Manuel González, head of start-up innovation at Rabobank North America, tells the Financial Times that the challenge of feeding more people without exacerbating global climate change has made food technologies more important. “Over the past five years a lot of things have come together to make agricultural technologies more interesting for investors,” he says.
Seamore, a Dutch company selling seaweed harvested in Ireland as a pasta substitute, was among the summit’s attendees. “Seaweed is incredibly healthy, nutritious and the most sustainable food on the planet. You don’t need land to grow it, just sunlight and seawater,” says Seamore founder Willem Sodderland. Another participant, Australia-based Goterra, uses food waste to propagate fly larvae, which are then used as protein for animal feed.
Rabobank has lent a total of €93.2bn to the farm and food sector.