Emmanuel Faber and David Barber Join Impact Investor Astanor Ventures

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NEW YORK, Oct. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Astanor Ventures announced today the addition of David Barber and Emmanuel Faber to its partnership team. Barber and Faber, two internationally recognized leaders in the movement towards a sustainable agrifood system, join Astanor with a common mission: to align capital with nature and secure a just, sustainable and nourishing future of food for all.

The global agrifood system is a major catalyst of climate, biodiversity, social and health crises across the globe. Astanor is pioneering a new model of impact investing, one that is data-driven, transparent and scales return and impact to transform the economy from a system of extraction to one of regeneration.

Since its creation in 2017, Astanor has invested in 29 agrifood tech companies across the globe, backing only those solutions which promise to generate a significant, material positive impact in the agrifood system. In addition to a number of special purpose vehicles, the firm closed a €264m impact fund in December 2020, setting records for the largest agrifood impact investing fund ever raised.

"Astanor was founded on the principle that impact-driven business is the key to a more resilient, sustainable economy", said Eric Archambeau, co-founder and partner at Astanor. "This conviction has been a driving force in both David and Emmanuel's careers for decades, a commitment I have witnessed firsthand throughout our numerous collaborations. Their expertise, leadership and dedication to our common mission make them ideal partners for both Astanor and our investee companies."

Barber is a guiding voice in the movement to reform American agrifood economics. As founder of New York-based agrifood impact investing firm, Almanac Insights, Barber has dedicated his career to reinventing finance's role in the economy. He reimagined the purpose of capital as a tool to serve soil health, biodiversity and ultimately reverse the damage extractive economics have caused the planet. Founding partner of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and co-owner of Blue Hill, Barber brings with him decades of experience in testing, scaling and championing regenerative agrifood solutions to define a new future of food, from farmer to consumer.

David Barber, Partner at Astanor Ventures said, "Capital's required role in food system transformation has long been underestimated. Astanor has demonstrated the importance of backing visionary entrepreneurs and scaling growth in line with measurable impact creation. It is a privilege to join their effort to leverage modern technologies to facilitate a food system that nourishes our nature, our environment and our future."

Emmanuel Faber is a powerful advocate of purpose-driven business and a widely recognized leader in global agrifood and economic reform. A member of the G7 Impact Task Force and the Club of Rome Transformational Economics Commission, Faber is on the front lines of the international movement to develop a regenerative system of economics. As co-chair of the Consumer Goods Forum and founder and chair of the One Planet Business for Biodiversity Coalition, Faber led hundreds of major international business, financial and institutional decision-makers to catalyze global action to embrace the food revolution and restore biodiversity.

Emmanuel Faber, Partner at Astanor Ventures said, "I am thrilled that David and I are joining Astanor as partners today. Partnerships of like-minded activists are a recipe for collective intelligence. And this is much needed. Within the incredibly buoyant agtech and foodtech space, where I met and worked with dozens of entrepreneurs and investors over the last two decades, I have picked Astanor as the most entrepreneurial, impact-driven team, with already a fantastic track record of transformational start-ups that they support. We are now partnering to unequivocally focus on our single biggest collective opportunity to halve global carbon emissions by 2030 in a just transition: planetary diets for all, relying on a biodiverse, regenerative agriculture. Our strategy for this will be to leverage cutting edge science and technology, not to replace nature, life and humans, but to put them back front and center of agrifood systems."

Throughout his career, Faber has been a pioneer in impact creation and measurement. At French agrifood giant Danone he spearheaded the launch of the Danone Communities fund in 2006, Livelihoods Carbon Fund in 2011, and New York-based Danone Manifesto Ventures fund in 2015. In his role as CEO of Danone from 2014 to 2021, he led the company to become an "entreprise à mission" (purpose-driven company) and implemented a revolutionary "Carbon Adjusted Earnings Per Share" policy to expose shareholders to the company's environmental impact.

A Global Team of Impact Investing and Agrifood Tech leaders

With the addition of Barber and Faber to the partnership team, Astanor scales its global reach and global impact, reinforcing its position as a pioneer in agrifood tech impact investing.  Astanor co-founders, Eric Archambeau and George Coelho, were among the first impact investors in Europe, founding multiple venture capital firms and supporting dozens of impact-driven companies along the way.

About Astanor Ventures

Astanor Ventures is a global impact investor that backs ambitious entrepreneurs with disruptive, scalable solutions that will create systemic change across the agrifood value chain, from soil to gut. They partner with founders who are committed to restoring balance and sustainability to the land and oceans, prioritizing nature and culture, nurturing change and feeding growth.

The firm's investments include Ynsect (French insect farming unicorn), Apeel (US food waste unicorn), Infarm (German vertical farming leader), Modern Meadow (US advanced biomaterials company) and v2food (Australian plant-based protein leader).

SOURCE Astanor Ventures