Two of the country’s best-known billionaires are backing a Portland startup

 

Neutral Foods, client of Jon Summers, is getting some pretty decent attention!

Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Mark Cuban Companies have invested a combined $4 million in the Portland startup Neutral Foods.

In a news release Wednesday, Neutral said Breakthrough led and Cuban’s fund participated in the round, which pushed the company’s total funding to $4.8 million.

The Business Journal previously reported Neutral’s new funding, which closed in April, but the company had declined to give details about who was backing it.

Neutral sells milk that it says is carbon neutral, accomplished by investing in emissions reductions at dairies and buying offsets. The company was founded in 2019 by Matt Plitch, a former Nike executive.

Breakthrough has been in the news in the Portland area recently as a backer of ESS Inc., the grid-scale battery maker that went public this month. The fund’s stated goal is “to accelerate an energy transition across every sector of the economy.”

“We believe a large number of consumers desire greater control of their climate change purchasing decisions,” Breakthrough business lead Carmichael Roberts said in a statement.

Breakthrough was on board first as a Neutral investor, then came Cuban.

“He’s interested in climate tech and reached out to BEV, which led to him ultimately choosing to make the investment in Neutral,” Kavita Patel, Neutral's marketing VP, said via email.

Cuban called Neutral “a game-changer … that can feed us while protecting us.”

After getting early traction in New Seasons Markets and Metropolitan Market in Oregon and Washington, Neutral went into more than 170 western U.S. Whole Foods stores in August, with distribution to the upscale grocery chain’s 500-plus outlets nationwide set to begin next month.

Plitch stepped down as CEO earlier this for personal reasons, and the company is now led by Marcus Lovell Smith, a veteran startup executive and a New Hampshire dairy farmer.

 
Samantha Gee