Venturing into the future : exploring venture capitalists' decision-making criteria for cellular agriculture startups

Objective: The objective of the article is to explore the investment decision criteria of venture capitalists (VCs) in the cellular agriculture industry, focusing particularly on the initial screening phase. It seeks to understand the relative importance of various criteria that VCs consider when selecting cellular agriculture ventures for early-stage investment. Research Design & Methods: The research employs a multi-method approach, including expert interviews and a survey-based choice-based conjoint (CBC) experiment. We conducted interviews with investment managers from VC firms, an incubator, and a nonprofit organisation. The CBC experiment involved 44 individual investors, focusing on various investment criteria like entrepreneurial spirit, professional background, and scalability. Findings: The study reveals that in the cellular agriculture sector, investors place the highest importance on scalability, the entrepreneurial spirit of the founding team, and the value-added of the product and technology. Other criteria like the team's track record, proof of concept, degree of competition, and professional background are considered less important. This emphasis on scalability and product value differs from non-industry-specific studies where team-related criteria often dominate. Implications & Recommendations: For new ventures in cellular agriculture, understanding these criteria can help tailor their investment proposals more effectively. For cellular agriculture investors and policymakers, these insights can assist in benchmarking and shaping policies to support industry development. Recommendations for policymakers include funding open-access R&D and creating critical infrastructure. Contribution & Value Added: This article contributes significantly to the field by applying the conjoint study method in the context of finance, which is relatively novel. This approach offers valuable insights that surpass those obtained from traditional surveys, providing a more nuanced understanding of investment decision criteria. It is one of the first to systematically investigate these criteria in the growing area of cellular agriculture. The findings add a new dimension to the 'jockey (entrepreneur) vs horse (product)' debate in venture capital decisions and offer practical guidance for entrepreneurs and investors in this sector, making it a noteworthy addition to entrepreneurial finance and venture capital studies.