Investment Climate Podcast

Alex Shandrovsky
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship

We are uncovering the investment playbooks of successful Climate Tech CEOs and Leading VCs.

  1. 5d ago

    Experience Doesn't Pay Bills, Money Does | Arnav Pandey, Myca

    Arnav Pandey is co-founder and CEO of Myca, which builds "super intelligence for agribusinesses": AI agents that sit on top of existing ERPs and CRMs and take over reasoning decisions in procurement, sales, credit and farmer engagement, turning WhatsApp messages, calls and photos from field teams into structured workflows. Before Myca, Arnav and co-founders Tejas Dinkar and Seamus Tardif were on the founding team of Jiva, Olam's smallholder venture in Indonesia. Arnav tells Alex how they handled investor objections, why they walked away from a term sheet, and why raising smaller was the right call. 💰 Check size/round: $1.3M pre-seed led by Kriscore Capital, with Eximius Ventures and Indigram Labs Foundation (AgFunderNews). 🌍 Geography: Headquartered in India, with founders in Singapore. Launched in India and Indonesia, now active in eight countries and expanding across Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa. 🌱 Focus areas: Agri-input manufacturers and distributors, and harvest procurement businesses with $100M+ in top line or field teams of 500+ people. 🎙️ In this episode From Jiva (Olam) to Myca: building the tech behind a ~300,000-tonne-a-year corn procurement operation Where agribusiness margins disappear: field force, management layers, tech spend and bad credit Build vs buy: why millions a year in-house loses to a $200K software line Answering "will agri pay for software?" with competitors' annual reports Shrinking a planned bigger raise into a pre-seed, and why that was the right call Walking away from a term sheet: "would we sign this if we never got the valuation we want?" Raising from ex-colleagues and angels, and being honest about the risk Not every great business should be venture-funded, and Africa's chance to leapfrog 🎧 Hosted by Alex Shandrovsky | Investment Climate Podcast 📰 Media partners: FoodTech Weekly · vegconomist 🔗 Myca: https://www.myca.ag 🚀 Find active agrifood investors on FTW Hub: https://www.foodtechweekly.com/hub?utm_source=ic_podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=myca_arnav #agrifood #agribusiness #AI #agenticAI #fundraising #preseed #startups #InvestmentClimate #FoodTechWeekly

    Experience Doesn't Pay Bills, Money Does | Arnav Pandey, Myca

  2. Oct 14

    Investing Is Not Enough | Cintia Nunes, The Mills Fabrica

    Writing a cheque is not enough. Cintia Nunes, General Manager & Head of Asia at The Mills Fabrica, explains how The Mills Fabrica, a corporate-backed global innovation platform, backs techstyle and agrifood tech founders with far more than capital. 💰 Check size: $200K–$3M into startups, seed to Series B; up to $5M into VC funds. 🌍 Geography: global mandate, ~70–80% of the portfolio in the US and Europe, with a growing focus on Asia. 🌱 Focus areas: techstyle and agrifood tech. Portfolio includes Circ, Colorifix, Mango Materials and Geltor; fund LP in AgFunder and SOSV. 🎙️ In this episode: How The Mills Fabrica works as a global platform for techstyle and agrifood techWhy investors need to support people, not just startupsHelping portfolio companies scale in Asia with strategic supportLooking beyond carbon: planetary boundaries in impact investingHow investors can support founders during diligence🎧 Hosted by Alex Shandrovsky | Investment Climate Podcast 📰 Media partners: FoodTech Weekly · vegconomist 🔗 The Mills Fabrica: https://www.themillsfabrica.com 🚀 Find active agrifood investors on FTW Hub: https://www.foodtechweekly.com/hub?utm_source=ic_podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=hub_ad #FoodTech #AgriFoodTech #Techstyle #VentureCapital #ImpactInvesting #Asia

    Investing Is Not Enough | Cintia Nunes, The Mills Fabrica

  3. Oct 12

    Why Germany Needed a New Olive Oil Brand | Julius Rüßmann, OYL Foods

    Olive oil is everywhere in German supermarkets, so why build another brand? Julius Rüßmann, co-founder of Berlin-based OYL Foods, says the category has lacked a real brand for years. He spent years as an investor before switching sides to found OYL with his longtime friend Nicolas Linsenmaier. 🏭 What they make: an olive oil brand for German retail, now moving into organic olive oil production closer to the farms. 🌍 Geography: based in Berlin, selling into German retail, with production in northern Portugal. 🌱 Focus areas: CPG, olive oil, and building a brand in a big category no one has branded. 🎙️ In this episode: The problem with olive oil in German retail, and why big categories that no one has built a brand in are an openingThe partners behind OYL's latest round, including IBB Ventures and an experienced angel from Germany's frozen-pizza industryMoving into organic olive oil production in northern Portugal, closer to the farmsWhat changes when you go from investor to founder, and how to get onto retail shelves🎧 Hosted by Alex Shandrovsky | Investment Climate Podcast 📰 Media partners: FoodTech Weekly · vegconomist 🔗 OYL Foods: https://oylfoods.com 🚀 Find active agrifood investors on FTW Hub: https://www.foodtechweekly.com/hub?utm_source=ic_podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=hub_ad #FoodTech #CPG #OliveOil #VentureCapital #Germany #FoodInvesting

    Why Germany Needed a New Olive Oil Brand | Julius Rüßmann, OYL Foods

  4. Oct 1

    Oliver Fuss × Tony Grinston — Dual Use: Agri-Food × Army (FoodFunder / AER)

    Oliver Fuss (FoodFunder) sits down with Michael "Tony" Grinston — 16th Sergeant Major of the Army (2019–2023) and CEO of Army Emergency Relief — for Episode 1 of Dual Use: Agri-Food × Army. The U.S. Army spends billions each year on food, materials, and biotech, yet most agri-food startups have no clear path in. This conversation opens that gap: what the Army actually needs from feeding and readiness, how change gets funded and scaled, and how founders can engage without wasting cycles on the wrong doors. Topics include: • Why fuel (not just fitness) is the missing readiness piece — and how DFAC modernization became a signal of how far feeding ops had to move • Campus-style dining as a live garrison model (choice, quality, off-DFAC operators) • How Army initiatives actually scale: champion + POM budget + accountable leadership • What soldiers adopt in the field: taste first, then performance, then emergency rations — and why weight/cube matter in contested logistics • Practical founder engagement: AUSA/LANPAC and logistics/food shows, innovation labs on large posts, and bringing real problem data Guest: Michael "Tony" Grinston — 16th SMA; CEO, Army Emergency Relief (from Jan 2024); first former NCO to lead AER. Signature feeding/readiness pushes include campus-style dining, DFAC modernization, Go for Green, and Holistic Health & Fitness (H2F). Host: Oliver · FoodFunder Series: Dual Use — Agri-Food × Army Distribution: Food Tech Weekly / Investment Climate Podcast Links: • Army Emergency Relief: https://www.armyemergencyrelief.org/ • FoodFunder: https://foodfunder.com/ • Food Tech Weekly: https://news.foodtechweekly.com/

    Oliver Fuss × Tony Grinston — Dual Use: Agri-Food × Army (FoodFunder / AER)

  5. Sep 30

    The Drop: Raising Money During A Down Market - Featuring - Mark Kahn, Divya Murthy, And Tomas Turner

    Live from The Drop 2026 with Mark Kahn (Managing Partner, Omnivore), Divya Murthy (Principal, Oyster Bay Venture Capital), and Tomas Turner (CEO & Co-founder, Cosaic). We dig into how AgriFoodTech founders and investors are actually raising and deploying today, funds under management, what still works in a tough market, and the human side of private capital: connect before business, chase excellence over money, and why CEOs should still talk to VCs after a raise. Guests: Mark Kahn: Omnivore (Global South agrifood VC)Divya Murthy: Oyster Bay (European early-stage agri-food)Tomas Turner: Cosaic (yeast fermentation / clean-label ingredients)Hosted by Alex Shandrovsky · Investment Climate Podcast · FoodTech Weekly Want me to put this on the episode as-is, or tweak tone/length first?

    The Drop: Raising Money During A Down Market - Featuring - Mark Kahn, Divya Murthy, And Tomas Turner

  6. Sep 18

    Guillaume Béland (Zone Agtech): Quebec’s Agrifood Hub, CapEx→OpEx & Strategic Capital for Founders

    Guillaume Béland of Zone Agtech walks through Quebecs “City of Ag & Food Tech industrial land near Montreal, cheap hydro power, and a third/third/third funding model with government and banks. He explains how founders can shift facility CapEx into leases/OpEx, tap R&D supports via the innovation complex (labs ~Jan 2027), and set up a Montreal HQ without moving IP. Alex and Guillaume cover fit criteria, visas, timelines, and the top deal-breakers: offtake, regulation, and supply.

  7. Sep 8

    Adam Tarshis (Mozza Foods) — Growing Real Casein in Soybeans

    Adam Tarshis, co-founder and CEO of Mozza Foods, joins Alex Shandrovsky on the Investment Climate podcast. Mozza is a molecular farming company engineering soybeans to produce authentic dairy casein — the protein that makes cheese melt and stretch — as a drop-in ingredient for dairy manufacturers, without cows and without building precision-fermentation factories. In this episode: why molecular farming beats bioreactors for cost parity, funding deep tech in food when capital is scarce, infrastructure and regulation paths (USDA/FDA), and what it takes to get soybean-grown casein to market (target launch late 2028). Guest: Adam Tarshis, Co-founder & CEO, Mozza Foods Host: Alex Shandrovsky Media partners: vegconomist · Food Tech Weekly Book a conversation: https://cal.com/foodtechweekly/1-1-call

    Adam Tarshis (Mozza Foods) — Growing Real Casein in Soybeans

  8. Sep 8

    Javed Husain (Totaleehalal) — Bootstrapping a UK Halal Food Delivery Marketplace

    In this episode, I sit down with Javed Husain, Founder & CEO of Totaleehalal — the UK's halal-only food delivery marketplace for restaurants, groceries, and meat, built around strict halal assurance (HMC-certified positioning) so Muslim consumers aren't guessing what's on the plate. Javed came out of advertising/media and bootstrapped Totaleehalal after an exit rather than raising a classic VC round. We get into why he built a 100% halal marketplace instead of sitting on existing delivery apps, how certification and contamination controls actually work in food delivery, the London rollout (West/East) and path to broader UK coverage, and what kind of capital — if any — fits a values-driven, assurance-first consumer marketplace. 🎧 Listen for the bootstrap story, the halal-assurance ops playbook, and what support Totaleehalal needs next from the Food Tech Weekly community. Key Facts: Totaleehalal Javed Husain (Founder & CEO) Based: London, UK What they do: Halal-only food delivery marketplace (restaurants, groceries, fresh meat) with strict certification / no non-halal contamination; charity pledge in launch coverage.

    Javed Husain (Totaleehalal) — Bootstrapping a UK Halal Food Delivery Marketplace
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About

We are uncovering the investment playbooks of successful Climate Tech CEOs and Leading VCs.

Information

  • Creator
    Alex Shandrovsky
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    146
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Alex Shandrovsky
  • Show Website
    Investment Climate Podcast