# Ryan Bethencourt

> Ryan Bethencourt is a pre-seed investor at Sustainable Food Ventures backing Biotechnology. See 16 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Sustainable Food Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sustainable-food-ventures)
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 16
- Last investment: May 2023
- Lead investor: 19%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bethencourt
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/RyanBethencourt
- Website: https://x.com/RyanBethencourt
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ryan.bethencourt

Ryan Bethencourt is a pre-seed investor at Sustainable Food Ventures in San Francisco focused on Biotechnology and Food Processing. Ryan is a co-founder and CEO at Wild Earth and a co-founder and Partner at Sustainable Food Ventures, bringing years of experience in leading, building and advising high-growth food and biotechnology companies. Ryan is a biotech entrepreneur, investor, and one of the founders of the biohacker movement. He’s a co-founder and former Program Directorat IndieBio and has invested in over 130 early stage biotech startups and served as the head of life sciences at the XPRIZE Foundation. As an ethical vegan, Ryan is passionate about the future of biology as a technology, applied across all industries to solve some of humanity’s most intractable problems. Ryan fosters dogs for Rocket Dog Rescue and is passionate about mindfulness, meditation, and mentoring. His work at the interface of science, food, and business has been covered by many major publications.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $100k–$4.6M |
| Pre-Seed | $100k–$945k |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Biotechnology | 5 | 31% |
| Food Processing | 5 | 31% |
| Food and Beverage | 4 | 25% |
| Wellness | 2 | 13% |
| Nutrition | 2 | 13% |

15 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pre-Seed | 7 | 44% |
| Seed | 4 | 25% |
| Angel | 3 | 19% |
| Series A | 1 | 6% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 6% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 5 | 31% |
| Chile | 1 | 6% |
| India | 1 | 6% |
| Spain | 1 | 6% |
| Nigeria | 1 | 6% |

7 countries tracked in total.

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sobo Foods | Sobo Foods is a plant based comfort food provider. | $1M | Angel | May 08, 2023 |  |
| Sobo Foods | Sobo Foods is a plant based comfort food provider. | $1M | Seed | May 08, 2023 |  |
| High Time Foods | High Time Foods provides shelf-stable and moldable plant-based meat alternatives to foodservice operators. Their first product is a plant-based chicken alternative that does not require refrigeration. The product is moldable and can be used in any cuisine as a substitute for chicken. | $355K |  | May 18, 2022 |  |
| High Time Foods | High Time Foods provides shelf-stable and moldable plant-based meat alternatives to foodservice operators. Their first product is a plant-based chicken alternative that does not require refrigeration. The product is moldable and can be used in any cuisine as a substitute for chicken. | $355K | Pre-Seed | May 18, 2022 |  |
| WTH Foods | WTH Foods is a plant-based alternative protein company based in Manila, Philippines. Using local and sustainable ingredients, we create plant-based versions of processed meat products that Southeast Asian love | $1.2M | Seed | Oct 27, 2021 |  |
| Evo Foods | Evo Foods is a food processing company that manufactures and produces a delicious and fluffy plant-based egg alternative. Its first product is a 100% plant-based liquid egg made from lentil protein that contains no cholesterol or antibiotics. The company is using cutting-edge science and technology to develop the next generation of plant-basedalternatives to animal products. Its plant-based liquid egg is created with the startup's proprietary patent-pending technology and indigenous Indian ingredients such as moong beans and peas. | $945K | Pre-Seed | Apr 19, 2021 |  |
| Veggie Victory | VeggieVictory is Nigeria’s first plant-based food tech company bringing people a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle through plant-based meats and meals. | $100K | Pre-Seed | Feb 12, 2021 |  |
| Libre Foods | Libre Foods is a biotech startup on a mission to liberate the food system and create a more free future for people, the planet, and animals. The company was founded in 2020 and is based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. | $300K | Pre-Seed | Jan 01, 2021 |  |
| MeliBio | MeliBio is a technology-based company focusing on plant biology, precision fermentation, and food science that replaces honeybees with microorganisms as a medium for honey production. The company was founded in 2020 by Aaron M. Schaller, PhD and Darko Mandich and is headquartered in Oakland, California, United States. TIME named MeliBio'sapproach in making honey without bees as Best Inventions 2021. In 2023, MeliBio launched consumer-facing brand Mellody. | $325K | Pre-Seed | Dec 18, 2020 |  |
| BioAesthetics | BioAesthetics was founded in 2015 as a Tulane University spin-out with the mission to improve reconstruction options for breast cancer patients after they undergo mastectomies. The BioAesthetics’ initial product is a tissue-engineered nipple-areolar complex (NAC). This product will be provided to plastic and reconstructive surgeons as anoff-the-shelf ready, acellular, NAC graft. During the breast reconstruction phase, after a mastectomy, the surgeon would engraft the NAC graft in position onto the patient’s reconstructed breast. The patient’s body would then use this NAC graft as a building frame to regenerate their own NAC. This patent-pending product is currently in the pre-clinical phase. | $6.4M | Series A | Oct 05, 2020 |  |

10 of 16 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Big Idea Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/big-idea-ventures) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Capital V](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/capital-v) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Boom Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/boom-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Kale United](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kale-invest) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [SOSV SF & NY (Fka IndieBio)](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/synbio-axlr8r) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [18.ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/18-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Sustainable Food Ventures

VC Fund · Raleigh, United States

SFV backs globally early-stage founders building leading Future of Food companies that are: #Cell-based #Plant-based #Recombinant

2 contacts available at Sustainable Food Ventures.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Mariliis Holm | Co-Founder and Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mariliis-holm |
| Ryan Bethencourt | Co-founder and Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ryan-bethencourt |

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## FAQ

### What does Ryan Bethencourt invest in?

Ryan Bethencourt invests primarily in Biotechnology, Food Processing and Food and Beverage startups, most often at Pre-Seed and Seed stage. Most of the 16 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Ryan Bethencourt's check size?

Ryan Bethencourt typically joins rounds of $100k–$4.6M at Seed and $100k–$945k at Pre-Seed. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Ryan Bethencourt participates in.

### When did Ryan Bethencourt last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Ryan Bethencourt closed in May 2023. Shizune tracks 16 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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