Ex-Metro boss Olaf Koch founds investment fund

The manager wants to invest primarily in food tech companies. He founded a consultancy at the beginning of the year.

The former head of the retail group, Olaf Koch, wants to shake up the food tech scene with a newly launched investment fund. The fund is called "Zintinus", which means "sustainable" in Latin, and is intended to invest in companies in the food sector, an area in which Koch should be very familiar thanks to his time at Metro.

The manager left Metro last year. Since then, he has been more active than ever: in January, he founded a consultancy firm for start-ups, and now he is following up with his fund, which, according to a report in the Handelsblatt newspaper, has been in development since the spring. Koch says that he wants to raise a total of 150 million euros, mostly from wealthy private individuals and family offices. The ex-Metro boss wants to collect money until 2022 and then close the fund, with more to follow.

The money will then flow into anything that sounds innovative: Starting with alternatives for dairy or meat products, for example for vegetarians or vegans, through to sustainable substitutes for tuna, prawns or even cheese. According to Koch in Handelsblatt, start-ups that produce food without sugar or additives, so-called "clean food", will also receive money.