Brazilian meat giant injects millions into frozen food startup Liv Up

Brazilian direct-to-consumer frozen ready meals startup Liv Up received a R$26 million (US$4.87 million) investment from the corporate venture capital arm of Brazilian livestock company Minerva Foods.

The company’s valuation remains stable since the R$36 million(US$180 million) Series D financing led by Lofoten Capital (a vehicle owned by Marcos Amino, who was manager of hedge fund Discovery Capital) in June 2021, and which also included VCs Kaszek and Globo Ventures, Globo’s investment arm, as well as ThornTree Capital Partners.

A person familiar with the goings-on in Brazil’s venture capital industry told Bloomberg in linea on condition of anonymity that Amino had lost almost all of its equity investment in Liv Up and Loggi, “companies that required cash and had a very short runway.”

In September last year, Liv Up announced its first Series D extension with R$50 million (US$9.4 million) with Globo Ventures. By reopening the last round for Minerva’s minority check, the total raised by Liv Up in Series D was R$256 million (US$48 million).

A Series D extension means that the terms of the investment are the same as the initial funding, with the exact liquidation preference multiple, i.e. how much the investor will receive in the event of an exit (sale or IPO) and how much earlier that investor will receive the amount compared to other shareholders, in addition to equal anti-dilution clauses.

“Since the beginning of 2022, anticipating a challenging year, we have quickly adapted our strategy to focus entirely on operational efficiency and channel diversification to continue to grow our sales sustainably.”

“We now see that the team’s hard work has paid off and has attracted investors with a long-term vision closely aligned with our own,” said Victor Santos, founder, and CEO of Liv Up, in a press release.

Liv Up operates in 10 Brazilian states and 40 cities, offering ready meals through its website and app. In business for six years, the company has about 500 employees, after cutting 15% of its staff in February, Startups reported.

The food prepared in Liv Up’s dark kitchens comes from organic and family farmers. The company says it has partnerships with 30 small Brazilian farmers and offers salads, wraps, and pizza delivery in addition to frozen meals.

The startup said it intends to leverage Minerva Foods’ base of commercial partnerships to accelerate its expansion and use the company’s operational track record and knowledge of the beef chain to bring more efficiency to the operation.

WHO IS MINERVA FOOD

Minerva Foods is a Brazilian food company founded in 1924 in the city of Barretos,  São Paulo state.

Today, the Vilela de Queiroz family owns the company and has about 18,000 employees.

Minerva is involved in the marketing of fresh meat, hides, derivatives and live cattle exports, as well as meat processing.

It is the second-largest beef company in Brazil and Uruguay and is currently the largest beef exporter in Paraguay, Colombia, and Argentina, selling its products to over 100 countries.

Minerva operates 26 slaughter and deboning plants (11 in Brazil, 3 in Paraguay, 2 in Uruguay, 1 in Colombia, and 5 in Argentina) and three processing plants.

In 2018, the company reported gross revenues of R$14.4 (US$3) billion.

Is is a publicly-traded company listed on the B³ – Brasil Bolsa Balcão (formerly BM&FBovespa) since 2007.

With information from Bloomberg in linea

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