In this podcast series, Alex Shandrovsky interviews investors about benchmarks for funding Alt Proteins in 2026 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. This podcast is syndicated through our media partners, Foodtech Weekly and Vegconomist.
Episode 70: V5 Food and Ag Bio Fund: Kristian Bennetsen on the €2B Co-Investment Opportunity and the “CDMO Play” for Cultured Meat
In this episode, I sit down with Kristian Bennetsen, General Partner of V5 Verde Equity and the newly launched V5 Food and Ag Bio Fund. With a target of €50M and a first close of €20M imminent, Kristian is targeting the often-neglected TRL 7-9 stage—companies with proven, operational technology ready to scale. Drawing on his experience founding Roslin Technologies (the UK’s largest ag-tech startup), Kristian breaks down his unique “Co-Investment” strategy, which unlocks up to €2B in infrastructure capital to help portfolio companies build factories in Asia and the Middle East. We discuss why he is betting on CDMOs (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations) rather than consumer brands in cellular agriculture.
Listen to the full episode to hear why Kristian puts his own personal capital into the fund to keep his “hand on the stove.”
Key Facts V5 Verde Equity:
- Goal: To invest in Northern European animal life science and ag-tech companies at the commercialization stage (TRL 7-9).
- Milestone: Launching a €50M fund with a specialized €2B co-investment facility to finance heavy CapEx infrastructure projects globally.
Alex’s Top Findings:
The “Infrastructure Gap” Solution: A €2B Co-Investment Vehicle. VC money is for IP and teams; it isn’t efficient for building steel in the ground. Kristian has structured a vehicle that allows sovereign wealth funds and corporates (specifically in the Middle East and Asia) to step in and fund the €100M+ production facilities needed by portfolio companies once the tech is proven. This allows the VC fund to stay agile while still enabling massive scale. “This is like one co-investment opportunity to follow the company around the globe… setting up production facilities in these key markets… It requires north of a hundred million euros to do such an infrastructure investment… The co-investment opportunities arise from that.”
The “CDMO” Bet: Don’t Pick the Horse, Own the Racetrack. In the volatile cellular agriculture market, betting on a single consumer brand or cell line is risky. Kristian’s contrarian thesis is to invest in the infrastructure (CDMOs) that will process any winning cell line. He believes the immediate value lies in high-margin ingredients (coffee, chocolate, cosmetics) rather than commodity meat, which struggles with unit economics. “I have a really high conviction to scaling a cultured meat with the right CDMO player… You don’t know which cell line is gonna prevail and succeed in 20 years’ time. But if you have the infrastructure to funnel through, you can always buy in the lines or work with a new player.”
Personal Capital as Conviction Signal. Kristian’s investment of his own capital into the fund serves as a powerful conviction signal and a clear statement of alignment between GP and LPs. As he put it, “Of course I would invest my own money… if I don’t put my own money in there, why should other people do it?” That mindset reinforces trust: he is not asking others to take risks he is unwilling to take himself. By committing personal capital, he demonstrates belief in the strategy, confidence in his decision-making, and a long-term commitment to outcomes.
Link to Apple Podcast here.
Catch the full podcast series here.
