If you are an agrifoodtech entrepreneur or venture capital investor, chances are you are conditioned to project or be presented a “hockey stick” revenue curve as the desired revenue growth trajectory for the start-up.
But now that capital-as-a-strategy is over how can start-ups deliver this “profitable growth” that VC investors are not asking?
In this first news of the series, we turn to SepPure Technologies
As large corporates are looking for solutions that provide savings and an ESG angle it becomes critical for start-ups to prove saving and prove it fast with their technology.
As per FAO’s research, “shifting the currently prevailing production paradigm carries some costs, with two particularly important implications. First, some productivity gains may have to be given up at least in the short to medium term, as a consequence of the adoption of more environmentally friendly techniques.”, This is something no private player can gladly accept without thinking through the consequences for its bottom line.
This is where SepPure shines, the startup has innovated on a chemical-resistant nanofiltration membrane technology that can replace distillation. Their technology performs chemical separation up to 20X faster than industry leaders, allowing for a 90% reduction in the energy bill and CO2 emissions together with 50% reductions in operating costs. Seems too good to be true?
Considering that SepPure’s customer pipeline covers more than 50% of the top ten largest vegetable oil producers in the world it seems they have cracked the code to deliver on both the ESG and economic fronts.
Startups should be cautious about hiding behind the ESG curtain when pitching their innovation. It may be well received, but it’s not enough to sell. We can debate on the ratio, but to be attractive to investors, a start-up needs to deliver on both ESG goals and economic benefits.