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Rogier is a former entrepreneur and being passionate about bringing change. Therefore he joined Pymwymic in 2016. Pymwymic Impact Investing is a unique investment cooperative, representing families, family foundations and select individual investors, with a mission to help solve the most pressing global social and environmental problems by making strategic and profitable impact investments.
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Elisabeth is highly committed to supporting emerging businesses in scaling their proposition for transformation in circular & bio based and food & ag. She joined Invest-NL, the government owned investment entity dedicated to funding disruptive businesses and projects that seem impossible to finance.
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Jessica is part of the Media & Research team of AgFunder and contributing to its news site AgFunderNews, dedicated to publishing daily, original news about the burgeoning foodtech and agtech (“agrifoodtech”) startup and venture capital industry. Jessica is a business & finance journalist with a strong interest in impact investing.
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Clemens Rengier is the Founder & CEO of Biorena. Prior to that, he was Junior Partner at McKinsey & Co in which he drove transformations in the eCommerce and logistics sector. Born and raised in the countryside with easy access to high-quality food and a passion for cooking, he founded Biorena to give consumers in the cities the same convenient access to high-quality organic food.
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Kate is Co-Founder and CEO of MicroHarvest, in which she brings together her passion for fermentation, excitement for the future of the agri-food supply chain and an intrinsic drive to change the world for the better. Read more ›
Kate has a dual background in biotechnology and business development. She worked as fermentation scientist leading projects at Corbion, and worked on the scaling of biobased processes at the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant. During her time at Ohly as technical sales and later business development manager she obtained an MBA at Rotterdam School of Management and got a deep understanding of the B2B Ingredients market
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Adam Anders is managing partner at Anterra Capital. Adam has over 15 years experience in private equity and venture capital, having entered the sector as a senior operational executive for several venture capital funded businesses. Adam has held senior roles at Rabobank including as a director of Rabobank Private Equity and the managing director of Rabo Ventures.
Read more ›Prior to this Adam was with Ironbridge Capital, a Private Equity house in Sydney, Australia. Earlier in his career Adam worked as a management consultant with Bain & Co and as a commercial lawyer. Adam is also one of the co-founder of F&A Next.
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Marie joined ECBF in 2021, the first European VC in (circular) bioeconomy exclusively dedicated to scaling growth-stage companies in food and energy contributing to a climate neutral Europe.
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Alloysius launched Farmerline, a Ghanese agribusiness marketplace with a mission to provide farmers with access to quality inputs, fair credit, continuous training and market access to increase their yields and reduce post-harvest loss and to create lasting wealth. Read more ›
Farmerline partnered with over 80 organizations across 26 countries. To date it has served and digitized one million small holder farmers.
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Peter Bakker is personally committed to engaging business in tackling global sustainability issues. In the past decade he has led WBCSD which is the global, CEO-led community, working collectively on system transformations needed for a net zero, nature positive, and equitable future.
Read more ›The focus is on solutions for energy, food systems, nature, living spaces, mobility, circular economy, and social impacts. The Food & Nature Program leads business efforts to accelerate the much-needed system transformation in the areas of food, nature and water. At F&A Next Peter will share his views on what is needed for a radical change and how WBCSD is contributing.
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David is a chemical biologist expert in the synthesis of nanomaterials for biological applications. He is co-inventor of Glaia’s core technology developed during his post-doc at the University of Bristol. In 2019 he left the university and together with Imke Sittel they founded Glaia to bring the photosynthetic enhancement technology to the market. Read more ›
Their technology allows plants to harvest light more efficiently and facilitates the processes involved in biomass production resulting in increased crop yields. Glaia aims to effectively help ensure food security in the future as well as reduce the carbon footprint of agricultural food production.
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At Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Sebastiaan Berendse coordinates and develops activities to generate impact and value added for society. In addition to research and education, value creation is the third core task of WUR and focuses on generating impact through application in practice. Read more ›
Sebastiaan is responsible for startup and spin-off policy, knowledge transfer & IP services, Sharing Research Facilities and Wageningen Campus development. His passion is to have a personal impact on global challenges including circular, protein & energy transitions.
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After some 20 years in various retail positions, lastly as President & CEO of Ahold Delhaize, Dick Boer joined the Global Board of Nestle on the back of his extensive experience in food retail and e-commerce. As member of the Sustainability Committee, he is actively involved in the related initiatives of Nestle.
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The Sustainability Consortium, initiated by Walmart, is a global non-profit organization transforming the consumer goods industry to deliver more sustainable consumer products. Koen Boone is the Managing Director for Europe for TSC expanding its initiatives in food & agriculture and beverage in Europe. He is also a staff member at Wageningen University and Research.
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Alon is co-founder of Tastewise, the AI platform used by CPGs and ingredients producers to make smarter decisions for a healthy, sustainable, and delicious products. By sharing sales, marketing data and insights, data food processors need to make an impact on the market Read more ›
basing decisions on datapoints pulled from global data sources including social media, home cooking analytics and millions of restaurants and their menu items.
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Jacqui has over 28 years of experience in global agriculture and during her career she developed a strong passion for new technology innovation. By combining R&D skills and a thorough understanding of production and supply chains, Jacqui gained deep experience in scaling technology from an idea in the lab to both commercial production and product in the field, Read more ›
supporting Syngenta in its ambition to develop innovative solutions for farmers and nature, striving for carbon neutral agriculture.
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Michelle joined Tattarang in 2019, one of Australia’s largest private investment groups and is owned by the Forrest family. Tattarang is known for its long term investment horizon. Its investment portfolio, a combination of direct and fund investments, spans across agri-food, energy, resources, property and lifestyle.
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Tijl is a seasoned, hands-on investment professional driven to coach entrepreneurs in scaling their ventures for a lasting contribution to a sustainable food & ag value chain.
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Francisco deeply believes that entrepreneurship is the answer to humanity’s gravest challenges. In 2007 he founded SP Ventures to back game-changing, tech focused entrepreneurs throughout the food & ag value chain in Latin America.
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Mark co-founded Omnivore, the first Indian VC, pioneering agri-tech investing by funding entrepreneurs building the future of sustainable agriculture and food systems in India, transforming food systems across the country, impacting the lives of smallholder farmers and rural communities
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In 2016 Jeroen Leffelaar, representing Rabobank, co-founded F&A Next with like minded peers at Wageningen University & Research, Anterra Capital and StartLife. All motivated by the wish to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship in food & agriculture. Since its first edition Jeroen has taken ownership of programming and partnerships. Read more ›
After departing Rabobank in autumn 2021, he continued advising early stage businesses on capital raising and scaling as well as contributing to 2022 edition of F&A Next.
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Niccolò has been investing in Food Tech and alternative proteins since 2014. In 2016 he founded Five Seasons Ventures, the first European impact venture fund focused on FoodTech. The team of food investors and food industry experts back entrepreneurs with consumer food products and services with quantifiable impact on the planet and human health.
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Clare has a background in sustainable investing, across public and private markets on ESG integration, investment solutions targeting environmental and social outcomes alongside financial returns. She co-founded Blume Equity to invest in purpose-driven entrepreneurs transforming food and health systems for a more sustainable world.
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The research initiatives of of prof. William Chen focus on food technology and food security including zero food waste processing and circular food. To date it resulted in numerous joint R&D with food industry and government agencies.
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Birgit Dekkers is a former WUR PhD student who successfully turned an academic research project on shear cell technology for structuring plant proteins into a promising business. Rival foods creates whole-cut products for branded food companies active in plant-based protein markets who aim to expand their product offering horizontally
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Ernst van den Ende is an agricultural engineer, plant scientist and PhD, with an ambition to drive innovation for sustainable food production. After a longstanding career in Plant Science working on sustainable agriculture and horticulture, Ernst recently accepted the opportunity to manage the Animal Science Group of Wageningen University & Research to deliver on a a sustainable perspective for agriculture and fisheries, nature, economy, and society. -
For many Tony Fadell is known as the “father of the iPod”, co-creator of the iPhone and the Nest Learning Thermostat. Today, Tony is the Principal at Future Shape, a global investment and advisory firm coaching 200+ deep tech startups that are changing the world. Additionally Tony made a series of investments in food & agriculture, an industry close to his heart. Read more ›
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Maartje is passionate about innovative food distribution, getting the best food efficiently delivered to consumers. After founding and scaling HelloFresh in the Netherlands and France, Maartje moved on to focus on alternative forms of food delivery. Read more ›
Recently she advised Flink and Butternut Box. Additionally, Maartje serves on the Supervisory Board of Plus Retail.
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Florentine is known for her strong personal commitment to contribute to the success of societal and sustainable businesses. As an early-stage investor, she combines her broad financial expertise and analytical skills with a hands-on way of working and backing companies throughout growth, with in-depth knowledge and network.
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Frank is one of the first movers in plant-based proteins. In 2009, he co-founded Ojah with the ambition to inspire people around the globe to consume plant proteins. By texturizing plant proteins by high moisture extrusion processing, Ojah created a revolutionary vegetable meat-like substitute with a particular ‘bite’ and texture, more juicy than chicken and more tender than pork. Read more ›
The dream of Ojah’s founders came through, alternative proteins have become indispensable. Ojah itself has shown a strong international growth since its foundation. To some degree thanks to pitching at F&A Next 2016, when Frank met Belgian investor Korys which supported Ojah to a next level.
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After a longstanding career in food ingredients, Yoni switched to foodtech to contribute to a better food system. In this respect he joined the alternative investment fund PeakBridge as Managing Director of FoodSparks, sharing his experience and expertise with promising early stage food businesses.
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Galina is a co-founder of Crocus Labs, a Berlin-based startup creating smart lighting solutions that halve the energy demand of indoor farms. Galina brings a mix of corporate experience in procurement (Nike, KraftHeinz), co-founding a tech startup on her own in 2020, backed up by Antler VC, and supporting the leadership of a series-A startup as Entrepreneur in Residence. Her superpowers are storytelling and creativity. -
Gary is CEO and co-founder of FutureCrops, a vertical farm using a proprietary soil-based substrate in its indoor setups, as opposed to the more widely recognized ‘soilless’ systems used by peers. Future Crops believes that soil is the natural environment that plants and roots need to grow ideally, Read more ›
making the growing process closer to nature, more stable than hydroponics systems and in many cases resulting in better quality, taste, and flavor profile, as well as increased shelf life.
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Trey is a third generation family farmer pioneering new digital farming techniques to optimize traditional farming practices with creativity and innovation for sustainable agriculture. Trey is strong believer in climate smart farming including cover crops and no-till techniques for carbon sequestration, healthier soils and better biodiversity.
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Iris Houthoff is founder and director of Mylium, a Dutch start-up in Wageningen (NL) that produces new textiles from mycelium grown in bioreactors, enabling to produce at large scale. Mylium offers the planet biobased and circular alternatives for (synthetic) leather. Iris drives both the commercial and strategic development.
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Spencer, with a longstanding career in venture capital, is passionate about scaling technologies and enabling entrepreneurs to transform food & agriculture. His focus has been centered on technology-driven companies that intersect with sustainability, highly motivated to make change for good.
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Anna joined Vestaron as CEO in 2018, as a seasoned entrepreneur bringing more than a decade of experience across multiple venture-backed ag-tech companies. Vestaron developed effective biological insecticide technology providing new technology with a unique mode of action in a biological solution equal to, and often better, than the synthetic options to overcome resistance without sacrificing performance or safety for the sustainability of farms, farmers and the planet. Read more ›
Its solutions are changing the approach to integrated pest management strategies.
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Juliana is the founder and director of Cano-ela, the company producing the next generation of plant based ingredients. Being a food-tech and scientist entrepreneur, she is an all-round lead figure on the healthy and sustainable food transformation. Her scientific expertise boosts her innovation and supports the efficient design of products with functional and no refined ingredients.
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In 2014, Pablo Borquez Schwarzbeck founded ProducePay as he experienced that cash flow is often a key constraint across the produce supply chain. ProducePay is contributing to a better supply chain by strengthening relationships and trust between growers, shippers, retailers, and consumers of fresh produce. Read more ›
Thanks to a digital market place retailers and other buyers can get access to thousands of verified growers across the US and Latin America, with updated information about their operations including certification, production capacity, financial health and price data. Following transactions over the platform, ProducePay can offer dedicated pre-harvest financing to growers and immediate payment upon receipt of the produce by the buyer.
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Roland is a member of the Global Protein Leadership Team with ADM focusing on innovation and business development for alternative proteins and plant-based meat alternatives. ADM is scaling its position in alternative proteins. Read more ›
By expanding production capacity and enhancing innovation center it will bring together labs, test kitchens, and pilot-scale production capabilities to work with clients on efficient processing of novel ingredients.
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