On December 18, British American Tobacco (BAT) announced on its official website that its venture capital arm, Btomorrow Ventures (BTV), has launched its second fund. The fund will mainly focus on health and wellness businesses, in line with BAT's strategic exploration of non-nicotine products. The launch of the new fund comes with an additional commitment of £200 million in investments, showcasing BAT's dedication to creating a "smoke-free world.
The Business Development Director of BAT, James Barrett, stated,
The launch of the second fund is an important demonstration of BAT's confidence in BTV as a key part of BAT's transformation agenda, which aims to turn BAT into a diversified consumer goods business. By focusing on health and innovation investments, we are committed to advancing BAT's smoke-free world agenda, building on the success of BTV's first fund.
Since its first investment in 2020, BTV's first fund has made 28 investments, primarily focusing on early-stage financing to support companies developing innovative products that align with the vision of creating a smoke-free world with BAT, and to reduce risk in new product categories.
Most of the initial £150 million fund has already been deployed or committed, including investments in the American functional beverage brand Moment and the Canadian caffeinated chocolate brand AWAKE.
The second fund is a supplement to the BTV Impact program launched earlier this year, which aims to harness the power of the venture capital community to support and advance its sustainability, diversity, and inclusivity agendas.
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