在成為舉世聞名的搖滾明星以前，U2樂(lè)隊(duì)主唱波諾和主吉他手“刀刃”已經(jīng)合作多年。現(xiàn)在兩位音樂(lè)人再度攜手，但這次是投資食品科技領(lǐng)域。

愛(ài)爾蘭一家成立兩年的初創(chuàng)公司Nuritas本周二宣布，波諾和“刀刃”已入股，但未披露投資金額。Nuritas主要業(yè)務(wù)是運(yùn)用人工智能和DNA分析結(jié)果，尋找可用于開(kāi)發(fā)營(yíng)養(yǎng)保健品和藥品的食物分子。

Nuritas最近獲得歐盟的300萬(wàn)歐元（合370萬(wàn)美元）資金，用于試驗(yàn)并推廣突破性預(yù)防糖尿病的食品成分。該公司計(jì)劃未來(lái)18個(gè)月進(jìn)行一系列臨床試驗(yàn)。有了波諾最近這筆投資，Nuritas愛(ài)爾蘭本土的員工將增加兩倍并繼續(xù)開(kāi)拓美國(guó)市場(chǎng)，今年稍早公司已在舊金山開(kāi)設(shè)辦事處。

其他進(jìn)入Nuritas的知名投資者包括客戶(hù)關(guān)系管理軟件供應(yīng)商Salesforce的創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官馬克·貝尼奧夫和科技業(yè)企業(yè)家阿里·帕托威。

波諾和“刀刃”在投資初創(chuàng)公司方面并非新手。2004年，本名保羅·休森的波諾參與創(chuàng)立了私募股權(quán)公司Elevation Partners，投資了社交媒體公司Facebook和美國(guó)版大眾點(diǎn)評(píng)網(wǎng)Yelp。這家公司是Facebook的早期投資者，所以Facebook上市后收益約為4300萬(wàn)美元。（真名為大衛(wèi)·伊凡斯的“刀刃”據(jù)稱(chēng)也是Elevation Partners的出資者，但還不清楚具體占比。）波諾還在另一家私募股權(quán)公司TPG Capital擔(dān)任顧問(wèn)。

2012年，波諾和“刀刃”參與了云存儲(chǔ)服務(wù)公司Dropbox第二輪2.5億美元的融資。雖然最近這筆沒(méi)有Facebook和Dropbox引人矚目，但貫徹了他們的投資策略。

“刀刃”在聲明中對(duì)Nuritas的評(píng)價(jià)是：“我們一直鼓勵(lì)支持創(chuàng)新，尋找能改變世界的創(chuàng)意，這次投資（Nuritas）很符合我們的理念?！?（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

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作者：Polina Marinova

譯者：Pessy

審校：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.