Kost Capitala new Danish venture capital fund is going to bring better food to more people.
General partner Bodil Sidén started the firm with LPs Kasper Hulthin, Christian Tang-Jespersen, Mark Emil Hermansen and Jacob Lee Ørnstrand.
Kost, which means “diet” in the Norse language, however, will be very difficult to adhere to while working there. That’s because Kost Capital shares space with Kost Studio, a food development studio that acts as a test kitchen for universities and markets to collaborate and develop new food products.
Sidén declined to say how much of the €25m has been raised so far, but said backers include Danish sovereign wealth fund EIFO and Kost’s founding limited partners.
Kost Capital invests in pre-seed and seed startups across Europe, focusing on B2B inputs into the future of food. It has already made three investments: Estonian palm oil replacement company Äio, Numi, a French baby formula company and Danish ingredients company Nutrumami.
Sidén’s journey into venture capital began in a rather unique place. He was on the Swedish political scene as a member of the national council of the Moderate party, press secretary of Fredrik Reinfeldt’s government and worked for the Swedish ministers.
“I’ve always been very passionate about social change — my parents are immigrant teachers, so I’ve always been very exposed to justice and global issues,” Sidén told TechCrunch. “Then I joined the tech world, working in Nordic communications for Uber, where I learned all about big tech and how you scale tech companies and markets from a local environment.”
She then teamed up with two colleagues at Uber to form a venture capital fund in Stockholm that did hands-on company building. For example, working with technical companies that did not have a way to commercialize.
After two funds, Sidén got in touch with the investors behind Kost, who were looking for a general partner to help build a platform and define strategy. That’s what they did last year with the help of senior partner Paul Archambeau, he said.
Kost’s investment thesis takes a nod from Sidén’s political origins and the notion that food is fueled by the bioeconomy. Recognizing the growing population, climate change, food waste, health issues and policy changes, Sidén says more funding is needed for food technology.
“Looking out over the next five years, all the long-term trends are talking about that, and it’s so underwhelming,” he said. “If you look at where the money went, it’s actually like logistics and brands and not even food. It’s a huge opportunity, and hopefully mainstream VCs will come back into the space as well. They took some hits at the beginning with a lot of B2C and it was difficult to evaluate different types of business models, but I think that can change now.”
That said, one of Sidén’s milestones is for Kost to be “the best co-investor in Europe” with food tech investors and general investors looking for a company with scale expertise and specific food capabilities.
Meanwhile, food technology is having a moment in Europe. Not only are we seeing larger-than-average investments in, for example, Infinite Roots, which produces proteins from mycelium, but more capital is being raised. This week, Eatable Adventures, an accelerator helping to create and support food technology in Spain and Italy, said closed in half of the 30 million euro investment vehicle called Europe Foodtech Acceleration Fund I SCSp.
We are also seeing more government support. For example, the United Kingdom is sinking £2 billion in biotechnology, particularly around food. The European Union has its own plans of 50 million euros to scale up precision fermentation, while Aleph Farms received regulatory approval in Israel for its cultured meat.
