Kost Capital, a brand new Danish enterprise capital fund, is out to carry higher meals to extra folks.
Common companion Bodil Sidén began the agency with LPs Kasper Hulthin, Christian Tang-Jespersen, Mark Emil Hermansen and Jacob Lee Ørnstrand.
Kost, which suggests “weight loss program” within the Scandinavian language, nonetheless, it’ll most like be troublesome to stay to 1 whereas working there. That’s as a result of Kost Capital shares house with Kost Studio, a meals growth studio that doubles as a check kitchen for universities and markets to collaborate and develop novel meals merchandise.
Sidén declined to say how a lot of the €25 million was raised to date, however did say backers embrace Danish sovereign fund EIFO and Kost’s founding restricted companions.
Kost Capital invests in pre-seed and seed startups throughout Europe, specializing in B2B inputs in the way forward for meals. It has already made three investments: Estonian palm oil substitute firm Äio, Numi, a French toddler system firm and Danish ingredient firm Nutrumami.
Sidén’s journey to enterprise capital began in a fairly distinctive place. She was in Swedish politics as a member of the Moderates’ nationwide get together board, a press secretary to the Fredrik Reinfeldt authorities and labored for the Swedish ministers.
“I’ve at all times been very enthusiastic about societal change — my mother and father are migrant academics, so I’ve at all times been very a lot uncovered to justice and world points,” Sidén advised TechCrunch. “Then I joined the world of tech, engaged on communications within the Nordics for Uber the place I discovered all the pieces about huge tech and the way you scale tech corporations and marketplaces from an area setting.”
She then partnered with two Uber colleagues to kind a enterprise capital fund in Stockholm that did hands-on firm constructing. For instance working with technical corporations that lacked a technique to commercialize.
After two funds, Sidén acquired into contact with the traders behind Kost, who had been on the lookout for a normal companion to assist construct a platform and setting technique. That’s what they’ve been doing for the previous 12 months with the assistance of senior affiliate Paul Archambeau, she stated.
Kost’s funding thesis takes a nod from Sidén’s political origins and from the notion that meals is powered by the bioeconomy. Acknowledging a rising inhabitants, local weather change, meals waste, well being points and coverage adjustments, Sidén says extra funding is required into meals tech.
“Trying on the 5 coming years, all macrotrends communicate for it, and it’s so beneath invested,” she stated. “In case you take a look at the place the cash has gone, it’s really like logistics and types and never even meals. It’s a large alternative, and hopefully additionally generalist VCs will come again into the house. They took a number of hits at first with plenty of B2C, and it was exhausting to evaluate several types of enterprise fashions, however I feel which may change now.”
That stated, one in all Sidén’s milestones is for Kost to “be one of the best co-investor in Europe” with meals tech and generalist traders on the lookout for a agency with scale-up experience and food-specialized talents.
In the meantime, meals tech is having a second in Europe. Not solely are we seeing larger-than-average investments being made, for instance, into Infinite Roots, which makes proteins from mycelium, however extra funds being raised as properly. This week, Eatable Adventures, an accelerator serving to to create and help meals tech in Spain and Italy, stated it closed on half of a €30 million investment vehicle referred to as Europe Foodtech Acceleration Fund I SCSp.
We’re additionally seeing extra authorities help. For instance, the UK is sinking £2 billion into biotechnology, notably round meals. The European Union has its personal €50 million plans to scale precision fermentation, whereas Aleph Farms was granted regulatory approval in Israel for its cultivated meat.
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