摇滚明星做风投，U2主唱投资食品科技初创公司

在成为举世闻名的摇滚明星以前，U2乐队主唱波诺和主吉他手“刀刃”已经合作多年。现在两位音乐人再度携手，但这次是投资食品科技领域。

爱尔兰一家成立两年的初创公司Nuritas本周二宣布，波诺和“刀刃”已入股，但未披露投资金额。Nuritas主要业务是运用人工智能和DNA分析结果，寻找可用于开发营养保健品和药品的食物分子。

Nuritas最近获得欧盟的300万欧元（合370万美元）资金，用于试验并推广突破性预防糖尿病的食品成分。该公司计划未来18个月进行一系列临床试验。有了波诺最近这笔投资，Nuritas爱尔兰本土的员工将增加两倍并继续开拓美国市场，今年稍早公司已在旧金山开设办事处。

其他进入Nuritas的知名投资者包括客户关系管理软件供应商Salesforce的创始人兼首席执行官马克·贝尼奥夫和科技业企业家阿里·帕托威。

波诺和“刀刃”在投资初创公司方面并非新手。2004年，本名保罗·休森的波诺参与创立了私募股权公司Elevation Partners，投资了社交媒体公司Facebook和美国版大众点评网Yelp。这家公司是Facebook的早期投资者，所以Facebook上市后收益约为4300万美元。（真名为大卫·伊凡斯的“刀刃”据称也是Elevation Partners的出资者，但还不清楚具体占比。）波诺还在另一家私募股权公司TPG Capital担任顾问。

2012年，波诺和“刀刃”参与了云存储服务公司Dropbox第二轮2.5亿美元的融资。虽然最近这笔没有Facebook和Dropbox引人瞩目，但贯彻了他们的投资策略。

“刀刃”在声明中对Nuritas的评价是：“我们一直鼓励支持创新，寻找能改变世界的创意，这次投资（Nuritas）很符合我们的理念。” （财富中文网）

作者：Polina Marinova

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林

U2 frontman Bono and lead guitarist The Edge performed together for years until they became world-renowned rock stars. The musicians are now collaborating again, this time as food-tech investors.

The duo has invested an undisclosed amount in two-year-old Irish startup Nuritas, the company announced on Tuesday. Nuritas uses artificial intelligence and DNA analysis to discover food molecules that can be used to develop supplements and drugs.

The company recently received €3 million ($3.7 million) in funding from the European Union to trial and market a breakthrough food ingredient that could be used to prevent diabetes. It plans to roll out a series of clinical trials over the next 18 months. The latest investment will also help Nuritas triple its Irish workforce and continue its U.S. expansion after opening a San Francisco office earlier this year.

Nuritas’s other high-profile investors include Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff and tech entrepreneur Ali Partovi.

Bono and The Edge are no strangers to the startup world. In 2004, Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, co-founded private equity firm Elevation Partners where he invested in companies like Facebook and Yelp. An early investor in Facebook, it’s estimated he walked away with approximately $43 million when the tech company went public. (The Edge, whose real name is David Evans, was reportedly also a benefactor of Elevation Partners, but his level of involvement is unclear.) Bono also served as an adviser to private equity firm TPG Capital.

In 2012, Bono and The Edge poured money in Dropbox’s $250 million second round. Though their newest investment is not as prominent as Facebook or Dropbox, it seems to align with their investment strategy.

“We want to bring forward and support innovative, world-changing ideas so this is a perfect fit,” said The Edge about Nuritas, according to the announcement.