Meet the Buyer event – Icos Capital

Venue: Scale Up Final Event: online matchmaking

Icos Capital is a venture capital firm based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The firm specializes in early-stage and startup investments with a geographical focus on EU and Israel (late seed, series A and series B companies).

Buyer profile

What is their business?

The firm invests in industrial digitization and sustainability propositions for agri-food & (bio)chemical sectors including health food, bio-based chemicals, big data analytics and artificial intelligence. The fund operates in CVC formula and is supported by three corporate investors: Nouryon (the former AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals), Bühler Group (machine and factory builder for the food processing and chemical industry), Royal Cosun (food processing of (amongst others) sugar (SuikerUnie), potato products (Aviko) and health food ingredients (Sensus), as well as public sector investors Rotterdam city, Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, EU/PFR (the Polish Development Bank).

What are they looking for?

The firm invests in the cleantech propositions with focus on digitization and sustainability within the agri-food and chemical sectors. Investment themes include health food, bio-based chemicals and materials, big data analytics and artificial intelligence for smart industry. ICOS strives to invest in companies with strong impact in terms of decarbonization within a 10 years investment horizon. Typically Series A + B financing rounds.

The firm invests in the digitization and sustainability propositions for agri-food and chemical sectors including health food, bio-based chemicals, big data analytics. and artificial intelligence. Some of the current specific areas of interest are the following:

Agrifood:
- plant-based proteins and other protein alternatives
- cell cultured meat
- healthy innovative food ingredients.
Lowering CO2 footprint of food processing and chemical industry
Reuse of side streams and waste streams
Waste water reuse, recycling
Including exploring opportunity of value creation through side streams like
- biosurfactants,
- biopolymers for chemicals and materials
- bio based chemicals
Smart industry solutions like
- Predictive maintenance
- Assistance at distance
- AI tooling
- Automation
- Digitization
Industrial biotech
Carbon Capture (Storage + Usage)

We have over 15 years experience in this sector and we know how to scale companies in this field. We work with corporate investors in our fund who are keen to collaborate and help portfolio companies scale up. We also have a large network of other corporations in our investment area as well as access to potential co-investors and experience with attracting other funding sources for our portfolio companies.

In our experience, start-ups have to grow to scale-ups through striking multi-million contracts with large players in the market. In our focus areas, scale-up companies have propositions for industrial and typically B2B markets which requires specific go-to-market strategy and sales execution.

How can you apply?

If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact your regional SCALE-UP partner, briefly outlining the interest of your company in the Buyer’s case. You should include a summary of why your product or service meets the Buyer's needs, a link to your website and your contact details.

SCALE-UP PARTNERS

This Meet the Buyer event is an exclusive invitation for companies associated with the partner organisations in the North Sea region. Cleantech member organisations have joined forces in the Interreg SCALE-UP project to enable cross-border business contacts between SMEs with green solutions and established large companies. The overall aim is to facilitate for innovative cleantech companies to scale up your start-up. Consultants at the member organisations help participants prepare the meetings and support them through the business process.