Michael Kleindl

Founder &
Managing Partner

Michael is our specialist for investments and is running our investment team. He is an experienced business angel and venture capital investor, serial entrepreneur and successful founder of a multitude of digital businesses during the last 20 years, including some early Food Tech investments. Michael holds a University degree from European Business School and his track record includes 2 IPOs and numerous exits of portfolio companies’ to prestigious buyers such as Amazon, Axel Springer, Deutsche Post DHL, Eventbrite, Just Eat.

Regina Hecker

Partner

Regina is Partner in our team in Zurich. She has many years of experience in business and science and worked for Evolva, Hoffmann-La Roche, Bank Vontobel, The University Children’s Hospital Zurich and the Max Planck Institute, Germany. She holds a PhD in Molecular & Cell Biology from the University of Zurich, a Master in Biotechnology Management from the IE Business School in Madrid, a Master of Engineering in Biotechnology and is certified in Plant-Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.

Brendan Brazier

Venture Partner

Brendan Brazier is the co-founder of Vega, Pulp Culture, and Fire Road, bestselling author of the Thrive book series, Editor-in-Chief of alive magazine, and an Executive Producer of The Game Changers film. He’s also a former professional Ironman triathlete and a two-time Canadian 50km Ultra Marathon Champion. Brendan is regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on plant-based performance nutrition, and now invests in and works with socially responsible food & tech companies whose mandate is to fix our food system and reduce the environmental strain of food production.

Juergen Dieter
Mortag

Director Risk,
Compliance & Finance

Juergen is responsible for Finance, including Risk and Compliance. He spent many years’ structuring and managing alternative investment funds. Over many years he was involved in the international securitisation market and founded his own financing company. As an MBA graduate of ESCP, he experienced a genuinely European curriculum studying in Paris, Oxford and Berlin.

Mariana González

Investor Relations &
Associate

Mariana Gonzalez has 4 years of experience in retail and logistics, two of which dedicated to eCommerce. All of her life, she has been dedicated to retail since her family owns one of the most successful retail businesses in Mexico. Mariana Gonzalez joined the COSTCO eCommerce logistics team in 2015. Prior to that, she was part of Kipling Mexico sales team for almost 2 years. She holds an engineering degree (Industrial Engineer) from Anahuac University in Mexico-City.

Tanmay
Annachhatre

Associate

Tanmay is an Associate in our team in Zurich. He previously worked at Santander InnoVentures, Santander Bank’s venture capital fund, where he worked on early stage investments in the fintech space. He began his career at Cambridge Associates advising institutional investors on venture capital and growth equity investments. Tanmay holds an MBA from London Business School and BA in Economics (magna cum laude) from Carleton College (USA).

Teresa Muschik

Office Manager

Teresa is our Office Manager in our team in Zurich. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Communication and has several years of experience in office operations & procedures and marketing. The last four years she has established a logistics start up in Switzerland. For a long time she’s also a passionate animal conservation worker in different countries of Africa.

Derek van Brussel

Analyst

Derek is an Analyst in our team in Zurich. He has 5 years of experience working with Corporate Development at a Private Equity portfolio company in Brazil. He holds an MBA from INSEAD (France/Singapore) and bachelor's degree in Economics from PUC-Rio (Brazil). His core competencies are finance, M&A, and corporate governance. He identifies and researches new investment opportunities and is part of the due diligence team.

Oliver Naef

Analyst

Oliver is an Analyst in our team in Zurich. He has previously worked in the alternative fuel space for LafargeHolcim across South East Asia and a Swiss early-stage VC. He holds a master’s degree in Applied Biosciences and Biotechnology from the Imperial College London and a bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from HKUST (Hong Kong). His core competencies are biotechnology, healthcare and nutrition. He identifies and researches new investment opportunities and is part of the due diligence team.

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Frank A. Kühne

Food Industry

Frank is shareholder and chairman of the food ingredient supplier RAPS, as well as chairman of the ADALBERT RAPS foundation. Fifteen years ago, he took over the business from his father and guided it towards internationalization. RAPS is considered to be one of the leading savoury ingredients companies in Europe. Additionally, Frank is engaged in a handful of food tech startups ranging from growing to processing food, analytics and replacing existing food.

Giampaolo Cagnin

Food Ingredients

Giampaolo’s aim has always been to apply a disruptive approach to functional food ingredients and that’s how he founded Campus Srl. He serves as Business Development Director at Hifood, an Italian company providing key functional ingredients to food companies, and as business Angel Investor in several startups. He founded Campus in 2005, where he found the expertise of developing natural food ingredients until 2018 when he sold the company to Firmenich.

Michael Rass

Food Technology

Michael is Managing Partner of fjol, a leading consulting company for Sustainable Corporate Management. He has a vast expertise in the fields of recycling, efficient and resource conserving food production, sustainable procurement in global supply chains and successful sustainability marketing. In addition, he has a deep scientific background, advanced knowledge in food processing technology and fifteen years experience in marketing in the grocery retail trade.

Fernando
Valdes Bueno

Food Industry

Fernando since February 2016 has been a member of the Board of Directors of Nueva Pescanova. He is also a member of the Boards of Directors of Deoleo, Fruselva and the Spanish Food and Drink Federation (FIAB). He started his professional career in Unilever, where he worked from 1987 to 2005. In 2005 he joined Campofrío where he was the CEO of the Campofrío Food Group until 2015.

Nic Lindley

Biotransformation

Nic has been actively developing process technology innovation for many years and was leading the Toulouse LISBP laboratory until 2015. He then moved to Singapore where he developed the A*STAR Biotransformation Innovation Platform, undertaking industry-facing R&D for food and consumer care speciality ingredients. From August 2019, he splits his time between the laboratories in Toulouse (TBI and TWB) and Singapore (BioTrans).

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