CHICAGO —Kraft Heinz’s venture capital fund, Evolv Ventures, has invested in a retail platform that works with cannabis dispensaries across the United States.
Evolv Ventures, along with Poseidon and e.ventures, led a recent $23 million funding round for Flowhub, said Nicole Cieslak, marketing communications manager for Flowhub. Denver-based Flowhub delivers compliance, point-of-sale, inventory tracking and business intelligence data from a unified software-as-a-service platform to help its customers grow revenue, simplify compliance and manage inventory, according to the company.
The Evolv Ventures capital fund was formed in October 2018 with a focus on making investments in emerging and fast-growing technology-enabled companies that are changing the food and consumer packaged goods industry, Lynne Galia, a spokesperson for The Kraft Heinz Co., told CSP Daily News.
“They believe in the potential of our technology, our leadership and our culture, and an investment from a fund like Evolv Ventures is indicative of the appetite from the mainstream market to bet big on cannabis tech and on Flowhub,” Cieslak said.
This is the third investment Chicago-based Evolv Ventures has announced. The first two were GrubMarket, a farm-to-table grocery delivery business, and New Culture, an animal-free dairy cheese company.
“Evolv Ventures is investing in emerging tech companies transforming the food and CPG industry, and this is another example of moving beyond brands to invest in disruptive tech-enabled companies that are shaping new industries,” said Bill Pescatello, managing partner with Evolv Ventures. “We are very excited about the potential of Flowhub’s technology innovation and leadership position in one of the fast-growing CPG categories today.”
Kraft Heinz, a food and beverage company based in Chicago with brands including Capri Sun, Classico, Jell-O, Lunchables, Maxwell House and Kool-Aid, committed up to $100 million to Evolv Ventures at its launch.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.