Laëtitia is an agronomist, holding a Master’s degree from AgroParisTech. She currently is a partner at Seventure Partners managing AVF, a venture capital fund investing in startups active in the field of animal health, feed and nutrition.
"Time is good for entrepreneurs right now in the field so my advice for them would be to be differentiated enough and very accurate regarding the unmet market need they are answering to."
Silke Birlenbach is a transformative business leader with over 20 years of experience in animal health, nutrition and pharmaceutical industries. Silke holds a Veterinary Doctoral degree and advanced scientific degrees from Kansas State University and Harvard University.
"Few complex problems are ever solved alone, and this forum not only provides the best and brightest to share their ideas, but at the same time it allows them to connect with partners, mentors, sponsors."
Alex Obach is the Innovation Director in Skretting. Originally from Barcelona, he is a veterinarian with a Master in Aquaculture from the University of Girona, Spain and a PhD in fish pathology and immunology from the University of West Brittany, France.
"The innovators participating in the NFFTC challenge all have something to offer and the discussions with the Nutreco experts will for sure help them to improve their technology or its application."
Maren is an active investor in the blue economy through Fynd. She has led investments into more than 30 impact driven ocean startups from 14 countries and built a leading network of mentors, partners and investors globally.
"It is an immense opportunity to build companies that solve some of the largest challenges we are facing- feeding a growing population with healthy and climate positive or neutral food at the same time as building profitable, sound businesses."
Alexandre is an investment director at Creadev, a French investment company focusing on food & agriculture, health services and sustainable consumption. They are also a board director at InnovaFeed, The Kingfish Company and Noray Seafood.
"Start-ups need to make their innovation tangible, proven at industrial scale and accessible for the many. This challenge and the proximity with the Nutreco teams coming from this acceleration program makes all that possible."
Rosie is Co-Founder and Partner at Synthesis Capital, an investment manager transforming food systems through technology. In 2015, Rosie launched the FAIRR Initiative, a global investor coalition that has built a network of institutional investors with combined assets of almost $50 trillion.
"From my perspective, we have only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of innovation potential in the food sector, and there is so much more to come. The next few years will see a rapid acceleration in technology breakthroughs and scale-up, which will drive a paradigm shift in food production."
Susanne is the Investment Manager for Alternative Proteins at Nutreco NuFrontiers, the strategic innovation and investment department of Nutreco. She dedicates her time to building an investment portfolio of alternative protein start-ups and scale-ups.
"The challenge is important as we need new ideas for how to feed more people with fewer resources, and as part of that, we are always looking for ways to assist entrepreneurs in validating and scaling up their ideas and technology."
