Venture Capital Scaling the Circular Economy: Inside a $200M Non-SaaS Fund w/ Costas Papaikonomou
In this episode of The Venture Capital Podcast, Jon Bradshaw and Peter Harris sit down with Costas Papaikonomou, co-founder of the $200M Una Terra Early Growth Fund, to unpack what it really takes to scale the circular economy.
Costas shares how his background in engineering, innovation consulting, and a successful exit to Accenture shaped Una Terra’s thesis: backing “drop-in” solutions that plug into existing industrial infrastructure instead of trying to rebuild the world from scratch.
They get into:
• Why packaging, waste and food ingredients are massive, underrated VC markets
• How regulation in Europe is reshaping single-use plastics and recycling
• Why Una Terra focuses on real-world unit economics first, impact second (but still runs as an Article 9 impact fund)
• Case studies: pulp-based bottle packaging, Greyparrot’s AI for waste sorting, and circular fashion brand Another Tomorrow
• Power law vs “normal distribution” returns, and why most exits will be strategic acquisitions, not unicorn IPOs
If you care about climate, industrial innovation, and non-SaaS venture opportunities, this one’s loaded.
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Costas Book (Disruption Fallacy): www.re8el.com
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