Lever VC's team of

Sector

Experts

Who we are

Global experts on the future of protein

Lever VC’s team is made up of diverse expert investors, operators, and scientists with complementary skills and a collective commitment to shaping a sustainable food and agriculture future.

Key members of Lever VC’s investment team have been active investors in the food and agriculture field, since 2014. Members of Lever VC’s investment team have deployed over $500 million and executed over 100 deals (including follow-ons), with stellar multiples on invested capital and exits over the past ten years.

Key members of Lever VC’s investment team have also advised leading companies operating through the value chain, leveraging their expertise in the global food industry.

Lever’s in-house SciTech team has previous commercial and research-based experience in the food tech, bioengineering, materials science, and synthetic biology landscape. This is a key differentiator, enabling deeper company diligence and value add to portfolio companies.

Lever VC's team

Investment Team

Nick Cooney

Managing Partner

Nick Cooney

Managing Partner

Lever VC Founder Nick Cooney has been working in the alternative protein sector for 17 years and investing into the category since 2015. He has invested in over 70 alternative protein deals around the world, and currently serves on the boards of several of Lever VC portfolio companies.

Nick is also the Co-Founder and former Board Chair of the Good Food Institute, the world’s largest non-governmental organization working to grow the alternative protein space. Prior to investing in the category, Nick oversaw teams promoting alternative protein products to consumers and worked with leading food companies on adding more alternative proteins to their offerings. He is based in the greater New York City region.

Thomas Chen

Senior Associate

Thomas Chen

Senior Associate

Thomas joined Lever VC as an associate in 2020. He is a member of the investment team, and works on deal sourcing, conducts due diligence, executes investments and supports portfolio companies.

Prior to that, he was a former investment analyst at Fosun, a large global investment conglomerate with a focus on consumer, healthcare, and financial services sectors. At Fosun he focused on direct investment opportunities in high-technology sectors and was responsible for deal execution.

He holds a M.Sc. in Finance from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is a CFA charter holder.

Yaqi Gao Grover

Partner

Yaqi Gao Grover

Partner

Yaqi Gao Grover was previously a Vice President at Morgan Stanley, where she focused on structured financial transactions. In the role she managed multi-billion-dollar investment portfolios, overseeing risk management, hedging strategy and portfolio allocation. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Yaqi worked as a trader and structurer at Citigroup in, focusing on the development and implementation of novel financial solutions. Prior to joining Lever VC Yaqi had executed over a dozen investments into the alternative protein sector in the U.S. and Asia. She is also the co-founder and Board Chair of plant-based foods company Blackbird Foods, a Lever VC Fund I portfolio company, and an advisor to several other startups in the alternative protein space. Originally from Beijing, she is now based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Dr Jonathan Avesar

Scientific Lead

Dr Jonathan Avesar

Scientific Lead

Dr. Jonathan Avesar joined Lever VC in 2019 and leads all SciTech due diligence. He is an expert in alternative-protein science and technology, specializing in cultivated and fermentation technologies.

Previously, he served as the technical co-founder, Inventor, and Scientist for the biomedical company, Nanosynex, where he continues to provide scientific advisement and R&D input.

He received his Ph.D. from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology under the advisement of Professor Shulamit Levenberg and co-advisement of associate professor Moran Bercovici. His doctoral research took place in a stem cell and tissue engineering lab with a primary focus on angiogenesis; the same lab that hosted the first cultivated meat research project in Israel. During his research, Jonathan also spent a year in Boston as a visiting scientist at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

James Caffyn

Partner

James Caffyn

Partner

James has spent his entire career in the food and drink industry, and is regarded as a sector expert in the animal protein and dairy industries. Prior to joining the Lever VC team, James was the Director of Strategy and Due Diligence for leading consulting firm Gira, running operations globally for this business unit. James has managed strategy projects and investments on the ground across 45 different countries, working with a range of leading players throughout the value chain from farm inputs to major protein and dairy processors and machinery and packaging players. He has expertise across several areas, including procurement, product category expansion and go to market strategies, as well as building out a large number of international expansion strategies, both organic and through acquisition, for leading Food & Ag companies.

He has been involved in the alternative protein space for the last seven years, primarily working with major meat and dairy companies on their expansion into the space, focusing on category selection, R&D and partnership development, GTM strategy, and prospective investment opportunities. James has also worked with several government and legislative bodies on the potential positioning of alternative meat and dairy products in the category and legislation.

James has worked with a number of the leading accelerator programs including IndieBio and Food X, mentoring portfolio companies and assisting them on their expansion strategy, R&D, product development and market selection, as well as giving lectures on topics such as growth strategies and market sizing to start-ups in the food-tech, biotech and ag-tech space.

He has led a number of Lever VC investments, and holds board and chair positions for portfolio companies.

Jasmin Kern

Senior Associate

Jasmin Kern

Senior Associate

Jasmin is a science analyst at Lever VC. She is focused on deal sourcing and evaluating potential investments, and works on the SciTech due diligence for prospective investments. She is currently finishing her degree in Chemistry with a focus on Cellular Agriculture at MIT.

Prior to joining Lever VC, Jasmin spent 8 months working as Tender Foods’ 1st employee to help set up their proprietary fiber spinning technologies and R&D practices. She also spent a summer working in the materials and texture R&D team at Impossible Foods, where she developed an analytical framework for identifying the binding capabilities of textured proteins.

She is the founder and executive director of Nucleate Cultivate, a non-profit student-run organization focused on providing immersive learning experiences for students interested in the alt-protein sector. She hosted the first nationwide cellular agriculture-focused hackathon, Cultivate Tomorrow, for 120 students in 2021. Originally from Frankfurt, she is now based in Boston, MA.

Lawrence Chu

Partner

Lawrence Chu

Partner

Mr. Chu is the Founder and Chairman of BlackPine Group, a Hong Kong-based investment firm that has deployed over $1.5 billion over the past ten years. He is also the co-founder of Asian financial services company Oriente and is non-executive Chairman of Venture Smart, an asset management and financial solutions firm.

In his role at BlackPine, Mr. Chu has invested in prominent Chinese companies such as Lufax, C2F0, WH Group, Evergrande and GCL Polysilicon. He previously worked as a portfolio manager at UBS O’Connor in Hong Kong focusing on Asian investments in real estate, financial institutions and consumer companies. Prior to UBS O’Connor, he was a strategy executive in the Chairman’s office of EMI Music in London. He began his career at UBS Warburg in the technology and M&A investment banking groups in London and Hong Kong.

Mr. Chu is a member of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce and the Hong Kong Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, where he serves on the Venture Committee. He was formerly a non-executive director of AMTD Group Limited, an affiliate of Morgan Stanley and CK Hutchison Holdings, and non-executive director of Quali-Smart Holdings Limited.

Mr. Chu graduated from the University of Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He is a member of the Tate’s Asia-Pacific Acquisitions Committee, a patron of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Council in Beijing, a governor of the Smart Museum Board of Governors and served as a governor of the Alumni Board of Governors at the University of Chicago. He also serves on the board of governors of the Chinese International School as the Chairman of the Finance and Development Committee.

Sze Sze Hsu

Fund Administrator

Nick Cooney

Managing Partner

Nick Cooney

Managing Partner

Yaqi Gao Grover

Partner

Yaqi Gao Grover

Partner

James Caffyn

Partner

James Caffyn

Partner

Lawrence Chu

Partner

Lawrence Chu

Partner

Dr Jonathan Avesar

Science Lead

Dr Jonathan Avesar

Science Lead

Jasmin Kern

Science Associate

Jasmin Kern

Science Associate

Sze Sze Hsu

Fund Administrator

Thomas Chen

Associate

Thomas Chen

Associate

Thomas joined Lever VC as an associate in 2020. He is a member of the investment team, and works on deal sourcing, conducts due diligence, executes investments and supports portfolio companies. Prior to that, he was a former investment analyst at Fosun, a large global investment conglomerate with a focus on consumer, healthcare, and financial services sectors. At Fosun he focused on direct investment opportunities in high-technology sectors and was responsible for deal execution. He holds a M.Sc. in Finance from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is a CFA charter holder.

Additional Team Members

Venture Partners and Key Advisors

Ramzi Schumann

Venture Partner, GCC

David Van Himbergen

Key Advisor

Ronen Bar

Venture Partner, Israel

Nisha Mendelsohn

Key Advisor

Riddhi Shah

Venture Partner, India

Earl Rattray

Key Advisor

Felipe Krelling

Venture Partner, Brazil

Ramzi Schumann

Venture Partner, GCC

Ramzi Schumann

Venture Partner, GCC

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