Evolv Ventures

Bill Pescatello, the Managing Partner, leads the investment team. He has check-writing authority and built the fund's team from Chicago with a mandate to operate independently of Kraft Heinz headquarters. The investment committee is structured to move at market speed without requiring parent-company sign-off on individual deals.

Evolv operates with permanent capital rather than a balance-sheet allocation that can be cut during earnings pressure. Unlike most corporate VCs, the firm does not require portfolio companies to have a strategic relationship with Kraft Heinz. The fund was deliberately structured in 2017 to function like an independent financial VC, with its own offices, compensation model, and investment timeline measured in decades, not quarters.

Yes. Because Evolv was designed without a strategic-only mandate, it can back founders whose technologies compete with or bypass Kraft Heinz's legacy supply chains. Pescatello has publicly positioned the fund as a hedge — if the food system changes, Kraft Heinz's ownership of Evolv gives it an early look at what's coming, even from companies that never become customers or acquisition targets.

Evolv focuses on early-stage companies, typically seed and Series A rounds, occasionally participating in later rounds for existing portfolio companies. The fund leads or co-leads rounds and takes board seats. Check sizes are consistent with a $100 million fund targeting first-institutional-capital positions.

The fund's thesis covers the full food value chain: supply chain and logistics software, alternative proteins and ingredient science, direct-to-consumer food brands, food waste reduction technologies, and grocery retail technology. Portfolio companies include Afresh (AI for grocery fresh-department inventory), Grin (Latin American last-mile logistics), and Meati Foods (mycelium-based alternative protein).

Evolv Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Kraft Heinz, established in 2017 with $100 million in committed capital. It is a wholly owned subsidiary but operates from separate offices in Chicago with independent investment authority. Kraft Heinz does not control day-to-day investment decisions, and the fund's performance is measured on venture-style returns, not parent-company strategic metrics.

Yes. Evolv regularly co-invests with financial VCs and strategic food-and-ag investors. For example, in Meati Foods' $115 million Series B in 2023, Evolv participated alongside Revolution Growth, Grosvenor Food & AgTech, and others. The firm's corporate parentage gives it a differentiated co-investor profile — founders can access Kraft Heinz's expertise without forfeiting commercial independence.