Agrifood
A look into the bottlenecks - How we make the second food revolution fundable
Approach
Business DevelopmentDate
December 10, 2024Reading time
7 minutesThe Netherlands aims to be circular by 2050. The path to a circular economy faces many bottlenecks, which Invest-NL helps to resolve. Ultimately, it is nothing less than a societal transition.
Mismatch
The scaling issues mainly stem from the uneven distribution of market power in the agrifood sector. "When it comes to regenerative agriculture, you mainly find large, established players at the beginning and end of the chain with significant influence," explains Nina Waldhauer, senior business development manager Agrifood at Invest-NL. “At the start, there are seed breeders and fertiliser producers, and at the end, food manufacturers and purchasing organisations for supermarket chains. The players in between are much smaller: the farmers, both conventional farmers and innovative pioneers."
Similarly, among startups focusing on alternative proteins, there is a mismatch between the larger and smaller players, which manifests across various areas. Nina: "Many of these startups have been developed at a university, from an experimental field, or in a lab setting. But if they want to get their product into the supermarket, they need to meet a minimum production size or be able to supply year-round. And they cannot do that immediately."
Seaweed Farm North Sea Farmers
Connecting role
Invest-NL also plays a role as a coalition builder. "At Re-Ge-NL, which works with farmers on the transition to regenerative agriculture, we lead the financial working group," says Nina. "We look at how we can finance the sector differently and how to improve the earning model for regenerative farmers. Additionally, we have developed a “scaling table” on how to finance scaling up. Each company needs its own investor mix, and for that, we literally bring all investors and the company together around the table."
Finally, startups that want to test their technology benefit greatly from shared production locations, pilot plants, and test facilities. "Such “shared facilities” are often too expensive for these companies," says Michiel. "Furthermore, there are many regional initiatives that are offered in a very fragmented manner. We want to connect these much more to improve collaboration and accessibility."
Questions about this topic? Nina is happy to help.
Nina Waldhauer
sr. business development manager
