Rabo F&A Innovation Fund

Rabobank emerged from several small agricultural cooperative banks, founded by Dutch farmers in the late nineteenth century. Food & Agriculture (F&A) is in our DNA, from which we built a unique position in the F&A sector as a key financier and international player, attributes which we leverage for the benefit of our stakeholders and portfolio companies. We recognise and understand the food security challenges lying ahead of us and how Innovation in F&A supply chains is key to the solution, which is why we are dedicated to committing capital to the space.

Our Criteria

Ticket size

EUR 1.5m – EUR 4mln equity investment per company

Stage

Seed to Series B

Product

Preferred securities or convertible debt

Sector

Scalable proposition with relevant competitive advantage in F&A sectors across the supply chain

Geography

Western Europe, Israel and the US

Portfolio

Biolumic

BioLumic develops UV lighting treatment that changes the way plants grow by using UVB light recipes which drives improved crop consistency, increased yield and enhanced disease resistance.

Year of Investment

2018

Enko Chem

Advancing crop protection chemistry by discovering novel agrochemicals

Year of Investment

2018

Bird Control Group

Bird Control Group develops smart laser bird deterrent and bird repellent solutions.

Year of Investment

2019

Rootwave

RootWave is developing and marketing solutions to kill weeds using electricity to offer a scalable and sustainable alternative to chemical herbicides.

Year of Investment

2020

BeeHero

BeeHero helps growers to increase crop yield by optimizing bee pollination quality. By using a combination of inside hive sensors and algorithms to monitor and forecast hive health, it helps in precision beekeeping to generate stronger, healthier hives and maximise pollination.

Year of Investment

2020

SAGA Robotics

Saga Robotics developed an autonomous modular robot that can be configured for most agricultural environments. The technology is based on a multi-functional platform to which applications can be added.

Year of Investment

2020

InnovoPro

InnovoPro is an Israeli foodtech company that develops revolutionary chickpea-based products, including a 70% chickpea protein concentrate with exceptional properties of a neutral taste, high functionality and high nutritional values which make it highly suitable for developing a broad range of food products.

Year of Investment

2020

Ecto

Ecto is a US-based company that developed a data analytics platform that helps animal protein producers become more efficient and sustainable by streamlining processes, collecting and integrating data and providing monitoring tools and predictive insights.

Year of Investment

2021

Aromyx

Aromyx is a data-driven biotech company that allows food producers to innovate faster and at higher success rates by providing objective, high quality data on human perception of taste and smell

Year of Investment

2021

Full Harvest

EarthOptics

EarthOptics is a soil measurement and mapping company that is enabling the growth of sustainable farming practices on a meaningful scale. Through the combination of sensors and machine learning technology, EarthOptics is able to dramatically lower the costs and improve the quality of soil testing, while creating valuable insights for its customers.

Website

Year of Investment

2023

Team
Pieter van der Meché

Head of Rabo Ventures

Pieter van der Meché

Head of Rabo Ventures

As of January 2022 Pieter is responsible for the Venture activities of Rabo Investments, where he can combine his investment experience to contribute to the positive change in Food & Agri chains and the impact of this to climate change. Before this role Pieter was active in the Dutch market where he was assisting growing companies. Before Rabo Investments Pieter has worked in the M&A teams at ING and Rabobank where he was leading transactions in the TMT sector and for private equity. He began his career at Triple Value Strategy Consultants (now Steward Requeen), where he advised companies on sustainable strategies from the conviction that the financial value creation and impact can go along together. Pieter studied Business Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Kieran Furlong

Venture Partner

Kieran Furlong

Venture Partner

Kieran joined Rabo Investments in 2020 as a Venture Partner for Rabo Ventures. His extensive experience in early-stage companies and venture capital, built on an earlier career in the global chemical and agribusiness industries.

Previously Kieran was with Finistere Ventures following leadership roles in a number of start-ups in renewables and industrial biotechnology. With Finistere he moved from San Diego to Dublin to open the firm’s first European office and was Partner for the Ireland Agtech Fund. He has worked at the intersection of research and technology commercialization at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kieran is a Senior Fellow with COWS at UW-Madison, has a degree in Chemical Engineering from UCD and an MBA from Stanford University where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Albena Todorova

Venture Partner

Albena Todorova

Venture Partner

Albena is a Venture Partner with Rabo Ventures since July 2021. She has a significant expertise in food and agriculture venture investments, backed by a previous career in M&A and portfolio management.

Prior to joining Rabo, Albena was working for Sumitomo Corporation, managing their food and agriculture technologies investments in Europe and Israel. She invested in early stage startups in the farmtech, biotech and foodtech space and lead business development activities, helping the portfolio companies increase their customer base within the 900+ companies big Sumitomo Corporation Group.

Albena has a M.A. degree in Digital Management from Hyper Island, also known as Europe’s Digital Harvard University, and Teesside University. Her grandparents on both sides were farmers and agronomists which she takes great pride in.

Daniëlla Vellinga

Director

Daniëlla Vellinga

Director

Daniëlla is active for Rabo Ventures. She has a genuine passion for enabling entrepreneurs to grow their companies and to contribute to the banking4food strategy of Rabobank. Daniëlla joined Rabobank in March 2015 as a Corporate Management Trainee. Before joining Rabo Ventures, she was involved in creating and executing bespoke solutions for various corporate clients within the food & agri sector. Daniëlla has a long-standing involvement in innovation in the food and agri space, and co-founded an initiative to assist Kenyan dairy farmers leverage their own operational data to help them grow sustainably and to improve their access to finance. Daniëlla holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Amsterdam.

Shishir Sinha

Director

Shishir Sinha

Director

Shishir joined Rabo Ventures in December 2021, following his deep passion for environmental sustainability, food & agriculture, and investing.
He joins after spending the previous decade in management consulting at Bain & Company and Frontier Strategy Group, with experience across Southeast Asia, Japan, and Western Europe, focused on investment advisory and strategy. In his most recent role, he advised top-tier PE clients on issues across the investment lifecycle from executing commercial diligences to creating post-acquisition value-creation plans to designing fund strategies.

He has also managed major programs alongside senior executives in agriculture, food, and technology industries. Shishir holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Finance from Singapore Management University.

Rens Mathot

Associate

Rens Mathot

Associate

Rens joined RI in October 2019 after completing the Rabo Global Traineeship. He is part of Rabo Ventures , where he can combine his background in finance and technology to fuel the growth of start-ups.

After gaining experience at the Digital Bank, Corporate Lending and Acquisition Finance, he is now able to pursue his passion for innovative companies in the food and agri space. With his social skills and result-driven mindset, he strives to support ambitious entrepreneurs in realizing their growth ambitions.
Rens graduated from the Erasmus University Rotterdam and holds Master’s degrees in Finance and Investments and Business Information Management.

Bar Rubin

Associate

Bar Rubin

Associate

Bar joined Rabo Investments in April 2021 after completing the Rabo Global Traineeship. Her genuine passion for impact investing have driven her to join the Ventures team where she can combine her background in sustainability and finance to contribute to the success and growth of start-ups.

Bar started her career at Rabobank in April 2020 as a global trainee, during which she worked for Global Network Management, Wholesale Sustainable Business Development, Rabo Investments and Mergers & Acquisitions. Since joining Rabo Investments she strives to scale start-ups while contributing to the wider ‘growing a better world together’ mission of Rabobank.

Bar holds a Master’s degree in Sustainability and Innovation from HEC Paris.

Sanne van Kouwen

Analyst

Sanne van Kouwen

Analyst

Sanne joined Rabo Investments in August 2022, where she is part of Rabo Ventures. Within the Ventures team she can combine her passion for technology and innovation to contribute to the success of groundbreaking food and ag start-ups

Sanne started working for Rabobank in April 2021 as a Rabo Global Trainee, during which she gained experience in Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Corporate Finance, Innovation (FoodBytes Digital), and Rabo Investments. Sanne holds a Master's degree in Innovation Sciences from the University of Technology in Eindhoven, where she specialized in strategy, policy & innovation.

Tobin Wiersum

Analyst

Tobin Wiersum

Analyst

Tobin joined Rabo Investments in August 2022 following the completion of the Rabo Global Traineeship. During his graduate program Tobin gained experience with the bank’s Private Equity, Venture Capital, Private Debt and Digital Payments & Identity divisions. As part of the Rabo Ventures team he focusses on high growth Food and Ag Tech businesses across Europe, the US and Israel.

Before joining the bank, Tobin completed various M&A Private Equity and operational internships in the Netherlands and South East Asia. Tobin graduated cum laude with a Masters degree in Business Administration specialising in Finance and Investment.

Tamara Moualhi

Business Support Officer

Tamara Moualhi

Business Support Officer

Tamara studied at the Dutch Aviation College.
For this education she did a traineeship in London in the hotel industry and Martinair, after that she started her career at Schiphol Airport at KLM.
She made a career switch to the banking sector in 2006 and started as an assistant at Rabo Securities where she has worked for several teams like Equity Capital Markets and M&A.
After Rabo Securities was migrated to Rabobank Utrecht, she worked for 10 years at Markets (Dealingroom) assisting departments like Debt Capital Markets, ECM and Equity Sales, Trading & Research.
In 2020 Tamara started to support the Corporate Venturing team within the Digital Transformation Office, now known as CITO. Since 2022 she joined Rabo Investments supporting the Heads of Corporate Venturing and Ventures team.

Are you curious what we can do for your company?

Contact us

Address

Rabo Investments

Croeselaan 28

3521 CB Utrecht