“I would say it’s harder to find companies now, startups and scale-ups, that are not contributing to sustainability than the other way round. Eighty percent of startups have a strong sustainability chapter in their business plan. ”
— Peter Arensman
Peter Arensman is an experienced entrepreneur and investor in sustainable agriculture and food chains. He is a Founding Partner of the investment company People, Planet, Profit, and the venture capital investment firm, Future Food Fund.
Growing up on a farm in the Netherlands, Peter went on to study for a Masters in Business & Economics at the University of Rotterdam. Following his graduation, he took a job with he American global food firm, Cargill, but soon realized that working for a large corporation wasn’t for him, recognizing he was an entrepreneurial at heart. This led him to first found the IT company, Attecc BV, and then acquire the company, Signal. After eight years, he decided to sell both companies and ‘started again’ at the age of thirty-five, founding the financial professional subcontracting company BAS Consultancy.
In this episode, we discuss how, after reaching a certain level of financial success, Peter realized he gained no satisfaction from earning more and more money and instead found satisfaction in gaining more knowledge. Hence his return to University to study for his third Degree in Agricultural Engineering.
Peter then founded People, Planet, Profit, which was his first venture into responsible investment, and then later he went on to found the VC investment firm, Future Food Fund. In this episode, I discuss with Peter Future Food Fund’s portfolio approach, how they select their investments and you will hear some real-life examples of investments they have made.
A strong business development professional, Peter sits on the boards of several companies, is a Guest Lecturer at Wageningen University, and holds Masters Degrees in Business Economics, Financial Law, and Agricultural Engineering.
I really enjoyed this far-reaching discussion with Peter and hope you will too!
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. You can watch the interview on YouTube here.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…
SELECTED LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:
- Connect with Peter Arensman: LinkedIn
- AgFunder
- Bas Consultancy
- Beyond Burger
- Cargill
- Erasmum University Rotterdam
- Foamplant
- Forbes 500
- Future Food Fund
- Gorillas
- Moyee
- People Planet Profit
- Pieter Pot
- Roundup
- University of Wageningen
- Vereniging Veronica
SHOW NOTES:
[00:00] Episode introduction
[05:45] Peter describes his childhood, growing up on a farm in the Netherlands
[07:59] How Peter came to study for a Masters in Business & Economics at the University of Rotterdam, returning to take a third Degree years later
[09:52] Peter shares his view that making money can be addictive, and describes his satisfaction for gaining knowledge
[12:35] Peter describes his early career path
[13:59] How Peter came to found Attecc B.V. and then acquire the company Signal
[15:22] Starting from scratch again at the age of 35 and the founding of BAS Consultancy
[18:18] Founding People, Planet, Profit and the thinking behind the company
[18:42] We hear about the BAS Gives Foundation
[20:02] Thought Leader, Eckhart Wintzen, and the People, Planet, Profit idea
[21:19] We hear more about People, Planet, Profit and their company mission
[24:28] How People, Planet, Profit make their investment selections
[26:28] How Peter came to found the Future Food Fund in 2015
[29:29] We hear more about the Future Food Fund and its mission
[31:33] How the business start-up culture in the Netherlands has improved over the last ten years
[34:11] The Future Food Fund’s focus on AgTech and FoodTech and the problems they are trying to solve
[40:22] Peter talks about setting up Future Food Fund 2
[41:15] How the Future Food Fund differs from traditional technology VC’s
[46:57] We hear how the Future Food Fund select their investments
[47:57] Some real-life examples of investments Future Food Fund has made
[55:42] The single most important challenge in the sustainable VC space right now
[56:41] What Peter knows about sustainable investing now that he wishes he knew earlier
[58:06] Peter shares his advice on how to get into the VC Agtech/Foodtech investment space
MORE PETER ARENSMAN QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW:
“I decided not to give away 10% of our GP, but to invest 100% of our GP in world improving companies, to create economic progress in countries with low living standards.”
— Peter Arensman
“We (Netherlands) had a very bad startup culture…it has improved a lot in the last ten years, the Government has really stimulated this.”
— Peter Arensman
“There’s no shortage of food in the world. People always talk about food waste…but nine out of ten discussions about food waste are emotional, because the people like to compare starving children in Africa with throwing food in your bin in the Netherlands…which of course is not a good comparison, because the food is here, it’s not there. It’s very easy to produce food for everyone, it’s not very easy to distribute it in an honest way.”
— Peter Arensman
“(Eckart Wintzen) introduced the triple P bottom line to me, People, Planet, Profits…I thought, if you combine these three words in everything you do in your life, and if everybody would do this, the world would be a great place to live in.”
— Peter Arensman
PEOPLE MENTIONED:
