Innovation in the Agricultural Sector with Leaft Foods
Leaft Foods Co-founders, Maury Leyland Penno and John Penno. Image credit: Jerome Warburton
New Zealand’s impact investing market continues to grow, increasing from $3b to $8b from 2020 to 2021. With this, investors are gaining a greater understanding of the positive environmental, social and cultural impact they can achieve, hand in hand with financial returns.
With more of this investment flowing into impact, there need to be impact-led enterprises ready for investment and Ākina’s Impact Investment Readiness Programme (IIRP) is helping to solve the shortage of investable deals.
The IIRP programme helps fund impact-led businesses to access the professional services they need, to become ready for investment. Recipients of grants from the 2021 programme have already raised an impressive $17.8m, a whopping 64x return on the $275,000 funding allocated.
Leaft Foods are striving to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture by creating a new economy that taps into the global shift to plant-based eating, having developed a model that extracts a highly nutritional plant protein called Rubisco from green leafy crops.
Ākina Impact Investment Readiness Programme (IIRP) funding supported them to scale their R&D production and maximise their environmental outcomes and supply chain efficiencies.
Announcement of a US$15m investment led by Khosla Ventures followed this growth, with funding from Memphis Grizzlies NBA player Steven Adams and New Zealand-based investors including Ngāi Tahu (via their New Economy Mandate) and ACC’s Climate Change Impact Fund.
Leaft’s success during the investment raise was largely attributed to the organisation’s technical progress and alignment with its environmental mission.
Ross Milne, Leaft Foods CEO.
Photo credit: Jerome Warburton
“With Ākina’s Impact Investment Readiness Programme, we invested in advisory services for investment strategy, financial modelling, intellectual property, pitch deck and information memorandum design, giving our team an edge during the pitching and due diligence process”
The company remains laser-focussed on delivering on its investment milestones and unlocking a practical solution for the agricultural sector and planet.
IIRP Programme funding in 2021 was generously provided by:
Kiwibank, WEL Energy Trust, The Tindall Foundation, Foundation North and Wellington Rotary Trust
Leaft integrates into New Zealand’s world-leading food production system and reduces the environmental impact of farming. Starting with nitrogen-fixing crops, like lucerne (aka alfalfa), their food-safe extraction process separates the Rubisco protein from inside the leaves.