ESM's Stephen Wynne-Jones catches up with former Metro chief executive Olaf Koch, who is now funding the future of food with his Zintinus investment vehicle. This article first appeared in ESM's September/October 2023 edition.
Taking its name from the Latin word for sustainable, Zintinus was founded in 2021, with the aim of fostering an emerging generation of food start-ups that have sustainability and social governance at their core.
While the global food-and-beverage industry – which is worth a whopping $8 trillion – has had to navigate choppy waters recently, the momentum around sustainability, health, functionality and tackling food waste has continued to accelerate, and it is only likely to account for an increasingly larger piece of the pie as the decade progresses.