Tech investors bet big on food startups

Food seems to be the new big thing for a section of tech savvy investors who pumped in $350 million in start ups in the business over the last year.

A number of food start ups aim to connect restaurants with food lovers, offer on-demand delivery services from local farms, or even invent new foods, like meat and egg substitutes from plants, according to a report by Jenna Wortham and Claire Cain Miller, in  The New York Times.

Though that money is just a fraction of $30 billion that venture capitalists invest annually, it has helped finance a number of food start-ups.

Among the venture capital firms that are helping these businesses are some of the valley's most prominent names, including Khosla Ventures, SV Angel, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, True Ventures and the Obvious Collection. And celebrities are lining up too including Hollywood's Matt Damon, pro football's Tom Brady, and Bill Gates from the tech world.

According to some investors, food-related start-ups fitted rather neatly into their sustainability portfolios, complementing solar energy or electric cars, as they reduced the environmental impact. There are also those keen on tackling a real-world problem, instead of building virtual farming games or figuring out ways to get people to click on ads.

According to Samir Kaul, a partner at Khosla Ventures, which has invested in half a dozen food start-ups, there were pretty significant environmental consequences and health issues associated with sodium or high-fructose corn syrup or eating too much red meat.

He added, he would not bet is money that Cargill or ConAgra would innovate in the field. He added, he thought it was going to take start-ups to do that.