Investment Climate

Episode 88: Zubi Capital: Johan Morales on Spain as the Go-To-Market Hub and the death of "Consumer Behavior" pitches
In this episode, I sit down with Johan Morales, an investor at Zubi Capital, a Spanish asset management firm operating three distinct vehicles: a Venture Debt fund for impact scale-ups, an early-stage (Pre-Seed/Seed) Diversity Catalyst VC, and a highly specialized Type 1 Diabetes fund. Johan reflects on the $50 billion of wealth destroyed in the first wave of AgriFoodTech and explicitly outlines why pitches relying on changing consumer behavior are dead on arrival. We explore Zubi’s thesis on hardware-plus-software "add-on" solutions, why securing an ROI for farmers from day one is non-negotiable, and how international founders can use Spain as the ultimate fragmented market testing ground by setting up a local subsidiary. 
🎧 Listen to the full episode to hear Johan’s masterclass on how to spot (and avoid) "impact washing" and why regulatory tailwinds are a bonus, not a business model.

Key Facts Zubi Capital:
Johan Morales: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johan-morales-impact/
Website: https://zubicapital.com/
Headquarters: Spain
Goal: To deploy impact-driven capital across three vehicles (Venture Debt, Early-Stage VC, and a dedicated Type 1 Diabetes fund) targeting solutions with intrinsic "lockstep" impact models.
Milestone: Actively deploying €200K–€500K initial checks from their early-stage fund, with a mandate to back digital solutions and software-enabled hardware in the Spanish ecosystem.

Blurb:
Zubi Capital is an independent asset manager at the forefront of impact investing. We design high-performance investment strategies across asset classes — targeting market-rate returns while addressing the world's most pressing social and environmental challenges. Our approach combines rigorous financial analysis with deep triple impact expertise, delivering long-term value without compromise. At Zubi Capital, impact is our guiding light and financial performance is our edge — because investors should never have to choose between profitability and purpose.

Episode 87: Tomorrow, Inc.: Dr. Alec Lorenzo on bootstrapping SynBio, the "Functional Assay" of sales, and First Principles valuation 

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Alec Lourenco, CEO and co-founder of Tomorrow, Inc., a biotech platform engineering proteins that bind to taste receptors to replicate—and evolve—the experience of sugar and salt. Alec shares the scrappy origin story of how they bootstrapped a hand-canned soda company just to demo their initial FDA-approved sweet protein blend, a hustle that ultimately landed them a $1M round led by Carbon Silicon Ventures. We dive deep into why early-stage founders must rely on "first principles" rather than pattern matching for their valuations, the danger of investors mistaking a biotech platform for a CPG brand, and how to survive the SynBio winter through extreme capital efficiency. 
🎧 Listen to the full episode to hear how Alec navigated asking a former boss for an angel check and why he believes the ultimate laboratory test is a paying customer.

Key Facts Tomorrow, Inc.:
CEO & co-founder: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alec-lourenco-353610a5/
Goal: To engineer novel flavor proteins that replace unhealthy ingredients like sugar and salt, creating healthy and "whimsical" taste experiences using a proprietary "tongue-in-the-loop" discovery system.
Milestone: Raised a $1M round led by Carbon Silicon Ventures, generated early revenue through a prototype D2C soda to prove market demand, and is currently seeking challenger brands for co-development partnerships.

Blurb:
Weekend is making anything taste like anything using engineered protein binders that activate your sweet, fat, and salt receptors to replace unhealthy ingredients like sugar, salt, and fat.

Episode 86: Royal Cosun: Jara van den Bogaerde on Corporate Open Innovation and surviving the 6-month Pilot timeline 

In this episode, I sit down with Jara van den Bogaerde, Open Innovation Manager at Royal Cosun, a 125-year-old Dutch food processor and cooperative representing 8,500 farmers. Jara pulls back the curtain on how a massive corporate player scouts and collaborates with early-stage AgriFoodTech startups. We discuss the difference between Cosun’s CVC arm (writing ~$5M Series A equity checks) and its Open Innovation division, which bypasses the equity table to focus on pre-seed and seed-stage pilots, joint ventures, and licensing. Jara details their specific 2026 mandate to find disruptive technologies in alternative proteins, fibers, and side-stream valorization, and explains why founders need to stop pitching with a "trust us, we're great" mentality. 
🎧 Listen to the full episode to hear Jara’s reality check on the timeline for securing a paid corporate pilot and why startups with only two months of runway are already too late.

Key Facts Royal Cosun:
Goal: To build a sustainable 10-year innovation pipeline by partnering with startups to co-develop, license, or scale technologies in alternative proteins, texturizers, and side-stream valorization.
Milestone: Operating with a pre-allocated R&D budget for Open Innovation, allowing them to bypass internal budget-hunting to rapidly execute paid POCs and pilots with startups.

Episode 85: Sprout Agritech: Sandhya Sriram on New Zealand’s massive government match-funding and escaping the Agri-Food VC winter

In this episode, I sit down with Sandhya Sriram, CEO of Sprout Agritech, a premier startup accelerator and early-stage investor based in New Zealand. Sandhya—a stem cell scientist and serial entrepreneur turned investor—explains how Sprout leverages heavy New Zealand government backing to radically de-risk pre-seed investments. We discuss their unique funding structure, which pairs private equity with $750k in non-dilutive government match-funding, making New Zealand one of the most capital-efficient ecosystems on the planet. Currently raising a new $55M–$60M NZD fund to expand across the APAC region, Sandhya reveals why they act more like co-founders than traditional VCs, actively handing research scientists their first corporate pilot customers, and why she is aggressively rebranding their thesis away from "Agri-Tech" to "Deep Tech."

Key Facts Sprout Agritech:
Goal: To act as "smart connected capital" for deep tech innovation across the Agri-Food value chain, bridging the gap between academic research and commercial pilot runs.
Milestone: Currently raising a new $55M–$60M NZD fund to expand APAC investments, building on a fully deployed $40M fund that saw 14 investments and two exits (including one 8x return).

Episode 84: Maia Ventures: David Bassani on Italy's "Untapped" AgriFood Market and the Private Equity Exit Strategy

In this episode, I sit down with David Bassani, Founding Partner of Maia Ventures, an Italy-based VC fund rapidly approaching its €60M hard cap. David details why he believes the Italian ecosystem is severely underfunded despite Agri-Food accounting for 15% of the nation's GDP. He reveals how Maia acts as a powerful bridge, bringing global AgriFoodTech startups to Italian corporates while simultaneously taking localized Italian innovation to the world stage. We also unpack David's highly contrarian strategy: dedicating a specific portion of the portfolio to "traditional" businesses with strong EBITDA (like their sous-vide vegetable company, Capellini) to explicitly target early Private Equity buyouts rather than relying solely on the elusive FMCG corporate acquisition. 🎧 Listen to the full episode to hear how a cold intro from a fellow VC led to their first US investment in the GLP-1 space (Lombos) and why Maia Ventures refuses to fund CapEx projects.

Key Facts Maia Ventures:
Goal: To invest globally in Seed-stage AgriFoodTech startups focusing on health, efficiency, and resiliency, while acting as a strategic bridge to the Italian corporate and CDMO ecosystem.
Milestone: Currently managing €55M with a final close of €60M targeted by the end of the year; writing initial checks between €500K and €1.5M.