Investment Climate Podcast

Arnav Pandey is co-founder and CEO of Myca, which builds "super intelligence for agribusinesses": AI agents that sit on top of existing ERPs and CRMs and take over reasoning decisions in procurement, sales, credit and farmer engagement, turning WhatsApp messages, calls and photos from field teams into structured workflows. Before Myca, Arnav and co-founders Tejas Dinkar and Seamus Tardif were on the founding team of Jiva, Olam's smallholder venture in Indonesia. Arnav tells Alex how they handled investor objections, why they walked away from a term sheet, and why raising smaller was the right call.

💰 Check size/round: $1.3M pre-seed led by Kriscore Capital, with Eximius Ventures and Indigram Labs Foundation (AgFunderNews).

🌍 Geography: Headquartered in India, with founders in Singapore. Launched in India and Indonesia, now active in eight countries and expanding across Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa.

🌱 Focus areas: Agri-input manufacturers and distributors, and harvest procurement businesses with $100M+ in top line or field teams of 500+ people.

🎙️ In this episode

From Jiva (Olam) to Myca: building the tech behind a ~300,000-tonne-a-year corn procurement operation

Where agribusiness margins disappear: field force, management layers, tech spend and bad credit

Build vs buy: why millions a year in-house loses to a $200K software line

Answering "will agri pay for software?" with competitors' annual reports

Shrinking a planned bigger raise into a pre-seed, and why that was the right call

Walking away from a term sheet: "would we sign this if we never got the valuation we want?"

Raising from ex-colleagues and angels, and being honest about the risk

Not every great business should be venture-funded, and Africa's chance to leapfrog

🎧 Hosted by Alex Shandrovsky | Investment Climate Podcast

📰 Media partners: FoodTech Weekly · vegconomist

🔗 Myca: https://www.myca.ag

🚀 Find active agrifood investors on FTW Hub: https://www.foodtechweekly.com/hub?utm_source=ic_podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=myca_arnav

#agrifood #agribusiness #AI #agenticAI #fundraising #preseed #startups #InvestmentClimate #FoodTechWeekly

Writing a cheque is not enough. Cintia Nunes, General Manager & Head of Asia at The Mills Fabrica, explains how The Mills Fabrica, a corporate-backed global innovation platform, backs techstyle and agrifood tech founders with far more than capital.
💰 Check size: $200K–$3M into startups, seed to Series B; up to $5M into VC funds.
🌍 Geography: global mandate, ~70–80% of the portfolio in the US and Europe, with a growing focus on Asia.
🌱 Focus areas: techstyle and agrifood tech. Portfolio includes Circ, Colorifix, Mango Materials and Geltor; fund LP in AgFunder and SOSV.
🎙️ In this episode:
How The Mills Fabrica works as a global platform for techstyle and agrifood tech
Why investors need to support people, not just startups
Helping portfolio companies scale in Asia with strategic support
Looking beyond carbon: planetary boundaries in impact investing
How investors can support founders during diligence
🎧 Hosted by Alex Shandrovsky | Investment Climate Podcast
📰 Media partners: FoodTech Weekly · vegconomist
🔗 The Mills Fabrica: https://www.themillsfabrica.com
🚀 Find active agrifood investors on FTW Hub: https://www.foodtechweekly.com/hub?utm_source=ic_podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=hub_ad
#FoodTech #AgriFoodTech #Techstyle #VentureCapital #ImpactInvesting #Asia

Olive oil is everywhere in German supermarkets, so why build another brand? Julius Rüßmann, co-founder of Berlin-based OYL Foods, says the category has lacked a real brand for years. He spent years as an investor before switching sides to found OYL with his longtime friend Nicolas Linsenmaier.
🏭 What they make: an olive oil brand for German retail, now moving into organic olive oil production closer to the farms.
🌍 Geography: based in Berlin, selling into German retail, with production in northern Portugal.
🌱 Focus areas: CPG, olive oil, and building a brand in a big category no one has branded.
🎙️ In this episode:
The problem with olive oil in German retail, and why big categories that no one has built a brand in are an opening
The partners behind OYL's latest round, including IBB Ventures and an experienced angel from Germany's frozen-pizza industry
Moving into organic olive oil production in northern Portugal, closer to the farms
What changes when you go from investor to founder, and how to get onto retail shelves
🎧 Hosted by Alex Shandrovsky | Investment Climate Podcast
📰 Media partners: FoodTech Weekly · vegconomist
🔗 OYL Foods: https://oylfoods.com
🚀 Find active agrifood investors on FTW Hub: https://www.foodtechweekly.com/hub?utm_source=ic_podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=hub_ad
#FoodTech #CPG #OliveOil #VentureCapital #Germany #FoodInvesting

Oliver Fuss (FoodFunder) sits down with Michael "Tony" Grinston — 16th Sergeant Major of the Army (2019–2023) and CEO of Army Emergency Relief — for Episode 1 of Dual Use: Agri-Food × Army.

The U.S. Army spends billions each year on food, materials, and biotech, yet most agri-food startups have no clear path in. This conversation opens that gap: what the Army actually needs from feeding and readiness, how change gets funded and scaled, and how founders can engage without wasting cycles on the wrong doors.

Topics include:
• Why fuel (not just fitness) is the missing readiness piece — and how DFAC modernization became a signal of how far feeding ops had to move
• Campus-style dining as a live garrison model (choice, quality, off-DFAC operators)
• How Army initiatives actually scale: champion + POM budget + accountable leadership
• What soldiers adopt in the field: taste first, then performance, then emergency rations — and why weight/cube matter in contested logistics
• Practical founder engagement: AUSA/LANPAC and logistics/food shows, innovation labs on large posts, and bringing real problem data

Guest: Michael "Tony" Grinston — 16th SMA; CEO, Army Emergency Relief (from Jan 2024); first former NCO to lead AER. Signature feeding/readiness pushes include campus-style dining, DFAC modernization, Go for Green, and Holistic Health & Fitness (H2F).

Host: Oliver · FoodFunder
Series: Dual Use — Agri-Food × Army
Distribution: Food Tech Weekly / Investment Climate Podcast

Links:
• Army Emergency Relief: https://www.armyemergencyrelief.org/
• FoodFunder: https://foodfunder.com/
• Food Tech Weekly: https://news.foodtechweekly.com/

Live from The Drop 2026 with Mark Kahn (Managing Partner, Omnivore), Divya Murthy (Principal, Oyster Bay Venture Capital), and Tomas Turner (CEO & Co-founder, Cosaic).
We dig into how AgriFoodTech founders and investors are actually raising and deploying today, funds under management, what still works in a tough market, and the human side of private capital: connect before business, chase excellence over money, and why CEOs should still talk to VCs after a raise.
Guests:
Mark Kahn: Omnivore (Global South agrifood VC)
Divya Murthy: Oyster Bay (European early-stage agri-food)
Tomas Turner: Cosaic (yeast fermentation / clean-label ingredients)
Hosted by Alex Shandrovsky · Investment Climate Podcast · FoodTech Weekly
Want me to put this on the episode as-is, or tweak tone/length first?