Live Kindly reports that Robert Downey Jr.’s venture fund has made a major investment in a vegan brand.
Footprint Coalition Ventures, the actor’s fund, is one of several investors that recently threw financial support behind alternative protein startup Atlast Food Co. The New York-based brand produces “whole-cut” plant-based bacon made from mycelium — the fibrous root structure of mushrooms.
Atlast, which is a spinoff from mycelium packaging producer Ecovative Design, secured an impressive $40 million from investors, including the Iron Man star’s contribution. Other backers include Viking Global Investors LP and AiiM Partners.
This latest influx of capital for Atlast, which raised an additional $60 million for Ecovative earlier this month, will fund commercial-scale production of the world’s largest aerial mycelium farm. Mycelium is a key ingredient in the company’s vegan bacon, named MyBacon.
He launched Footprint Coalition Ventures in January as an extension of the Footprint Coalition. The philanthropic initiative founded by the Downeys, along with tech investors and entrepreneurs. The Footprint Coalition aims to bring environmental solutions to scale. The actor invested nearly $10 million of his own fortune to launch the venture fund.
The Avengers actor talked about the endeavor at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. He made it abundantly clear that investments in sustainable companies are crucial.
“This global existential threat is not something that’s going to be solved by a smattering of elite mega-corporations,” he said. “I think that paradigm must be smashed in favour of innovation by a broad set of new companies.”
