Betting on startups to fast-track a regenerative food future

Are we entering a golden age for tech entrepreneurship? With so many investment funds ready and willing to finance innovative projects and the startups behind them, the food and ag tech world may be on the verge of truly realizing its transformative potential. So is now the right time to bet on foodtech startups? How can we use this momentum to turn the entire system towards a regenerative and sustainable future? We talk about this and more with Mark Durno, Managing Partner of Rockstart AgriFood.

About Mark Durno

Mark's goal is to empower agrifood founders to drive the transformation to a regenerative and sustainable future food system. He is Managing Partner of Rockstart’s €22m+ AgriFood Fund, offering early stage startups access to capital, market, expertise and community through a customised program and follow-on investments. Mark is Scottish, based between Copenhagen and Amsterdam. He has a background in conventional/organic agriculture, law, early stage venture and vertical farming, having established some of Europe’s first commercial vertical farms since 2010. Mark is a qualified Scottish lawyer and holds an Executive MBA from Rotterdam School of Management.

About Rockstart AgriFood

Rockstart AgriFood gives you access to scale your business and helps drive the transformation to a regenerative and sustainable future. We shortcut your financing journey through domain focused mentorship and market introductions, customised content continuing with co-investments up to Series B.

Rockstart is a global accelerator-VC empowering purpose-driven founders. Through our €22+ million fund focused on AgriFood startups we are dedicated to finding and investing in top tier founders. We empower early-stage startups going from early market validation to becoming market-leading companies, starting with our accelerator program and continuing with our co-investments. 

Rockstart AgriFood is for (pre-)seed stage startups with a focus on agtech and foodtech (agrifood), who can show signs of traction (commercial, academic or other) and aspire to take a structured approach towards scaling the business. Your startup can be pre or post-revenue. Our customized program runs for five months, online and onsite (if local health regulations allow in Copenhagen and Amsterdam).