Vegans Gather To Support Kale United To Invest In Booming Plant-Based Economy
As the plant-based economy booms, Måns Ullerstam’s vision of a cleaner, more sustainable environment that is no longer threatened by climate change is beginning to gain credibility and legitimacy.
Måns is raising funds on FundedByMe to allow his Kale United to invest directly in and provide other support to startups focused on the vegan community. Investments may go to virtually any player in that ecosystem from the farmers to app developers if they enhance the movement.
For Måns, the important impact of a vegan lifestyle is environmental. He acknowledges that not killing animals to eat them tends to extend their lives and that a vegan diet is recognized by many scientists as being more healthy, but his focus is on the environmental benefits–especially climate change.
Agriculture produces more carbon than any other sector of the global economy. Reducing consumption of meat and dairy has more potential to mitigate climate change than any other change humans can make he says.
Be sure to watch the full interview with Måns in the video player at the top of the article.
Preliminary Interview with Måns Ullerstam, the Founder of Kale United.
The following is a brief pre-interview that provides context for the recorded interview you may watch or listen to at the top of this article.
Måns Ullerstam is a Founder for Kale United.
Crowdfunding page: fundedbyme.com/en/campaign/8363/kale-united/
What is the purpose of your crowdfunding campaign?
We want to work with companies that are actively engaged in making the world a better place, for instance by producing vegan food, or sustainable plant-based clothing, or improving the health of humans. We like companies that have a high impact on the transition to a plant-based world.
We will use the funds from the crowdfunding round to invest in exciting new plant-based businesses, to add to our portfolio (see website for details of current member companies we have invested in).
We have an open application process – the form to apply is on our website. From that point, we carefully select member companies to join our ecosystem, and become stakeholders in selected brands, evaluating companies on how they live up to the 17 UN Sustainability Goals, among other criteria.
We follow guidelines of ethical, sustainable investments by avoiding industries involved in fossil fuels, weapons, animal agriculture, or those that use products derived from animals or cause deforestation and pollution, work with fossil fuels, weapons, alcohol, tobacco, drugs or gambling.
People who support our crowdfunding campaign become shareholders in Kale United and take part in our growth. Kale United will follow the underlying growth of the whole plant-based sector, with an expected return more like a plant-based index. Each individual investor can sell their shares at any time as long as they follow the shareholder agreement.
As we grow our ecosystem, those that participate in the crowdfunding may also be invited to help us in the future decision-making process, for instance helping decide on which brands we could consider next, or even receiving samples of new products from member companies.
The problems Kale United tackles are twofold. Firstly, despite the healthy startup landscape, it is still a challenge for independent businesses to achieve scale in production, distribution, sales and marketing. We want to see more of the best plant-based companies flourish. Working together, Kale United helps them get there faster.
Secondly, there are very few investment opportunities that allow individuals as well as companies and funds to invest ethically and sustainably, let alone in a company owning a portfolio that spans global plant-based industries.
We democratize access to an investment portfolio, making it possible for anyone to be a shareholder in this new high growth sector with ethical and sustainable standards and goals.
In terms of comparable platforms, there are a few plant-based company groups focusing on food production, but not one that is covering the entire plant-based industry. Almost none of them are plant-based only, most of them focusing on healthy foods. There are very few, if any, listed company groups on the public stock exchange that are entirely plant-based.
If you want to invest in the plant-based space, you either have to have a lot of capital and invest in a fund in the US, or you have to find an individual private company and try to be part of their financing round.
We are based in Sweden and believe we can take a unique position in Sweden and Scandinavia. The crowdfunding campaign is open internationally, excluding the USA.
More about Kale United:
Twitter: @mullerstam
Facebook: facebook.com/kaleunited/
Website: kaleunited.com
Kale United is a Swedish company creating a global ecosystem for plant-based businesses to flourish.
Our mission is to increase the global availability and awareness of plant-based products.
We provide our member companies with services that help them grow and become a long-term stakeholder in selected businesses.
We unite a community that believes in a better future with the plant-based brands that are making this a reality.
This crowdfunding round will support the expansion of Kale United and enhance our ability to provide synergies and services to our growing group of member companies.
For-profit or Nonprofit: For-profit
Måns Ullerstam
Måns Ullerstam’s bio:
Twitter: @mullerstam
Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/kaleunited/
Måns is an entrepreneur and experienced investor. For his latest venture, Resolution Games, he raised US$6 million from prominent investors such as Google Ventures. As well as corporate roles heading US$100 million Swedish telco Rebtel, he also founded Neutral World: a carbon footprint comparison shopping site. Måns is a Climate Leader, trained by the former Vice President Al Gore as part of his non-profit organization, Climate Reality, and is passionate about supporting and investing in the plant-based movement. Måns is a vegan since 2015.
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