NoPalm Ingredients uses a proprietary fermentation-based technology to convert agrifood offcuts into a low-emission palm oil alternative.

Founded in 2021 by Lars Langhout (CEO, ex Booz/Strategy&) and Professor Jeroen Hugenholtz (CTO, ex Wageningen University), NoPalm Ingredients has leveraged extensive research into yeasts to develop their proprietary process for converting low value agrifood feedstocks like potato peels into oils. The main output matches palm oil in performance and taste, while a rich protein byproduct can be used as an ingredient for foods.

NoPalm Ingredients has recently drawn significant attention in the sustainable food-tech space. In 2024, the company secured multi-million funding to scale its operations and advance towards commercial production, underlining strong investor confidence in its breakthrough technology. The company also announced new partnerships with major food and cosmetics players eager to decarbonise their supply chains and replace palm oil with sustainable alternatives. These milestones position NoPalm as one of the most promising scale-ups tackling one of the most urgent climate and biodiversity challenges of our time.

We believe NoPalm Ingredients is crucial in reducing pressure on our planetary boundaries. Our investment aims to support NoPalm in demonstrating they can scale their impressive results to large-scale production and secure long-term contracts with their pipeline of engaged customers.

Wakuli buys green coffee beans directly from farmer associations and cooperatives, roasts the coffee in the Netherlands and distributes the roasted coffee to customers’ mailboxes. Thanks to this direct trade and direct-to-consumer model, the company is able to bypass unnecessary steps in the value chain and offer the freshest specialty quality coffee at below specialty prices: a high quality impact product at a mid-market price. The farmer receives a much higher (often 2x) price per kilogram than what they would otherwise receive. By entering long-term partnerships Wakuli enables these smallholder farmers to invest in their farms to move towards a living income and a more sustainable livelihood.

Founders Yorick & Lukas form a highly complementary leadership team with strong commercial and impact drive. Yorick spent several years working in coffee cooperatives in countries such as Tanzania and Nepal and is deeply passionate about coffee and improving the lives of smallholder farmers. Lukas is an expert in tweaking and constant experimentation towards the right business model to scale up.

With our funding the company will continue to scale up in the Netherlands and expand to surrounding countries in 2021. With this investment we target to increase income at farmer level by at least 25% for thousands of smallholder farmers and their dependents.

“In Rubio we found a partner with the rare combination of strong commercial and strategic proficiency and a deeply held conviction that a social mission and top venture returns reinforce each other. Besides helping us define and measure our impact metrics, the Rubio team became a strategic sparring partner from day 1. They come with ideas and feedback, but never pressure to go one way or the other. Rubio is bringing an extensive network of experts and co-investors to the table making us all the more certain that we will reach our goal of connecting 1 million households and 50,000 farmers by 2025.” Lukas Grosfeld & Yorick Bruins, founders of Wakuli.

This is where Solasta Bio comes in. Their proprietary technology enables farmers to use small, protein-based crop protection products that are both effective and highly specific. Solasta’s bioinsecticides target a wide spectrum of insect pests, including those resistant to conventional chemistries, while preserving bees and other beneficial species. This combination of efficacy and selectivity represents a major white space in the market and a profound shift in how insect control agents are discovered.

As CEO Professor Shireen Davies explains: “The global market for insecticides has been under intense scrutiny for many years now, with growing demands on food production requiring greater levels of crop protection, counterbalanced by heightened concerns for the environment. Through our proprietary technology platform, we have developed a world-leading solution which represents a profound change for how insect control agents are discovered, and a step-change in how we not only protect our crops worldwide but also our ecosystem.”

Founded by scientist and entrepreneur Professor Shireen Davies and insect biology expert Professor Julian Dow, Solasta Bio is taking its breakthrough biopesticides from the lab into real-world trials. The company is on track to launch its first products in 2027, around half the time it takes for traditional synthetic insecticides to reach the market.

Since Rubio’s initial investment, Solasta Bio has successfully raised a follow-on round, bringing in additional investors to accelerate its R&D pipeline, expand its platform, and strengthen its commercialisation strategy. This fresh capital is enabling Solasta to broaden its candidate portfolio and build the partnerships needed to scale globally.

For consumers, Vytal is comparable to other sharing services such as e-scooters. Once they have registered in the Vytal app or purchased a Vytal membership card, customers can borrow and return freshly washed bowls. The entire process is handled digitally using the QR code labels on the Vytal Bowls. These end users return their containers to any Vytal partner and only pay a penalty for late returns. Vytal’s proprietary technology enables their partners to efficiently track containers and manage inventory, as each container is linked to either a restaurant or user account.

Germany has decades of experience with reusable packaging, and the Vytal team wants to use this experience to continuously improve its digital reusable packaging system and make it globally scalable. And with a return rate of over 99% and an average rental period of 3 days, Vytal achieves better return rates than the German bottle deposit system. Our investment alongside partners Grazia Equity and IP Group will enable Vytal to continue to develop their product and help more partners to tackle the single-use packaging madness.

The global meat industry is one of the leading drivers of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, water waste, and animal suffering. Beef production alone accounts for around 8% of global emissions. Novameat’s technology directly addresses this by offering chefs, food brands, and consumers a scalable alternative: nutritious, delicious whole-cut and pulled plant-based proteins that avoid the destructive footprint of livestock farming.

Rethinking the Future of Meat
At Rubio, we believe the protein transition will not be achieved by a single approach. The future will be a mix of plant-based, cultivated, mycelium-based, and hybrid solutions. Novamet’s innovation fills a crucial gap in this spectrum: whole cuts and pulled meats. By unlocking the textures that meat lovers crave, they enable flexitarians and meat-eaters to shift more of their diet toward sustainable options—without compromise.

Founded in 2018 by Dr. Giuseppe Scionti, a tissue engineering expert, Novameat has developed and patented a unique process that re-creates the fibrous structure of animal tissue using plant proteins such as peas, rice, and seaweed. Flavor, texture, and mouthfeel are achieved with a short, clean ingredient list—a technological breakthrough refined in collaboration with world-class chefs from the Michelin-starred restaurant Disfrutar.

Scaling impact: building a sustainable food system
Novameat is now scaling production, supplying ingredients and products to food manufacturers, foodservice, and retail. With this, they aim to become a cornerstone in the global transition to a healthier, more humane, and more sustainable food system.

We see Novameat as the missing piece in the alternative protein puzzle: the hero that can finally bring plant-based whole cuts and pulled products to the center of the plate. By making credible, scalable, and delicious alternatives, they are helping to feed a growing population while protecting our climate, our ecosystems, and animal welfare.

Arborea’s food ingredients and proteins are wholly vegan, Non-GMO, hormone-free and mostly carbon neutral. The unique functioning mechanisms of the BioSolar Leaf impedes contamination to produce the safest and purest ingredients.

Arborea’s team is composed of exceptional scientists and engineers from world-leading institutions such as Imperial College London, Oxford University and UC Berkeley. The team is comprised of experts in industrial biotechnology with a cumulative 50+ years of industry experience, combined with the commercial acumen that is required to effectively execute their vision of a prosperous, sustainable future.

The project has already received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, and is continuously supported by strong scientific and business advisors from world-class organizations.

At Rubio, we believe that Arborea can play a major role in fighting climate change. Their technology means that we will be able to produce clean and healthy food while harmonizing with Earth’s regulatory carbon-cycles on a massive scale! Our investment will enable Arborea to take a quantum leap. The funding has helped them to scale their BSL technology to a demo facility in Portugal, which is used to demonstrate their ability to cultivate commercial-grade phycocyanin and astaxanthin, which are high-value functional ingredients used in food and beverage applications, nutraceuticals and cosmetics.

Mosa develops the technology and facilities to produce cultivated cow meat that is identical to conventionally raised meat. Cultivated meat is produced by taking a small sample of cells from a live animal, and growing meat from these cells in a controlled environment. The result is real meat without slaughtering animals, and a dramatically reduced environmental impact with 80-90% less greenhouse gas emissions and 95% less land use. Mosa Meat has the right approach to cultivated meat and are focused on beef as it is the meat type with by far the largest environmental impact. Mosa is fully committed to a non-GMO approach, and, besides the starter cells, does not use any animal ingredients in its process.

The Mosa team has been working on this technology for over a decade, and has its origins in 2006 as a Dutch government funded academic project on cultivated meat at Maastricht University. Its co-founders Mark Post and Peter Verstrate created the world’s first cultivated hamburger. They spun the company out of the university in 2017 and raised a Series A in 2018.

With its data platform and plug-and-play climate data hardware, 30MHz raises the bar for sustainable and data-based agriculture worldwide—from cultivation to harvest, and from packaging to shipping. Farmers use the platform to exchange knowledge, experiences, and strategies, introducing each other to new opportunities and tackling challenges together. By accelerating the use of data in farming practices, 30MHz is helping build a more sustainable and future-proof food system.

In addition to offering access to its cloud-based data insights, 30MHz provides affordable plug & play climate sensors, opening up advanced tools to mid- and low-tech clients who previously lacked access.

The independence of the platform, with the option for growers to share their data with knowledge partners, fills an important gap in the market. Its accessible pricing enables growers with different technology budgets to benefit from data-driven insights and democratizes knowledge. Ultimately, this contributes to a more sustainable and resilient food system.

While the company has faced challenges along the way, including bankruptcy and a new ownership structure, the core mission remains unchanged: empowering farmers with the tools and knowledge they need to thrive. We remain proud of the lasting impact 30MHz continues to make in advancing sustainable agriculture.