Hamburg-based venture capitalist Oyster Bay has closed its second fund at over €100 million, as one of Europe’s largest VCs focused on the future food market. The raise was oversubscribed, with backers including the European Investment Fund (EIF) and KfW. Building on a highly successful first fund that delivered more than 25% annual returns, the new vehicle sets out to combine strong financial performance with tangible sustainability impact.
Despite food being the world’s largest industry, representing 12% of global GDP and employing 40% of the global workforce, it still attracts less than 10% of climate-related investments. For Oyster Bay, this imbalance represents both a moral and economic opportunity.
Christoph Miller, founder and managing partner of Oyster Bay, says, “Food has so far been seen
in venture capital mainly as a short-lived trend investment, which is wrong. Nutrition is the
most underestimated future challenge of our society, and through our investments, we aim to
find solutions to its complex problems.”
Investing from experience, not from spreadsheets
Behind Oyster Bay stand founders Christoph Miller and Felix Leonhardt, entrepreneurs turned investors who have built and exited their own food companies. Miller, with more than three decades in the industry, founded Columbus Drinks, while Leonhardt was an early force behind sustainable consumer brands.
This dual background defines Oyster Bay’s approach: pragmatic, hands-on, and strategically selective. Leonhardt highlights, “Less than 0.1% of startups that apply are admitted into our portfolio. We invest from experience, not from spreadsheets.”
In an exclusive conversation with TFN, he adds, “The most important criterion is the quality of the team. We are looking for extremely ambitious yet humble founders. A rare combination. Grit, determination and a passion for what they do are key. No assholes is a key value for us – both with regards to the founders we back, our own team and our investors. This is clearly what differentiates the companies we back from the ones we decline.
In addition, we have a strict impact screening in our investment process – so each potential investment needs to have a clear positive impact along one of our core impact areas.
Finally, the business fundamentals have to be right. Our start-ups usually tackle an urgent problem in large markets, with a differentiated approach. Thankfully, there are many large markets along the food value chain. “
Their focus on long-term value over hype has already paid off. Fund I backed standout names such as Oatly, AirUp, True Gum, and GoodBytz. Fund II continues the same formula, targeting around 20 investments that will shape the next decade of the industry.
Leonhardt shares, “The most painful exercise for us in taking learnings from Fund I was to calculate the cost of omission on follow-on investments. We have some amazing companies in Fund I, yet we were quite limited by fund size. Sometimes we could not act as lead investor, and we could not follow-on. With Fund II, we now have up to EUR 15m for each of our investments.
What worked really well was a high engagement approach with our portfolio founders, which we will continue to execute with Fund II. “
Oyster Bay positions itself at the intersection of food, technology, and climate impact. As large food corporations face mounting pressure to decarbonise and rebuild fragile supply chains, startups offering traceability solutions, AI-enabled logistics, and sustainable ingredients are becoming key players.
What’s next?
With Fund II, Oyster Bay aims not just to scale successful startups but to redefine what high-performance investing looks like in one of the planet’s most critical sectors. The mission extends beyond capital deployment: to catalyse a global shift toward a smarter, cleaner, and fairer food system.
Leonhardt concludes, “The next 5-10 years will see a lot of change across the whole value chain. We think automation & robotics will affect every part of the value chain, and we will have a lot more controlled environments (think greenhouses) to produce food reliably despite unreliable weather patterns. Product innovation will focus on reliability and resiliency – thus, alternative ingredients will be commonplace. Alternative protein sources will become cost-competitive and taste-competitive with traditional protein sources in many sectors.
Oyster Bay’s role is to identify and scale exactly these kinds of breakthrough solutions. By backing the most promising founders early, we help accelerate the transition toward a food system that is both ecologically and economically sustainable. The food sector has a huge role to play in ensuring that we meet our climate goals – and so far we are far from being on track.”
