Portage County Legal News

Smucker to partner with Rev1 on food innovations

BRANDON KLEIN
Special to the Legal News
Published: July 10, 2018

Rev1 Ventures and the J.M. Smucker Co. have announced a collaboration to connect with emerging technologies and startups across several areas of the food industry, including ingredient and process technology, snacking, commodity and supply chain.

"Smucker is a visionary in the industry and a leader in Ohio and North America, and we recognize the power of their engagement to attract the best and brightest entrepreneurs," said Tom Walker, chief executive of Rev1 Ventures, in a statement. "Rev1 is committed to working with corporate partners that understand the importance of propelling innovation and doing business with the entrepreneurs creating them. This is a ground-breaking effort to continue Ohio's momentum for driving innovation and furthering startup success."

As a top venture capitalist investor in the Great Lakes region, Rev1 will identify startups to connect with the Smucker company, which is based in Orrville.

While working with Rev1, selected startups will have access to Smucker's more than 120 years of food and beverage experience.

The food and beverage industry sector accounts for 15.3 percent of consumer spending, according to Smucker.

The corporate partnership team includes Walker, Judy Modello, research and development vice president at Smucker; Dan Nowicki, commodities purchasing VP; Alain Marec, Smucker's senior principal scientist of consumer foods; Wayne Embree, executive VP of investments and venture acceleration at Rev1; Mike McCann, corporate patnerships VP; and Andrea Ewing, Rev1's manager of corporate connection and labs.

"The partnership with Rev1 Ventures is a strategic decision to align more closely with the best and brightest innovators and technologies who are helping industries like ours think outside of the box," stated Tina Floyd, senior VP and general manager of consumer foods at Smucker. "By tapping into Rev1's extensive network of entrepreneurs, we can gain access to and more easily adopt technologies for our operations and products, while also driving startup success in our backyard."

Last year Rev1 added $70 million in capital, bringing its total capital under management to $90 million. It funded 83 startups including 28 spinouts from research institutions such as The Ohio State University.

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