Nordic Foodtech

The Nordic Food Policy Lab was launched by the 5 prime ministers of the Nordic countries in 2017 to curate and share examples of Nordic food policy for health and sustainability. They do this through global partnerships and dialogues. Their goal is meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals through food policy. They also help other countries in achieving the goals. In this episode, Marie Persson provides an overview of what is happening within food policy across the Nordics. We also take a look at the COP25 UN climate negotiations from a Nordic angle and what a sustainable, healthy diet looks like. 7:30 Overview of the Nordics strengths and weaknesses when it comes to food & food policy 9:40 Why food is such a tricky political conversation 16:30 Examples of individuals taking climate action through food 20:20 What is needed for policy to encourage sustainable production and consumption 25:35 Why more chefs and behavioral psychologists are needed in politics This episode is part of Taste the Transition,

Too Good To Go enables consumers to buy food that would otherwise be thrown out at the end of the day. The idea started in Denmark and has quickly spread across Europe with everyone from mom and pop bakeries to big grocery retailers getting on board. Today they've saved some 25.5 million meals and opened up a new customer segment for many food businesses.  In this episode, we speak with Mikkel Fog Holm-Nielsen who runs special projects for Too Good To Go's management team. Join us as we discuss their ambitious strategy to fight food waste across multiple fronts. By 2020, they aim to work with 75,000 businesses, inspire 50 million people to reduce their household food waste, impact regulation in 5 countries, and have a food waste curriculum in 500 schools. 2:00 How Too Good To Go got started 5:40 Creating a business around food waste 14:10 Vision for the future food system and what's missing to get there  17:20 How they are fighting food waste via business, politics, education, and household behavior  27:30 C

Arla is the 5th largest dairy company in the world. Owned by 12,500 farmers across seven countries, they have an ambition to become the most transparent value chain in dairy. In today's episode, we discuss this ambition with Tomi Sirén who is the head of Digital and Technological Innovations at Arla. Based in Finalnd, he’s spearheading a variety of projects focused on moving their sustainability agenda forward with emerging technologies including the Arla Milkchain. Listen in as we talk about: 5:30 Arla's digital transformation 9:00 Arla Milkchain - how they are using blockchain to trace their products and animal welfare (see video) 21:00 Collaborations Arla is looking for and what obstacles they are facing to scale 26:00 Other sustainability projects at Arla 28:40 Vision for the future and what we're missing to get there

Almi Invest is Sweden’s most active startup investor. With 3 billion SEK under management, they make about 50 new investments each year and have invested in 660 companies overall, some of which have been acquired by Google, Microsoft, and Apple or IPOed at a billion kroner level on the stock market.  Join us as we speak with investment manager Karin Ebbinghaus about Almi's GreenTech fund, which only invests in companies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The fund has about 650 million SEK under management or 60 million euro. Listen in as we talk about: 3:50 Almi's investment thesis  15:10 What a GreenTech model looks  17:35 How to measure a GreenTech model's impact 21:20 How Almi's GreenTech fund fits into Swedens' national strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 30:10 Almi's vision for FoodTech ecosystem in 10-15 years

By 2050, an estimated 80% of all food will be destined for our global cities. To understand how we can make the food systems of our cities sustainable, resilient, and diverse our guest today is Emma Chow - the Project Lead for the Food Initiative at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation was launched in 2010 to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. In 2019, they launched a food initiative focused on convening food brands, producers, retailers, governments, innovators, and waste managers to redesign the food system serving cities to: Source food regeneratively and locally when appropriate Design and market healthier food products Make the most of food by upcycling waste streams. London, São Paulo and NYC have signed on as flagship cities to show what is possible. Join us in a wide-ranging conversation as we discuss the role of cities as power nodes in the food system as well as a circular vision for the future and the practical next steps for getting there. Whether you are

Amass has been recognized multiple times not only as one of the best restaurants in the world, but also as one of the most sustainable. For them, a zero waste kitchen has been an incredible creative constraint inspiring major changes to how this fine dining institution cooks, recycles, sources, and operates in their local environment. Today the restaurant’s food and ingredients are 90% organic. Food waste has been reduced by 75% since they started in 2013 and their annual water consumption is down by 5,200 liters. The restaurant’s facilities also include a garden with 80 varieties of plants and an aquaponic farming system. A Native New Zealander, Kim Wejendorp was the Sous Chef at Amass Restaurant in Copenhagen before becoming their head of R&D. In this conversation, we talk about how they undertook the sustainable transition, the creative process that produces a zero waste kitchen, and what kind of partners and innovations they are looking to partner with. Episode Transcript  Related Links & Episode

Not long ago, Frida Jonson and her co-founder Lovisa Madås realized that the FoodTech and AgTech worlds were unfolding in parallel. No journalism outlet was covering all sides of the story from farm to fork. So, they started AgFo, a digital media outlet covering the intersection of agriculture and food in Sweden.  AgFo's journalists travel all over the country reporting on different trends, perspectives, and innovations in the food system. Today, Frida gives us a front row seat to the conversations being had, the emerging trends, and collaborations to look out for. We also discuss why journalism is important for ecosystem development and connecting diverse communities.

Aquaculture is the farming of fish. As the fastest growing sector in animal food production, the industry has started to attract the interest of Silicon Valley. This might also be because aquaculture is some 20 years behind traditional agriculture in terms of development leaving it ripe for innovation. We speak with Carsten Krome who is the Managing Partner of Hatch, the first global aquaculture accelerator program operating across Norway, Hawaii and Singapore and an investor into aquaculture with the fund Alimentos Ventures. He provides an excellent introduction to the aquaculture world and what we can look forward to in this space.  Carsten has his own entrepreneurial experience through his start-up as a prawn farmer in Malaysia and he holds a Ph.D. in feed science from the University of Stirling as well as a Masters in Marine Biology from the University of Kiel in Germany.  If you liked this episode, check out this podcast with Ocean Harvest from Denmark on regenerative ocean farming as a solution to clim

Creandum has been an early investor in many of the most well known and successful Nordic companies including Spotify, Vivino, Klarna, and Kahoot just to name a few.  In today’s episode, we are speaking with Carl Fritjofsson who runs the San Francisco office serving as a bridge to Creandum's European founders as their companies expand into the US. Join us as we discuss how this tech VC is investing into the future of food and how European startups should be considering internationalization. 

KBH Madhus has a mission is to change society through better meals and they’ve been doing this by helping the kitchens of hospitals, schools, and other public institutions go 90% organic, often on the same budget. So many meals are made in the public sector, that this kind of institutional change has massive impact.  In this episode, we talk about the process KBH Madhus uses as well as how any kitchen - big or small, private or public - can do the same.

Cecilia Tilli founded Ultuna Mejeri, one of the first vegan cheese startups to hit the Swedish market back in 2014. The company grew to be sold in 50 stores and had a devoted fan base. Still, Cecilia and her team had to take the decision to close the company and declare bankruptcy. In this episode, Cecilia shares her personal story of starting the company and gives us a look into the realities of having your startup journey end in bankruptcy.

Gustav Johansson is behind Swedens largest vegan food blog. He’s also the author of two vegan cookbooks - one covers Swedish comfort food and the other is for athletes in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund and the Swedish Olympic Committee.  Gustav's work is fascinating. His work centers on using his platform to make it easier for people to chose a planet friendly diet. He does so by developing a trove of recipes that don’t require consumers to sacrifice the tastes they love or dishes they grew up with in order to eat more sustainably. He also works with supermarket chains and food entrepreneurs to ensure that the vegan products people want make it to market. He also develops recipes for new products to make sure there are resources available online for how to use them. Besides Gustav's story and approach, we also cover how new products are released in Sweden - it only happens three times a year - and why Swedes seem to be leading the charge when it comes to embracing a vegan diet. 

Lolland-Falster is fascinating not only because it has some of the richest soil in the country, but also because its considered “udkantsdanmark” or outer Denmark - a rural region, which has been struggling to attract growth in competition with big cities. Despite this, Growth Train's 7-week accelerator program has succeeded in attracting startups to the region. Their program focuses on connecting the big agricultural operators with startups, giving them a playground to test new technologies. The goal is to work with corporations to soure solutions to their innovation challenges. I speak with Christiane Paaske-Sørensen on the ins and outs of the program. Episode Transcript Related Links Coop’s members use crowdfunding to get new food startups on the shelves Why the Danish government's fund is now investing in FoodTech How Denmark's Agro Business Park connects startups and corporations Danish Technical University's on helping students invent the next big food solution How Copenhagen Food Space helps new st

Nicolai Jæpelt is the Project Leader for Coop Crowdfunding. Coop is one of the largest supermarket chains in Denmark and is run as a cooperative with approx. 1.8 million members. The supermarket has created a crowdfunding platform where members can invest in early stage food initiatives they believe in. We cover how to get on Coop's shelves, why this new pathway is so interesting, and what consumers are investing in. We also chat about how to make a successful food crowdfunding campaign and why the platform has become a trend spotting platform for other purchasers. 

If you're into food and find yourself in Sweden, then one of your first points of contact should definitely be Sweden FoodTech's Johan Jörgensen. The org is fully focused on developing the ecosystem through community, events, and biz dev assistance. Johan is an Internet entrepreneur turned investor with 20+ years of experience under his belt. He was once voted Best Investor in Sweden. Listen in as we discuss the ins and outs of Sweden's FoodTech ecosystem including Stockholm's plans to become a future food city. 

Samuel Scheer works at Innovation Center Denmark in Tel Aviv, where they have a focus on accelerating Ag & FoodTech businesses. In this episode, we focus on how Nordic companies can tap foreign VC and ecosystems to grow globally. We especially focus on why the Danish-Israeli connection is so interesting, what we can learn from each other, and how you can make the most of the connections and market opportunities these centers have to offer. 

Mia Maja Hansson helped to grow food entrepreneurship by establishing many of the spaces and facilities that Copenhagen food entrepreneurs use to get their businesses off the ground. This includes CPH Food Space, Street Food Around the Lakes, and Kitchen Collective. We discuss what each of these initiatives are as well as how and why they got started. We also dive into the history of food entrepreneurship and gastronomy in Copenhagen including what makes it such an innovative environment. 

Roberto Flore is the Manager of DTU FoodLab, part of the Danish Technical University's incubator/maker space DTU Sky Lab. Roberto is the former Head of R&D at Noma's Nordic Food Lab. In 2017, Rolling Stone Magazine cited Roberto as one of 25 innovators who are changing the world. In this episode, we discuss how DTU Foodlab is sparking radical innovation by using food to build bridges between disciplines and address the grand global challenges. We also talk about how students & entrepreneurs can get involved and access the lab. 

Keenan Pinto is the founder and CEO of Nordetect, which enables farmers to test their own soil samples for Nitrogren Phosphorous, and Potassium and then see the results in real time. This not only enables smarter farming practices, but also prevents over-fertilizing. With a diverse scientific and international background, Keenan shares his advice, lessons learned, and smart cuts for starting an Ag or FoodTech hardware / software company in the Nordics. We also discuss the pros and cons of building and scaling a company in Denmark and what's needed from the ecosystem to help companies grow. 

Claus Mortensen is the Site Manager for Agro Business Park and the Copenhagen Agrifood Incubator. His job is basically to help startups’ solve the barriers holding them back from scaling across the EU. That could be sourcing, production, distribution, funding, etc. With offices in Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Viborg, Agro Business Park is a gateway to the Danish food scene and offers a ton of opportunities and resources. We touch open all of these as well as how he expects the Nordic FoodTech ecosystem to evolve.