Saga Forss has gained a strong background in food sector both as an angel investor and as an entrepreneur. Currently she is an investor in 10 companies including Arctic Super Foods, Epic Foods and Jävla Sås Bolag. She has successfully exited Leipomo Keisari, Jungle Juice Bar (partly) and Talokaivo Oy.

During the past 10 years as an investor, Forss sees a shift from product or concept oriented investing into impact investing. She has a strong vision of global challenges she wants to change: “Food sector definitely relates to impact investing. You can make such a difference if you choose to invest in what you believe in, and where the facts can prove that you can make a difference.”

Besides investors, also consumers are more aware of the megatrends, such as climate change: the less burden to the environment, the more interest among conscious consumers a product gains. Therefore, scaling up business and sustainable solutions go hand-in-hand.

Waste management is one of the megatrends Forss points out. “I believe that whatever you do in food sector, if you want to attract conscious consumers, there should be no plastic. The packaging industry has been developing lots of interesting solutions. The industry develops very fast – you just need to be alert to find them.” she says.

Other trending in the food sector include alternative and lab protein, functional food, effortless availability and logistics solutions, urban farming, waste recycling and reuse of biowaste, robotics and AI, data analytics – to mention a few.

We all need to eat. In the future, the market potential in food will be growing due to population growth. Even today, 815 million people regularly go to bed hungry. There is a big need for finding new solution on how to feed 10 billion people by 2050. Investment opportunities in the  food sector are not going anywhere.

“The demand will never disappear (food), but efficiency must be increased to satisfy all that demand (foodtech). This means high potential return of investment.” Forss crystallizes.

Saga Forss shared her thoughts about investing in food sector at Foodtech Investing & Partnering event organized by FiBAN in collaboration with Tartu Biotechnology Park, Vertical, Fazer, Paulig Incubator and EstBAN.