Acre Ventures — known on its website as Acre Venture Partners — is a California-based venture capital firm that invests in companies creating fundamental change in food and agriculture. Its stated goal is to tackle large-scale challenges in human and environmental health, and it argues that impact and financial return are not trade-offs but intertwined.
Thesis: a climate fund working through food and agriculture
Acre describes itself as a climate fund using food and agriculture as its mode of action. It partners with companies building breakthrough technologies and critical infrastructure for a healthier, more sustainable food system, where human and environmental wellbeing stand alongside profitability and convenience. Its team brings together operators, entrepreneurs, policy leaders, sustainability experts and investors, and it describes venture capital as a service business — a partner that works closely with founders, not just a source of cheques.
The firm looks for people, infrastructure and technologies creating systemic change in four areas: population health, planetary wellbeing, responsible production and consumption, and climate solutions.
Fund size, stages and cheque focus
Acre closed its third fund, Fund III, at $140 million, as reported by AgFunderNews in March 2024. Fund III invests from pre-seed stage up to Series B, with money reserved for follow-on investments. Acre has also shown patience about fashionable sub-sectors: it waited on ag robotics until product capability and cost curves caught up, then backed companies such as Bonsai Robotics and farm-ng, and it has only one investment in alternative protein, fungi-based startup Meati, having deliberately sat out the first and second waves there.
Notable portfolio companies
Acre's portfolio spans the food value chain. Its site lists companies including Agrofy, an online marketplace for Latin American agribusiness; Arado, which connects growers to retailers and restaurants; Ascribe Bioscience, developing biopesticides; Back to the Roots, organic gardening kits; Farmers Business Network, which helps family farmers maximise profit potential; Inari, a gene-editing crop company; Source.ag, which uses artificial intelligence to control greenhouses; and Supergut, nutrition products targeting the microbiome. Early Fund III investments also included Highlight, a consumer-testing platform, People Science, a clinical research platform, and Switch Bioworks, which develops symbiotic microbes that displace chemical nitrogen fertiliser.
Team and support for founders
Acre Venture Partners is led by co-founder and managing partner Lucas Mann. Its operating partners include Lynda Deakin, formerly of design firm IDEO, who embeds inside portfolio companies on product, brand and consumer insight, and chef David Chang, founder of the Momofuku restaurant group, who advises on consumer brands.
How to apply for funding
No public application portal was found on Acre's website. Founders should approach the firm through its official website, acre.vc, with a concise pitch that explains the systemic food-system change the company creates, its stage, and why it fits Acre's four focus areas. A warm introduction from a portfolio founder or a co-investor is the strongest route into a specialist fund like this one.
Why it matters for founders
Acre is worth approaching if your company can credibly claim to change the food system, not just participate in it. Its $140 million Fund III backs founders from pre-seed to Series B, and its operating partners bring design and consumer-brand firepower most agrifood funds cannot match. Come with evidence of traction — and be ready to explain how you will appeal to later-stage investors.