully this coming November. 

“Pitch & Plant 2020 is the first glance of the new Vevolution platform we are building to help fund and support great startups,” explained van Deursen. “I am delighted to be a partner in Vevolution and excited to co-invest alongside my fellow Pitch & Plant competition investors and many of the new investors who join the new Vevolution platform designed to connect great investors with startups.”

Applications for Pitch & Plant 2020 are open from 28th September 2020 until 8th November 2020. Interested startups can apply here.

Lead image courtesy of Vevolution.