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of turning a profit – all of these have led to
a rebalancing of focus and emotional energy amongst investors and employees alike. Tech is no longer the only exciting category to want to work in. Just 10 years ago, for instance, packaged goods were seen as an ‘old’, undesirable category for an ambitious twentysomething; now food and beverage is a vibrant sea of new challengers, with talented management and innovative cultures, encouraged and supported by the retailers.
But is this shift just a temporary trend that will fade as another category takes its place in turn? Or is there something more fundamental about the business context that means we will continue to see this new wave of challengers coming through in categories other than tech?
We asked two different VCs focusing their investment, expertise and conviction behind challenger brands: The Craftory and Verlinvest.
The Craftory: ‘This is a seismic change’
Established in 2018 with £300m of private capital behind it, The Craftory intends to be the ‘P&G of challenger brands’ – that is, invest in and hold a portfolio of challengers, rather than grow and sell them. Its founders, in fact, are putting their money where their mouths are in more ways than one, deliberately building The Craftory to be itself
a challenger brand in the world of investment,
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