Tag Archives: PeakBridge

PeakBridge VC Opens Dutch Office At StartLife

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PeakBridge VC is strengthening its European presence by extending its partnership with StartLife, which includes the opening of a Peakbridge office at StartLife on Wageningen Campus. StartLife will assist PeakBridge in building a strong local community while better serving European startups in the Agrifoodtech space.

PeakBridge is a highly networked investment platform dedicated to managing funds worldwide building the infrastructure of agrifoodtech innovation. PeakBridge is focusing on innovative, scalable, and ESG-positive companies with protectable technologies that improve human nutrition and the food production value chain. PeakBridge invests globally in early-stage and series A companies.

In August 2021, PeakBridge joined the investor pool of StartLife alum Orbisk, a company that offers automated food waste monitor for hospitality organizations.

The fresh partnership will elevate the existing collaboration. Thomas van den Boezem, Senior Associate at PeakBridge and former StartLife staff member, will head up the Netherlands office and engage closely with the StartLife community.

Thomas says: “It’s a pleasure to take our partnership to the next level. With PeakBridge’s focus on investing in the most promising agrifoodtech companies, I’m looking forward to meeting and working with both early & growth-stage startups in the StartLife community.

Jan Meiling, Managing Director of StartLife, says :“Though we’ve always remained in close contact, we are really happy to see Thomas return to the StartLife office in his new role. It’s also great that PeakBridge’s Wageningen location joins their hubs in Malta, Dubai and Tel Aviv. We look forward to taking our collaboration to an even higher level, giving another great boost to the development of a sustainable food system.”

Startups, as well as other community members of StartLife are encouraged to reach out Thomas van den Boezem, or Lin Zhu, StartLife’s investor relationship manager.

 

p.s. Stay up to date with the latest news about and for agrifood startups, scale-ups and more via StartLife’s Linkedin or Twitter account or via the StartLife newsletter (8x a year).

Food Waste Monitor Orbisk Raises €1.05M Seed Funding

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StartLife alumnus Orbisk has successfully raised  €1.05M seed funding for its fully automated food waste monitor for hospitality organizations.  Orbisk will use the funding to further its R&D and go-to-market efforts and advance towards scale.

Using artificial intelligence, Orbisk’s waste monitors automatically identify what food and how much of it is thrown away by food service companies. By monitoring what food gets thrown out, restaurants and cafeterias not only reduce the amount of good food going into the garbage, they also save money by not spending it on food that customers don’t want. Orbisk’s solution is currently used by 50 restaurants, which are now benefiting from an average food waste reduction of 40 – 50%.

2.1 billion tons food waste

Food waste is big problem. Each year over 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted. This equals 4.4 billion tons in C02 emissions, which accounts for 8% of global CO2 emissions. Orbisk’s waste monitors are used in the hospitality industry, which accounts for 15% of all food waste globally. That is over 150 million tons food waste annually worldwide and 10 million tons annually in the EU alone.  Without impactful interventions, food waste is expected to grow to 2.1 billion tons by 2030, representing a major economic burden of €1.1 trillion on the hospitality sector and environmental burden on society.*

Investors double down their stakes

With so much potential impact, it is no wonder that this proven solution receives support from investors. The funding round was led by FoodSparks by PeakBridge VC (one of StartLife’s investor partners), with participation from EIT Food, and existing investors DOEN Participaties B.V. and Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM) of which the latter have doubled down on their prior investments in the company.

*Source: Catalyze Group

 

p.s. Stay up to date with the latest news about and for agrifood startups, scale-ups and more via StartLife’s Linkedin or Twitter account or via the StartLife newsletter (8x a year).