FOOD FOUNDERS Studio has raised an oversubscribed €4 million ($4.5 million) round from family offices and angel investors to build its portfolio’s next two startups. The Switzerland-based venture studio builds foodtech companies around the needs of major manufacturers and their biggest current challenges in food production.
This departs from many approaches to foodtech innovation to date, says cofounder Giacomo Cattaneo. “We could spend hours debating what foodtech has been in the last decade, but I think we can all agree that there has been a lot of technology for technology’s sake to excite investors, but not necessarily excite the industry or the consumers.”
To remedy that, FOOD FOUNDERS first examines the problems at hand and possible technologies that could help solve them. These may be mere “seeds of opportunity” when FOOD FOUNDERS lands on them and starts building an actual business. Only then does it bring in founders and CEOs.
“We build startups for the purpose of bringing that technology to the market,” explains Cattaneo. “We do all of this problem definition upfront, and we keep the corporates engaged in our process of venture building. Once we build the company, the customer is already there.”
For example, its initial company, SentiaNova, emerged from stealth earlier this year to address the “off-flavors” frequently found in pulse proteins. SentiaNova now has patented tech to remove these flavors and improve the overall functionality of pulse proteins. The studio recently recruited a CEO, and the company is now working towards commercial production and closing its own funding round.
The corporate R&D opportunity
Initially, FOOD FOUNDERS sourced ideas solely from academia, believing innovation often gets stuck within the walls of universities. In Europe, where there is “no patent culture at all,” this is especially true, says Cattaneo.
Moving forward, the company will widen its selection pool to include not just universities but also corporate R&D teams and startups whose concepts and technologies are compelling but haven’t yet found the right market (“IP that deserves a second chance,” as Cattaneo calls it).
Corporates, in particular, have seen in-house R&D budgets whittled away in recent years, opening opportunities for startups and venture studios like FOOD FOUNDERS.
“These large companies have to source their competitive edge from somewhere, and if it’s not coming from internal R&D anymore, it’s going to have to come from the outside,” says Cattaneo.
In both cases, the Studio will assess the opportunities against the same industrial, technical, and commercial criteria it applies to university research.
The firm’s main focus right now is “B2B foodtech,” specifically in areas like improving taste, texture, affordability, and nutritional makeup of foods. Cattaneo names proteins, fibers, and fats as possible innovation areas.
He says the selection process at FOOD FOUNDERS is technology agnostic, though for the moment the studio is avoiding capex-heavy areas like fermentation or cultivated meat, which also come with a long regulatory pathway.
“We want to be fast. We want to work with what the industry needs right now.”
Food ‘will have to keep reinventing itself’
The new funding will allow FOOD FOUNDERS to build its next two startups, for which it is actively looking for founders and CEOs.
“We’re looking for somebody to truly own this opportunity and bring it to heights that we would never be able to do ourselves,” says Cattaneo.
Beyond these next two startups, FOOD FOUNDERS is just beginning to consider the scope of Studio 2.0, which it says could potentially include areas like agriculture, health, and longevity.
Cattaneo remains firm in his belief that foodtech has a big role to play in the future.
“It’s an old industry that will survive, and it will have to keep innovating itself,” he says of the food industry.
“The foodtech market has learned a hard lesson: a promising technology is only the beginning,” he adds. “You need a problem the industry cares enough to solve, technology you can build a business around, and the right people to take it into the market. We bring those pieces together when the company is created. The customer is already there, giving the solution a bigger chance of success and impact.”
