Speakers AgrifoodTechVentures Stage

Sustainability Venture Lead, Bayer Crop Science

Baerbel grew up on a dairy farm in Germany and studied Geoecology in Karlsruhe and Curitiba. She did her PhD about the climate and energy efficiency of biogas plants at Justus-Liebig University in Gießen.She is Biodiversity Impact Lead at the Crop Science division of Bayer AG. Since 2019 she’s driving the integration of biodiversity into the crop science business with the objective to explore new business opportunities and to secure crop sciences license to operate. In context of regenerative agriculture, she provides guidance on biodiversity and soil health related metrics and monitoring technologies. She also coordinates strategic collaborations and research initiatives in this space.

Go To Market Lead, Messium

Spencer Terry is one of the early team at Messium, an agri-tech startup that uses next-gen hyperspectral satellites and AI-driven crop models to optimise fertiliser efficiency. He leads Messium’s commercial strategy and partnerships, working with global agribusinesses and cooperatives to scale precision nitrogen management for more sustainable and profitable farming.

Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Director, Anadolu Efes

Tuba Gökcan is a corporate innovation leader at Anadolu Efes, driving entrepreneurship and venture-clienting programs that connect start-ups with corporate challenges in the food and beverage sector. She built Turkey’s benchmark model for corporate–startup collaboration, leading spin-offs, pilots, and new business models. Through initiatives like Brewfuture and as the first corporate partner of EIT Food’s EWA program, she empowers start-ups and women entrepreneurs to scale. Recognised with innovation awards, Tuba is passionate about turning collaborations into tangible impact and building bridges across the European food innovation ecosystem.

General Partner Pascual Innoventures

Alba Bernardino is General Partner at Pascual Innoventures, Pascual’s corporate venture arm, where she leads investment strategy and partnerships with disruptive startups in the global FoodTech ecosystem. With over 20 years of experience in the food industry, she bridges startup innovation and corporate expertise to create sustainable growth and impact.

Global Open Innovation Leader, Barry Callebaut

William Laratta is Global Open Innovation Leader at Barry Callebaut, with experience in both startup and corporate roles. He understands the unique challenges each face when partnering and works to build bridges that drive mutual value. William is passionate about emerging food technologies, especially those with a biotech focus.

Senior Corporate Venture Manager, EIT Food

Neta Gruber Perry is a seasoned innovation leader, holding the position of Senior Corporate Venture Manager at EIT Food, the world’s largest AgriFood innovation network. In this role, she initiates and nurtures open innovation activities, enhancing collaborations between corporates and startups to foster the adoption and scaling of cutting-edge technologies.

Her previous experience includes serving as the Europe Desk Director and Head of Health-tech at the Israel Innovation Authority's International Collaboration Division. There, she facilitated collaboration opportunities for Israeli startups with international partners, focusing on Health-tech, AgriFoodTech, and Climate-tech.

Neta's expertise spans innovation, research, business development, and social entrepreneurship across various sectors. She holds a BA with Honors from the Amirim Interdisciplinary Excellence Program and International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a Master of Public Policy from the University of Oxford, and has completed executive programs at the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School.

Investor, Rockstart

Elisabetta Sakiotis is an Investor at Rockstart, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on supporting impact-driven startups. At Rockstart, she specialises in AgriFoodTech, where she works closely with founders to support their growth.

Regional Accelerator Programme Manager, EIT Food

Juliet advocates for startups driving meaningful change in an increasingly complex world. Juliet has been leading the regional Accelerator Network programme for the Spanish hub of EIT Food. Over the past six years, she has supported more than 60 startups, focusing on connecting early-stage companies with industry partners and investors. Her focus has centred on tackling pressing challenges such as plastic waste and sustainable packaging, helping to translate innovation into real-world impact.

Co-Founder and CEO of Plantik Biosciences

Ying Shao is a Co-Founder and CEO of Plantik Biosciences, an AgBiotech startup based in Paris. She leads Plantik’s mission to revolutionise plant engineering through genome editing and AI-driven technologies, enabling the rapid development of climate resilience in crops like tomato, quinoa, and hemp, especially against heat stress.

Partner, Sofinnnova Partners

Joško Bobanović joined Sofinnova Partners in 2010 as Partner dedicated to activities in industrial biotech. He focuses on early-stage sustainable companies in Europe and North America with applications in food, agriculture, chemicals and materials. Joško sits on the boards of Novameat, Biosyntia, DMC Biotechnologies, Protera, Prometheus Materials, DNA Script and Metgen. Joško holds a BSc. in physics from University of Zagreb, a PhD in physical oceanography from Dalhousie University and an MBA in finance and marketing from McGill University.

Head of Sustainable Investments / Managing Director, ING Wholesale Banking

Mark has over 20 years of investment, debt and advisory experience across Europe and North America. Within ING, Mark is responsible for Sustainable Investments with €500m commitments and provides risk bearing capital to sustainable scale-ups active in Energy Transition and Circular Economy.

Prior to Sustainable Investments, Mark covered for nearly a decade the Benelux at ING Corporate Investments and in this capacity held various observer/board positions. Mark was also co-responsible for setting up a small leverage finance team in New York and worked in ING Corporate Finance advising corporates and PE funds in M&A transactions in the Benelux. Mark started his career in the M&A team of Merrill Lynch Investment Banking in London.

Mark holds a Masters in Civil Engineering from Delft University of Technology (NL), as well as an MSc degree in Concrete Structure from Imperial College (UK) and Executive MBA course in Strategic Management at Rotterdam School of Management (NL).

Senior Investment Manager Agrifood, Invest NL

Victor Meijer is responsible for the investments at Invest NL in agrifood companies with a particular focus on alt-proteins. Victor has an MBA and has worked for 30 years in the banking sector, for ABN AMRO and NIBC. He has worked in various investment banking jobs, with a focus on advising clients on balance sheet and financing issues. He started with large international corporates and during his career he has increasingly focused on smaller companies with their particular challenges. At Invest-NL the focus is on financing startups and scale-ups of a certain size which find it difficult to fund themselves in the public markets. Working for Invest-NL was a conscious choice as Victor considers it critical that sustainable companies with new technologies have the means to get through the challenging early years of their development.

Co-Founder & CEO, Clean Food Group 

A successful entrepreneur with 16 years of experience in FMCG and food and beverages. Alex co-founded CFG alongside Tom Ellen and Prof Chris Chuck of the University of Bath. In addition to being CEO, Alex leads on the commercial and regulatory areas of the business at CFG.

Project Acquisition Coordinator/ Platform Manager Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant / The ProteInn Club

Julie Vanderstraeten is a Project Acquisition Coordinator at Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant (BBEPP), an independent, state-of-the-art facility that supports companies in scaling up their biobased processes from the laboratory to pilot and demonstration scale. In this role, she is responsible for identifying and coordinating consortia-based projects, securing funding, and ensuring smooth collaboration with industrial and academic partners. Alongside this, Julie is the Platform Manager of The ProteInn Club, an initiative aimed at accelerating the development of the fermentation-based protein ecosystem in Flanders and beyond. She oversees the strategic and operational management of the platform, fostering collaboration between stakeholders across the entire value chain. Throughout her career, Julie has consistently focused on fermentation-based protein production processes, combining scientific innovation with practical application to ensure that promising biotechnological developments can be translated into real-world impact. Before joining BBEPP, she worked as a postdoctoral assistant at the Department of Biotechnology at Ghent University. She holds a degree as an industrial engineer in biochemistry and obtained her doctorate with a focus on protein engineering and enzyme technology.