Growing
a new breed of game-changers in sustainable agriculture
Our Mission
The >5 trillion Euro food value chain is facing inevitable disruption and market shifts over the
next decade through regulation and global trends.
Amathaon Capital backs the most promising solutions to the greatest challenges of our generation with capital, industry know-how and a strong network.
Following the success of Amathaon Capital and our Entrepreneurs since launching our first synergetic and integrated portfolio strategy we are stepping up the game for the next generation
Our Focus
Our specific interest and subsequent investment focus lies all around finding solutions to major challenges in the upstream food value chain from inputs through farming to trading.
AgBioTech
New biological solutions, processes and technology aiming at major real challenges and regulation driven market shifts (e.g. Seed Genetics, Microbiome, Fertilizer).
Software, Computational Ag, Sensing & IoT
Holistic and full stack solutions enabling the support of physical action in increasingly automated environments (e.g. Supply Chain OS, Computational Platforms).
Farm Robotics, Mechanization & Equipment
Hardware is an essential part to connect data to physical action and vice versa and create real value to production (e.g. Tool Carriers, Implements, Real Time OS).
Marketplaces &
Trading Platforms
Full stack, holistic solutions that are capable of solving an entire customer challenge in smart and integrated ways (e.g. commodity trading, asset and servitization platforms).
Novel Farming Systems
Automated and novel growing operations that build on system integration to bring automation to ag at scale (e.g. greenhouse automation, farm to retail integrations).
We Invest in Radical Long-Term Solutions & Visionary Founders on A Mission
Entrepreneurs We Back
We are happy to have Amathaon Capital on board, an investor with a synergistic approach in the AgTech sector. They will accompany us on our journey towards greater sustainability in agriculture and support us in expanding our activities.
Dr. Sebastian J. Schultheiss
The Amathaon team has the relevant know-how, ambition, and mindset to help us make our vision a reality.
Dr. Max Gulde
Amathaon is not only a financier for us, but a valuable sparring partner who actively supports us in overcoming challenges.
Dr. Nicolas Lohr
We found in Amathaon the same enthusiasm, professionalism, and the strive for success that we see in ourselves.
Raviv Kula
We we’re looking for an investment partner that could provide value through a deep understanding of Agtech and had the same focus on sustainability, circular economy and climate change mitigation. In Amathaon we found a partner, who is strongly aligned with our vision, and also has a solid network in Ag in Europe.
Michael Riedjik
We value the in-depth knowledge of the AgTech market that Amathaon brings to the table as well as the complementary portfolio that they are setting up.
Joris Hiddema
About Us
Deep Industry Expertise
We help founders with a global industry ecosystem and strong in-house industry knowledge.
Synergetic Portfolio Approach
We look for inter-operability and synergies between portfolio companies’ solutions and products to raise value and resource efficiency.
Hands-On Advice
We support entrepreneurs actively to increase value and speed by providing hands-on advice, operational support and actively utilizing our network.
Solution Focus
We help founders keep focus on solutions, getting early tractions and support market entry.
Our Team
We will go out of our way to support our entrepreneurs to be successful in their endeavours and be the best they can be.
We are not your traditional venture capital team of financial investors. We are industry and subject matter experts, have run our own companies and build an integrated setup to support the entrepreneurs we believe in through all stages of their ventures.
A Strong Team of Experts & Advisors For Our Entrepreneurs
Borris Förster
Borris is Co-Founder and Managing Partner. He’s responsibe for our investment strategy and portfolio composition. Borris has spent well over a decade in AgriFood and company building across several industries and geographies. Previously Borris led the agri-food and innovation business at eccelerate, advising clients on global tech and commercial strategy. Alongside his role at Amathaon serves as advisory board for AgriFoodTech at the German Agricultural Bank and holds several other board positions in the industry.
Dr. Tobias Schönhaar, LL.M.
Tobias is Co-Founder and Managing Partner. He’s responsible for deal execution & legal matters. Tobias is one of the most prominent and award winning experts on venture capital deals in Germany and beyond, with more than 13 years’ experience and executing well over 300 deals. He understands the challenges of research-intensive ventures and SaaS business extremely well, having focused on these areas over the past decade.
Dr. Ralph Beckers
Ralph is a Venture Partner and advisor on biology & agronomy. Ralph has spent more than 30 years in agriculture, AgBioTech and agronomy in several leading roles from crop strategy to biotech innovation. His wealth of knowledge around plant science, agronomy in general and related regulatory affairs makes him the go-to-guy on all questions related to agronomy, biotechnology and regulation.
Frank Hock
Frank is our Venture Partner and advisor on complex financial matters. Frank has spent his entire live in the financial industry across a wealth of sectors. He has facilitated billion-dollar global mergers, lead major financial corporations in C-Level positions and built financial instruments across several industries including agriculture. His global network, smarts and experience in the financial and investment field make him invaluable to our portfolio companies, espeacially at later stages. He’s served.
Erik Kemsies
Erik is our most versatile asset and supports the deal process as Investment Associate. Erik has been working with analyzing, acquiring, and supporting international businesses for several years. He is assessing the viability of business cases und supports the overall deal execution as well as the development of the investments after acquisition.
Matthias Carell
Matthias is our expert for Technology & Organisation. His technical knowledge creates the main benefit for our portfolio. His work experience reaches back over two decades during which he implemented and sized all kinds of systems, but most importantly: also made sure they were performing towards expectations.
Stephen Riehm
Stephan is our expert for Data & Architecture. Stephen has more than 30 years experience in the analysis, design and implementation of software systems in the software, telecommunications, energy and ecommerce industries. His broad knowledge and hands-on experience with all aspects of software architecture at the enterprise level gives him a unique perspective for identifying risks and potential gains in a wide range of software projects.
Tobias Menne
Tobias is Advisor for Agribusiness & Digital Farming. Tobias has been running a large farming operation in Ukraine and build up agtech businesses and organisations across the Americas and Europe for over 25 years. He is focused on value propositions and Go-to-market strategies. Tobias is a Senior Executive in BASF, a leading crop protection and seeds company.
Our Partners
Trusting, cooperative and long-term partnerships with people and organizations that share our values and our mission are essential to the success of our Entrepreneurs – and thus our mission at Amathaon Capital.
In 2020 we found this partner in Saxovent – and Saxovent found this partner in us. From the first hour Saxovent has believed in our mission and hypothesis that investment portfolios in agriculture have to be build different in order to be highly successful and generate positive impact at scale. Together with Saxovent as a strong financial and sparring partner we have setup the first dedicated AgTech and AgBioTech investment company in Europe with a synergetic portfolio approach. We build our investment strategy on the fact that the agri-food supply chain has to work in tight cooperation among all parts – and with nature itself. Hence, when we make investment decisions we pay great attention to the synergetic potential and portfolio fit creating higher value for customers, planet and human kind.
Together we provide a lasting foundation for our Entrepreneurs with a long-term investment strategy.
We are continuously impressed by the entrepreneurs and companies Amathaon identifies as investment targets. Thanks to their strong value proposition as deeply industry rooted experts with an extensive network, Amathaon regularly succeeds in making attractive investments and creating real value for the portfolio companies, partners and investors.
Carsten Paatsch
Since the beginning of our journey with Borris and Tobias Amathaon went on to build a portfolio with outstanding potential. With their integrated setup the speed, efficiency and depth is exceptional. The value of our investment has increased significantly and our expectations have been clearly exceeded – in terms of both climate and capital ROI.
Matthias Kittler
We have come to know and value Saxovent as a visionary partner; they address the challenges caused by climate change with an authenticity that few others can match. They truly embody their values and support our mission.
Borris Förster
Good to Know Before You Get in Touch
When are we the right partners for you? Some common questions and answers.
At what stage do you invest?
We usually enter when you are close to commercialisation (in hardware and R&D intensive fields) or you have revenue and a compelling trajectory.
At what stage do you invest?
We usually enter when you are close to commercialisation (in hardware and R&D intensive fields) or you have revenue and a compelling trajectory.
What sort of investment can I expect from you?
We prefer entry tickets between EUR 0.7M and EUR 1.2M. In some exceptional circumstances we may adjust this to suit.
Will you invest if my headquarter is not located in Europe?
We take the view that we should be able to deliver more than simply capital. That usually means we would like to see your plans for the European market. Whether you made these plans to conquer the old continent sipping some good tea in Asia or a cold IPA in America doesn’t really matter to us.
What are you looking for in a company to invest in?
- We are looking for versatile, complementary and resilient teams who understand the industry and have a very clear vision and mission
- A clear focus on major pains or market shifts to capitalize on
- Building solutions addressing billion Euro problems and opportunities
- A crystal clear story and commercialization plan (and how deal with uncertainty)
- Gaining value from our portfolio and network – we like synergies if they make economic sense
What are you not expecting?
We do not expect you to have it all figured out knowing everything. Instead, we want you to be open and engage with us on possible solutions, how we may help and how you will approach the accepted uncertainty.
What is the best way to get in touch?
As with almost everything in business it is best to approach us with a warm introduction by someone we already know and trust. Of course, this is not some hard criteria and sometimes may not work. So if after reading this you feel we should talk and our networks don’t yet intersect then feel free to drop us an e-mail with concise answers to the following questions (NOTE: if you do not know an answer yet, write down how you intend to find out):
- what you do?
- who you are (one liner on each founder)?
- who pays money for what you do?
- why they will be paying money for it?
- what they currently do to solve the problem you are addressing?
- who is your direct customer (can be more than one)?
- what have you achieved in what timeframe / your traction (revenue, LoIs, beta users signed, DAU/WAU/MAU etc.)?
- What’s the bigger picture (your vision)?
- what are you looking for from us?
- Where can we see / read about what you do?