Unilever Ventures (UV) is the global VC arm of Unilever. UV invests in early stage companies which could:
- Become strategically relevant to Unilever,
- Benefit from access to Unilever’s assets and capabilities,or
- Provide strategic products/services to Unilever.

UV focuses its investments on:
- Personal Care,
- Digital Marketing,
- Refreshment, and
- Technology that could be deployed to help Unilever’s sustainability mission.

UV invests funds of various sizes:
- Small amounts (€100,000-€500,000) in companies where the value proposition is still being proven, and
- Larger amounts (up to €10M in stages) to fund expansion.

UV invests in companies in the following stages of development:
- Start-up capital – UV provides strategic and business planning advice and can help assemble high quality management teams around exciting new business propositions. These opportunities will typically originate from within Unilever and typically use Unilever IP or brands.
- Expansion / Development capital – UV invests in more established businesses that require funding to accelerate growth.
- Buyouts – UV considers buy-outs as a lead or co-investor in businesses with a capitalisation of up to €50M. Companies must fit UV's investment criteria either as stand-alone investments or as strategic additions to one of its existing portfolio companies.

Notable investments include: Brandtone (mobile marketing), Brainjuicer (online market research consultancy), Froosh AB (Scandinavian smoothie), Voltea Limited (water treatment) and Yummly (semantic search engine for food, cooking and recipes).