Rabo Ventures partners with early-stage companies to support their growth ambitions through venture capital investment, with a focus on innovation and sustainability in global Food & Agriculture.
Ventures
Proposition
Rabo Ventures aims to support the vital transitions needed in the global food system, which are closely linked to Rabobank’s sustainability ambitions. We invest across the value chain – from farm to fork – in stellar management teams building solutions for real problems in Food & Agriculture with demonstrable product-market fit.
Approach
Being part of a bank founded by Dutch farmers in the late nineteenth century, Food & Agriculture is in our DNA. We support our companies by leveraging our knowledge and network, including our unique access to the wider Rabobank institution and its clients.
An extensive network and strong partners are key to scaling your company. Rabobank is the number 1 global F&A bank and has strong relationships with most major F&A companies. We provide access to a growing platform of Rabobank F&A innovation initiatives, such as FoodBytes, and relationships with other F&A VC/PE specialists and incubators/accelerators.
EUR 1m – 4m initial equity investment, with room to participate in follow-ons
Seed to Series B
Minority stakes with preferred Equity or convertible debt (selectively)
Impactful innovations across the Food & Agri value chain
Scalable business models with relevant competitive advantage and proven traction
Western Europe, Israel and North America
Our portfolio
Meet the team
Denisa joined Rabo Ventures in March 2024 where she combines her passion for technology and impact. Denisa was previously an investment analyst at Newion, focusing on B2B SaaS early-stage investments where she worked on Ellie.ai and Delphai investments (acquired by Intapp – Nasdaq listed). She started her career in the commercial department of IBM where she had the opportunity to get acquainted with different technology solutions, after which she completed internships in corporate development at Kubota (strategic agritech investments) and HPE Growth (growth equity).
Denisa holds a master’s degree from Erasmus University in Financial Economics and a bachelor’s in business economics from the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tamara studied at the Dutch Aviation College where tourism, hospitality and aviation were the main elements. For this education she did a traineeship in London in the hotel industry, 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 in Amsterdam, a former investment part of the Rabobank. After Rabo Securities was migrated to Rabobank Utrecht, she worked for 10 years at Markets (Dealingroom) assisting several departments like Debt Capital Markets, ECM and Equity Sales, Trading & Research.
Tamara has more than 15 years experience, working in an investment banking environment. In 2022 she joined Rabo Investments supporting the Heads of Corporate Venturing and the Ventures team.
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.
Get in touch
Rabo Investments
Croeselaan 28
3521 CB Utrecht
The Netherlands