Ag & Food

Aqua Capital announces the full sale of Puravida to Nestlé Health Science Agribusiness Latin America Management LLC (“Aqua Capital”), as general partner of Agribusiness Latin America Fund II LP and its parallel funds (the "Funds"), is delighted to announce that it has entered into a binding agreement for the sale of 100% of the shares of the Funds’ portfolio company Agro Power Participações S.A. (“Puravida” or “the Company”) to Nestlé Health Science, Nestlé’s health and wellness division. Through its tenure as controlling shareholder of Puravida, Aqua Capital has proven its ability to substantially create value within a short period of time, rapidly scaling up the Company’s sales, structuring its team and processes, and transforming it into a best-in-class player in its segment. This was reflected in the Company’s financial performance: since the Funds’ acquisition in August 2020, Puravida’s sales grew +250%, while maintaining solid Ebitda margins of +20%, despite ongoing economic volatility caused by the pandemic. Aqua Capital assertively implemented its PGTI approach (Professionalize, Grow, Transform and Impact), to create value, including: Professionalizing the Company by hiring a top-notch C-level team and creating an outstanding governance structure; Unlocking several growth levers through data-driven strategic decisions, substantially expanding Puravida’s client and point of sale base; Acquiring and integrating two transformational add-ons acquisitions (Tradal Brazil and PV Lifestyle), that vertically integrated the company’s operation and boosted customer awareness through online content; and Implementing an impact agenda, structuring a professional ESG+I area, setting up the Company to be a B-certified corporation in 2023. This great outcome reinforces Aqua’s initial top-down thesis on health and wellness trends, further accelerated by increasing health awareness brought by the pandemic. The global health and wellness food sector is poised to reach a size of US$ 1.1 trillion by 2027. The closing of the transaction is subject to the approval of the Brazilian anti-trust authority (CADE), among other conditions precedent, and is expected to take place within 90 days from the date hereof. The transaction consists of a full cash-out agreement, with 70% of the equity value to be received upon closing, and the remainder 30% to be received in the next 3 years, adjusted based on formulas linked to the Company’s net revenue and Ebitda of the respective years.   About Puravida Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Brazil, Puravida is a health and wellness digital-native vertically-integrated brand that was born with the mission of bringing health through nutrition. The Company provides a wide range of healthy products, from supplements to superfoods and healthy snacks, with few and easy-to-recognize natural ingredients and a strong lifestyle-focused branding concept. Additionally, it has an omnichannel sales strategy, reaching its customers either via its proprietary e-commerce platform or the main natural and premium retailers in the country. The Aqua Capital team

Aqua Capital has become a signatory to the Operating Principles for Impact Management, and is also proud to announce its support for the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures   Since its founding, Aqua Capital has been at the front and center of the evolution from a more traditional view of ESG as compliance, towards ESG and Impact (ESG+I) as a key driver of value creation. Our topnotch ESG+I program goes beyond established sustainability best practices, and actively seeks to identify and build on multiple dimensions of positive impact, welding together ESG+I with enhanced investment returns. Throughout this letter we aim to shed some light on our overall ESG+I philosophy, which has placed as a leading program in Latin America, and share our most recent advances on this front. First, we are proud to share that Aqua Capital has become a signatory to the Operating Principles for Impact Management (OPIM, www.impactprinciples.org), a framework of principles to ensure that impact considerations are purposefully integrated throughout our investments’ lifecycle, delivering a positive impact on society, without trading off financial returns for our investors. The OPIM were launched in 2019 and developed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) with the collaboration of asset owners, financial managers and development financial institutions among others. As of today, the initiative counts with 149 signatories from 37 countries representing assets of over US$ 422 billion. Additionally, Aqua Capital is also proud to announce its support for the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD, www.fsb-tcfd.org), and that we will adhere to its recommendations and disclosures going forward, confirming our commitment for the climate change agenda through our investment and managerial decisions. The TCFD was created in 2015 by the Financial Stability Board and sets recommendations that help evaluate climate-related risks and opportunities associated within the investment cycle. As of December 2021, the initiative counts with 2,700 supporters from more than 80 countries. The agenda against climate change is becoming ever more urgent, and we believe there will be increasingly an “impact divide” – just as digitalized business models receive higher valuation multiples for offering better future prospects, so will companies adhering to the highest ESG standards, and even more so, those driving impact. At Aqua Capital we believe that it is our responsibility to uphold the highest ESG standards by working proactively and creatively within our investment strategy. These new initiatives continue to build on our ESG program and add momentum towards driving impact. Over the past decade, we have aimed to implement industry-leading ESG standards. This has resulted in substantial industry recognition: Aqua Capital ranks as one of the highest recipients of ESG-related awards by the Latin American Venture Capital Association (LAVCA) in the past six years. Over the past two years, however, our thinking and execution further evolved and led us to articulate a vision of change that marries an impactful “planet and people” agenda with financial returns. We would like to share this philosophy and strategy with you as described below: 1. Force for [...]