In this podcast series, co-produced by vegconomist, Alex Shandrovsky interviews investors about benchmarks for funding Alt Proteins in 2024 and uncovers the investment playbooks of successful Climate Tech CEOs and Leading VCs.
Podcast Host Alex Shandrovksy is a strategic advisor to numerous global food tech accelerators and companies, including alternative proteins and cellular agriculture leaders. His focus is on investor relations and post-raise scale for agrifood tech companies.
Episode 14: Franz Seuber of AIPERIA
In this episode, Alex talks to Franz, co-founder and CEO of AIPERIA, a German based SaaS solution that helps suppliers and retailers in sustainable demand planning for fresh food by enabling end-to-end planning from production to supermarket shelves to ensure only what is sold is produced. Their solution is currently used in around 3,000 stores. Franz emphasized the importance of maintaining ongoing communication with investors, preparing thoroughly for due diligence with an organized data room, and having a team with both business and technical expertise.
Key Facts AIPERIA:
- Goal: To expand both internationally and vertically into the fresh produce assortments of bakery, convenience/deli, packaged meat and flowers & plants.
- Recently closed $7.5 million Series A round in April 2024.
- Lead investor: Early Bird VC
Link to Spotify:
Alex’s Top Findings:
- Building Strong Relationships Early: Aiperia maintained ongoing investor relations, even between rounds, to ensure smoother fundraising efforts. Franz highlighted the importance of “closing a round before it’s opened” through continuous engagement with potential investors
- Leveraging Existing Investors: Aiperia already had well-known investors, like Early Bird, on its cap table. This significantly helped them attract more VCs. Having prominent investors on board early can create credibility and signal to other investors that the company is worth backing. Franz described the fundraising process as more inbound than outbound due to the strong network created through their existing investor relationships.
- Keep a well-organized data room: This includes all necessary documents like contracts, agreements, and financials. Being well-prepared for the legal, technical, and business due diligence processes can save time and instill confidence in investors.
- Understand the legal framework: Aiperia had a solid legal structure from their seed round, which made it easier and faster to negotiate their Series A. Franz advised founders to get an experienced lawyer who specializes in startup financing.
- Technical and Business Clarity: Investors did not perform in-depth code reviews but instead focused on understanding the company’s architecture, scalability, and cloud infrastructure. Franz pointed out that it’s important for founders to have a clear roadmap for solving any technical gaps that investors flag, even if the current infrastructure isn’t perfect.
- Building Trust with Investors: By focusing on relationship-building, demonstrating traction, and ensuring preparedness for legal and technical due diligence, Aiperia was able to close their Series A in a smooth, efficient manner. Other founders can apply these strategies by maintaining ongoing investor conversations, prioritizing strong legal and business foundations, and showcasing strong growth and a capable team.
The link to the full series is here.
