Marubeni, one of Japan’s major trading businesses, has entered an investment deal with KitchenTown, a Silicon Valley-based culinary start-up incubator. The arrangement, inked on April 13, 2023, will help KitchenTown expand its consulting and incubator services. In addition, the firms plan to work together to help Japanese entrepreneurs join the US market and American startups expand throughout Asia.
This investment is significant because startups are increasingly driving growth in the global economy. Startups create new value and often challenge conventional wisdom. However, these early-stage ventures often face significant hurdles in developing products, commercialization, brand strategy, etc. That is where incubators, such as KitchenTown, play a critical role in providing these entrepreneurs with resources, expertise, and support.
“Our investment in KitchenTown will further access these services and touch even more food and food tech corporations in both the United States and Japan,” says Takanori Koso, General Manager of Marubeni’s Food Products Materials Department.
According to Rusty Schwartz, CEO of KitchenTown, the global concerns confronting the food business, such as climate change, nutrition, and health disparities, motivate entrepreneurs to develop a new generation of more sustainable, affordable, and healthful products and meals. Consumers are also becoming more aware of these concerns and demanding that food firms take responsible action. KitchenTown will be better financed and positioned to empower entrepreneurs to make a difference due to Marubeni’s investment.
This is not the first time KitchenTown and Marubeni have collaborated. The two firms worked together in 2021 to create, market, and launch a new product. The project’s success indicated a strategic potential for additional collaboration to assist the expansion of entrepreneurs and food firms striving to tackle social concerns through food innovation.
With this arrangement, Marubeni’s worldwide network and KitchenTown’s specific expertise and experience with food entrepreneurs will work together to generate commercial and social impact by assisting food and food tech innovators. This is another example of how huge organizations and creative entrepreneurs collaborate to promote food sector development and transformation.
Image provided by KitchenTown
