We Connect. We Mentor. We Invest.
Dao Foods is an impact-oriented investment and advocacy firm that invests in and supports plant-based and alternative protein companies based in China and focused on the Chinese market, as well as non-Chinese companies that have some strategic value to China. Our mandate is to support entrepreneurs that can play a role in capturing the mind and wallet shares of mainstream Chinese consumers, serving as their investor, their cheerleader and their value-added partner.
Ecosystem Building
The plant-based meat and alternative protein sector in China is still nascent, so Dao Foods plays an ecosystem building role by running several programs that engage and convene the various stakeholders required to build the industry.
Investing
Dao Foods has set up its Venture Fund I to identify and invest in promising China-focused alternative protein ventures. Dao Foods so far has built a well-balanced portfolio of trailblazing alternative protein start-up companies that are committed to exploring various pathways to develop and scale up adoption of alternative protein products in China and for China.
Mentorship
Dao Foods assists entrepreneurs through its extensive cross-border network of mentors in all areas of business development and market growth through the Dao Foods Incubator.
Tao Zhang • Co-Founder
A co-founder of Dao Foods International, Tao is also founder and managing director of Dao Ventures, a cross-border impact investment, advisory and accelerator group whose China Impact Fund (CIF) was considered China’s first impact fund specializing in supporting environmental SMEs. Prior to this, he was the Global COO of New Ventures, the center of environmental entrepreneurship at the World Resources Institute, where he led the organization’s office in Washington, D.C. and helped its local centers in Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, and Mexico double their collective investments to nearly $400 million within two years. Tao also has extensive investment and operational experiences in the telecom and high-tech sector, through roles as assistant president of Asia-Pac at Convergys and leadership roles in strategic venture investments in Asia at Verizon. Tao began his career as a European Union economic affairs correspondent with China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency and also advised Chinese government entities on international economic and commercial policies. He received a B.A. from Beijing Foreign Studies University, an MBA from Wake Forest University, and an MPA from Harvard University as a Mason Fellow.
Albert Tseng • Co-Founder
Albert is passionate about utilizing the power of business to address important social issues. Albert has over 20 years experience spanning from impact investment and social enterprise in international development to business development and management consulting in medical technology. Albert is founder of Moonspire Social Ventures which invests in social enterprises and funds that have business models that impact the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Albert also served as COO of a social enterprise in the global health area (BlueDot) that he helped through seed and Series A rounds and growth from 5 people to 50 people in a few short years. This startup was venture financed by Horizons Ventures in Hong Kong which had also funded Impossible Foods, JUST, Perfect Day, and Modern Meadow and it is through these companies that Albert learned of the negative environmental and health consequences of industrial animal agriculture and the potential of food companies to change the food system. Albert has an MPA from Harvard University, an MHSc. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and a BASc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Founding Partners
Unovis Asset Management
Unovis Asset Management (formerly New Crop Capital) is a specialized private venture capital fund. Unovis invests in talented, focused entrepreneurs whose products or services replace foods derived from conventional animal agriculture, which they view as an antiquated and inefficient food production system with serious vulnerabilities. The meat, egg, and dairy sectors represent a $700 billion global market that is ripe for innovation and large-scale disruption.
Good Food Institute
The Good Food Institute (GFI) is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has a team of scientists, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and lobbyists, all of whom are laser focused on using markets and food technology to transform our food system away from factory farmed animal products and toward clean meat and plant-based alternatives.
Behind Our Name
Aside from phonetic similarity of its English name Dao Foods, our Chinese name 道夫子 originates from a sentence in the Chinese masterpiece, The Analects of Confucius, "Confucius' way is loyalty and forgiveness only."
Loyalty and forgiveness are the vital content of Confucianism. Loyalty means to work for others with a full heart; forgiveness means to consider others in one's place.
Basically our name well illustrates the impact logic of Dao Foods, i.e., be loyal to the earth and environment where we live and be kind to the animals living on the planet.