The fund will focus on food and agriculture technology companies.

Based in Luxembourg, Astanor Ventures combines capital, technology, and sector expertise to invest in businesses that build regenerative, scalable, and nourishing food solutions. Using this philosophy, Astanor has invested in more than 20 startups. It is now raising $325 million to invest in food and agriculture technology companies across Europe and North America. (FINSMES)

It would be Europe’s biggest fund of this kind to date.

Astanor is an impact investor

On its website, Astanor says it is an impact investor that delivers financial, social, and environmental returns in equal measure.

Its investments are based on the bedrock of a set of principles: Regenerative; Food Integrity; Sustainable Diet; Fresh and delicious; Nourish, Conserve.

Astanor is a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).

Speaking to TechCrunch on the occasion of the launch of the new impact fund, Eric Archambeau, co-founder and partner of Astanor Ventures said:  “There is now an urgent need for an impact investor like Astanor which is using tech and capital to bring about a revolution in food and farming.”

Eric Archambeau and George Coelho founded Astanor Ventures in 2017. They were early investors in Spotify (NYSE: SPOT).

“When Daniel Ek started Spotify, he had a lot of wind against him from the music industry,” Archambeau told Sifted. “But with determination and technology, he managed to carve out a new future for musicians.”

“The thing is very much the same here… we need to propose and promote a new way of [tackling the agri-food industry] and that’s going to take a while.”

Astanor Ventures Portfolio

Astanor’s investments include:

• Ynsect – insect farming for feeding pets and in aquaculture
• Infarm – vertical farming
• La Ruche Qui dit Oui – A French farm-to-table supplier
• Notpla – plastic packaging substitute from seaweed
• Apeel Sciences – food waste reduction

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