Icos Capital, a market-leading collaborative venture capital firm, has joined StartLife as investor partner. The partnership will see Icos Capital tap into StartLife’s sizable ecosystem while addressing the needs of agrifoodtech startups that are seeking guidance and investment.
Collaboration: a strategic approach to startup growth
Icos Capital is the sector’s premier early growth stage investor in Europe with investments in companies like Nutrileads (a StartLife alumnus), Gamaya, Innovopro and Bioactor. Icos and StartLife share their collaborative approach in which startups, corporates and investors are united to facilitate growth and impact for startups. The company believes that the new collaboration will help it tap into StartLife’s sizable ecosystem and actively engage with early and scale-up phase startups in the agrifood industry. Startups which could benefit significantly from meaningful training and business development support.
Founder and CEO of Icos Capital, Nityen Lal, comments: “We are impressed by the origination and professional contribution of StartLife to the agrifood venture capital industry. As an early stage venture capital firm with substantial interest in the agrifood sector, we look forward to working closely with StartLife and hope to meet high quality startups that have been curated and guided by the StartLife team.”
International agrifoodtech startups
For StartLife, the partnership will address agrifoodtech startups that are seeking guidance and investment, helping them to progress through the growth challenges into becoming scale ups. StartLife also sees the deal as an opportunity to strengthen its presence outside the Netherlands and expand internationally across the world.
Investor Relations Manager at StartLife, Lin Zhu, comments: “As one of the top agrifood investors, it is exciting to engage in a new partnership with Icos Capital. It feels very natural for us to build a relationship with the company as there is a lot of overlap in our ambitions and the ecosystems we are embedded in.”
“We believe Icos will be able to provide valuable, honest feedback to the companies in our ecosystem to better serve startups, not just at the domestic level, but also helping them to succeed internationally.”
About Icos Capital
Icos Capital is a collaborative venture capital firm working at the intersection of digital and sustainable industry. The firm engages corporations and financial institutions in a collaborative partnership to facilitate growth of promising scale-ups. Since 2005, Icos Capital has backed 20 ambitious startups and scale-ups at the intersection of digital and sustainable industry. Through collaborative venturing, Icos Capital has supported and continues to support companies with high potential to transform foodtech, agritech and industrial digitization.