Ex-Metro boss Olaf Koch founds investment fund

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

The former head of the retail group, Olaf Koch, wants to stir 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 from the food sector, where 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: only in January did he found a consulting firm for start-ups, and now he is following up with his fund, which, according to a report in the Handelsblatt , has been under construction since the spring. There Koch tells that he wants to collect a total of 150 million euros, mostly from wealthy individuals and family offices. Until 2022, the ex-Metro boss wants to collect money and then close the fund, more could follow.

The money is then to flow into everything that sounds innovative: Starting with alternatives for dairy or meat products, for example for vegetarians or vegans, to sustainable substitutes for tuna, shrimp or even cheese. In addition, according to Koch in the Handelsblatt, start-ups that produce food without sugar or additives, so-called "clean food", will receive money.