Danone

DMV invests directly from Danone's corporate balance sheet rather than raising external LP capital. The fund takes minority equity stakes — typically $2 million to $10 million — in food, beverage, and nutrition-technology startups from seed through Series B stages. This structure allows DMV to operate without the fixed-fund-life constraints of a traditional VC fund, holding positions indefinitely when strategic alignment warrants.

Laurent Marcel serves as CEO of Danone Manifesto Ventures, overseeing deal sourcing, portfolio management, and exits. Marcel operates with a dedicated investment team separate from Danone's corporate development and M&A functions, reporting to the parent company's chief financial and strategy officers. Franck Riboud, as Honorary Chairman, played a formative role in establishing the venture arm but is not involved in day-to-day investment decisions.

While food and beverage startups dominate the portfolio, Danone Manifesto Ventures also invests in digital-health and agri-tech companies that extend Danone's nutrition mission into adjacent categories. The fund has backed companies working on microbiome science, personalized nutrition platforms, and regenerative-agriculture technologies. Pure enterprise software or fintech plays fall outside its mandate unless they directly enable healthier food systems.

Danone Communities, co-founded with Muhammad Yunus, functions as a social business fund entirely separate from DMV's for-profit venture capital activities. Danone Communities invests patient capital into safe drinking-water enterprises in emerging markets through a dedicated governance structure, while the Danone Ecosystem Fund runs as an independent partnership vehicle focused on supply-chain resilience projects. Neither entity co-mingles capital or portfolio companies with DMV.

DMV reserves capital for follow-on rounds in portfolio companies that demonstrate product-market fit within Danone's strategic categories. In several cases — including Michel et Augustin — the parent company has moved from a minority venture stake to full acquisition over multiple years. This pathway from venture investment to eventual absorption into the Danone operating portfolio is an explicit feature of DMV's mandate, though the fund does not require portfolio companies to accept acquisition offers.

DMV concentrates on Western Europe, the United States, and China — regions that align with Danone's largest consumer markets for dairy, plant-based products, and specialized nutrition. The fund has deployed capital across France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and California, with selective exposure in Southeast Asia through co-investments alongside local partners. It does not actively source direct deals in Latin America or Africa through DMV, though Danone's Livelihoods Funds maintain a carbon-finance presence in those regions.

Danone Manifesto Ventures holds B Corp certification — the first corporate venture fund to achieve it — and co-invests alongside Mousse Partners, the Chanel family office, creating a dealflow structure that blends corporate strategic capital with family-office club dynamics. Unlike peer corporate VCs that primarily syndicate with other corporates or traditional VCs, DMV's co-investor relationships and stand-alone certification create a sourcing and governance model that operates closer to an impact-oriented family office than a conventional strategic corporate venturing unit.