Astanor Ventures

Fresh Ventures is a venture building program and startup studio based in The Netherlands. We co-found companies with experienced professionals and entrepreneurs to address systemic challenges in the food system. Unlocking transformational potential Fresh is starting off with a focus on cultivation and production systems--the beginning of the chain where most of the impacts and challenges can be found. Building systemic ventures in these areas involves addressing critical barriers and unlocking key capacities that enable the broader sector to shift to a fundamentally sustainable state. Terrestrial Agriculture: Accelerating the transition to fully regenerative and climate-smart agriculture, combined with evolving horticulture and indoor production systems. Aquatic Agriculture: Utilizing our oceans, lakes, and rivers to support the sustainable production of food and biomass while regenerating ecosystems. Looking for: Future Founders! We are looking for people with the ambition to transform our food system and the entrepreneurial itch to address the world's most critical challenges by founding a new venture with us. Mission-drive: Working with Fresh means you have a tremendous, primary drive to change the food system. Ventures to us are not a goal in itself but a means to an end. The drive of our founders is informed by their experience and helps them to dig deep in order to analyse and solve difficult problems. Growth mindset: Working with Fresh requires the ability to deal with uncertainty and appreciate confronting lessons, everyday. We look for people able to self-propel, constantly critical of their own assumptions and not afraid to surround themselves with other excelling people. Entrepreneurial grit: We seek entrepreneurial, persistent people capable of agility - willing to re-route or cut through challenges to get to where they want to go. People willing to get their hands dirty in order to build their life’s work, with the openness to develop (more) entrepreneurial savviness. Systemic impact: We seek people who put impact first but who realize the implications of building a scalable business. We are looking for people that understand the importance of solving root challenges and expect our founders to be willing to kill darlings or change course when impact is insufficient.

We are a for-profit, evergreen investment firm on two continents helping entrepreneurs solve the most pressing food system challenges for future generations. We have invested in the green transition of the food system since 2015 and have more than two decades of work experience in leading roles in the food industry. We believe in paradigm shifts, not incremental solutions Our cheap calories come at a steep price. With the population growth there is an increasing number of mouths to feed. Still, food production is already the primary contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, loss of species, and soil degradation. The equation doesn’t add up, but it’s solvable. Bold entrepreneurs with transformative innovations have started the redesign of our food system into a biodiverse carbon sink feeding the billions with nutritious food. The outcome is resilience, regeneration, and abundance. We invest in category defining companies driving the reformation of the global food system. Our investment focus areas Sustainable supply chains: Revalorize resources in shorter and circular supply chains that minimize lost nutrients, material, and energy. Healthy diets: Revitalize health with nutritious, delicious, and personalized diets that prevent disease. Sustainable proteins and fats: Rethink where delicious, economically scalable, and resource-efficient food comes from. Healthy soils: Redesign farming techniques to improve our soils' capacity, health, and productivity.

We back regenerative technology companies that are restoring the planet from the atom up. Why regenerative? Because investment should be an act of optimism. We can’t incrementally fix what is fundamentally broken. Sustainability is not enough. The next generation of iconic companies will work with nature rather than against it. Driven by a convergence of technology, demand and talent, the only limit is our collective imagination. Together, we will create a better way of living for all without destroying the planet we depend on. 25% of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the food and agriculture industry. We can transform this carbon culprit to a carbon sink. $>3T per year of materials and products will be redesigned from synthetic to bio-based to meet our net-zero targets. 45% of carbon emissions need to be cut this decade and 100% by 2050. The entire economy must be radically reinvented. Our Investment Areas Food & Agriculture Nature-inspired technologies enable a healthier food system that meets the needs of all while healing the planet. Regenerative food systems can mitigate 25% of global emissions as well as being a carbon sink for other industries. The co-benefits of increased biodiversity, reduced water consumption and improved food quality, make this a truly win-win-win area of focus. Alternative Food Production, Soil Health, Supply Chain, Robotics and Automation, Microbiome Materials & Products From synthetic chemicals and fossil-fuels to living and bio-based. Ubiquitous materials such as textiles, building materials and packaging that make up our physical world are being reimagined thanks to step-changes in technology. Materials of the future will work for the planet rather than against it and be more beautiful, cheaper and infinitely scalable. Regenerative Fibres, Textiles, Dyes, Feedstock, Plastics, Building Materials, Enabling Infrastructure Decarbonisation Reinventing every sector of the economy is an urgent imperative and generational opportunity. We acknowledge that not every sector will reach net-zero in our lifetime. While reducing emissions towards zero as fast as possible we will simultaneously accelerate our progress by harnessing nature-based solutions to remove carbon faster, cheaper and more permanently. Mother Earth has been doing this for 4 billion years! Nature-based carbon removal, Biodiversity, Enabling technologies, Marketplaces, Carbon-to-value, Next-Gen Infrastructure

We believe inclusive systems innovation, which enables all people and places to participate and benefit, is essential to a strong food system that is better for everyone. With teams on the ground across Europe, we bridge the gap between countries and regions with low innovation capacity and those leading the way. And we put consumers at the heart of our work, helping build trust by reconnecting them to the origins of their food, directly involving them in the innovation process, and working with the food sector to increase transparency. Collaboration is central to all our work, which spans the whole food value chain, and is vital to meet the big challenges we face. Together with our community, we will build an innovative and resilient food system that in turn creates a healthier society and planet.

CarbonN Venture Partners is a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. Led by two seasoned deep-tech investors with a singular focus to reverse the effects of climate change – accelerating the commercialization and scale-up of breakthrough technologies toward a negative emission economy. We invest in startups late Seed to Series B stage, with initial ticket sizes ranging between $500K and $5M. Further, we will selectively deploy “catalytic capital” to fund First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) projects through project equity or term loans. As part of our investment mandate, we assess a startup’s potential for meaningful climate impact in an analytical and quantifiable way, e.g. megatons of CO2e removed, millions of tons of waste prevented. We will work closely with our portfolio companies to measure and report their own ESG and impact metrics. Thesis Climate disasters like floods, wildfires, snowstorms and droughts are paralyzing supply chains, industries and societies. The sense of urgency as a whole is still not there… To limit global warming to below 2C, carbon reduction technologies are necessary to lower “future” emissions, while carbon removal technologies are needed to lower “historical” CO2 from the environment. These solutions together need to reach gigaton-levels within the next 3 decades. New adaptation technologies such as green infrastructure, water desalination and circular economy solutions also must scale up for industries and communities to adapt and become more resilient to the new climate reality. We believe identifying opportunities with significant social and environmental impacts will lead to better financial return. Investment Areas We invest across a portfolio of carbon negative solutions based on their carbon removal and reduction pathways (Air, Land, Ocean, Rock) augmented and catalyzed by Data and Finance innovations, and Circular Economy solutions in key material markets to improve sustainability and reduce environmental impacts. Air: direct air capture, point-source carbon capture, carbon utilization, waste-to-energy. Land: regenerative agriculture, biochar, forest management, soil carbon sequestration. Ocean: direct ocean removal, electrochemical separation, alkalinity enhancement, seaweed/kelp cultivation, blue carbon. Rock: enhanced rock weathering. mining rocks, geologic sequestration. Data + Finance: wildfire detection, earth observation, remote sensing, carbon accounting, sustainable finance, MRV & ratings. Circular Economy: plastic recycling, battery / e-waste recycling, wastewater treatment, desalination, sustainable packaging. Responsible Investing Better Climate Performance Leads to Better Financial Returns We are committed to responsible investment and incorporating specific ESG considerations into our investment process. We seek to help our portfolio companies to mitigate and manage risk as well as their long-term sustainability. We believe integrating these ESG principles in our investment practice will have a positive impact on the financial performance of our fund.

Nourish Ventures is on a mission to partner with and scale the industry trailblazers leading the food system of the future. Nourish Ventures is the corporate venture capital fund of Griffith Foods. Griffith Foods is an innovative, global, product-development company that has been solving problems in the food industry for more than 100 years. At Nourish we invest in, and partner with, innovative start-up companies that are shaping a healthy and sustainable food system. We are committed to forming partnerships with entrepreneurs who share our aspiration to blend care and creativity while nourishing the world. From smarter alternative proteins to safer ecologically-sound farming methods, it’s our mission to actualize and scale the development of tomorrow’s food system.