ÄIO: Nemailla Bonturi shares how to get funded in 2024

Investment Climate Podcast: Fundraising Playbooks From Food Tech CEOs and VCs

In this podcast series, co-produced by vegconomist, Alex Shandrovsky interviews investors about benchmarks for funding Alt Proteins in 2024 and uncovers the investment playbooks of successful Climate Tech CEOs and Leading VCs.

Podcast Host Alex Shandrovksy is a strategic advisor to numerous global food tech accelerators and companies, including alternative proteins and cellular agriculture leaders. His focus is on investor relations and post-raise scale for agrifood tech companies.

Episode 3: ÄIO: Nemailla Bonturi shares how to get funded in 2024

In this episode, Alex talks to Nemailla, CEO of AIO, which are producing more sustainable fats and oils by using yeasts and upcycling side streams from industry and agriculture. She talked about the strategic approach to fundraising, challenges with European regulations, and the importance of versatile revenue streams. She also highlighted how local government grants played a pivotal role in setting up their pilot plant and expanding the team by providing €1.8 million in non-dilutive funding, which also improved their valuation.

Key Facts ÄIO:

Goal: To change the way we produce, consume and perceive foods and other products
Raised €6.1 Million, €1.8 million grant from the Estonian Business Innovation Agency.
Lead Investor is 2C Ventures
Joining the round was Nordic for Tech VC, Voima Ventures, and Smartcap

Alex’ Top Findings:

Prioritize Shorter Commercial Regulatory Path- Cosmetics are usually quicker than food in terms of regulation. “Our investors understand that novel food will take time. We are preparing ourselves. We're going to apply in the U.S. but also we are aiming for other verticals such as cosmetics. So we have already started to prepare to be added to this ink list so we can start selling cosmetics. So we have proof that it's also very versatile. So you can go to food, you can go to cosmetics, you can go to pet food. It's one process, one product, and a very diverse application. And that we are very driven towards the price.” Nemailla highlighted on the podcast.
Serendipitous Investor Connection at a Local Event. The company met its lead investor, 2C Ventures, through an unexpected encounter with an LP during a local event in Tallinn.
When choosing scale up partners make sure they speak your business language- in this case it was Singapore. “I think the first part is finding the partner that has all the capex you need. We work with side streams. It's not like rocket science that we need very fancy equipment. But of course we need to have the right set of equipment, and they need to follow exactly how we tell them. So they have to be flexible towards our know-how. So this is one point. The second point, what made AIO go to Singapore is the speed. They're very flexible, they are very good business people.” Nemailla added.