Nestlé invests £340m in funding small businesses

Food giant Nestlé is investing O500m (&£339m) in a new fund that aims to increase the company’s product portfolio and production capability by investing in small, entrepreneurial companies.

The Nestlé Growth Fund, which will be officially launched in the first quarter of next year, will enable the company to invest in “promising businesses in the science and nutrition fields” and build them into mainstream businesses.

A Nestlé spokesman says that the fund will help accelerate its expansion into its core areas of health, wealth and nutrition.

He says: “The fund will help to identify companies that are on the verge of developing new processes or new products and it can then help them grow to a size where they can be acquired, sold or prepared for flotation.”

The fund will be run by Nestlé chief financial officer Wolfgang Reichenberger in a joint venture with Dr Gunnar Weikert, the founder and chairman of Inventages Private Equity Group. Reichenberger has stepped down from his role to oversee the fund on a permanent basis and has been replaced by Paul Polman, former president of Procter & Gamble Europe.

The fund will also allow Nestlé to develop its business expertise without the Nestlé Group having to acquire hun