5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: Future Food Fund’s Silla Scheepens

In our interview series, we quiz future food investors about the solutions that excite them the most, their favourite climate-forward restaurant, and what they look for in successful founders.

Silla Scheepens is a General Partner at Future Food Fund.

What future food technologies most excite you?

Generally speaking, we’re excited by agrifood tech innovations that help keep our food system within planetary boundaries.

From AI-driven seed-breeding, biological crop inputs and protection to yield forecasting, low-emission food or preventing food waste – if it helps us grow more with less, whilst reducing waste and regenerating ecosystems, we’re paying attention.

What are three future food verticals you are actively looking at for 2025?

Allow me to squeeze in four:

• Seed breeding and climate-resilient crops: AI-powered seed-breeding platforms that deliver climate-resilient crops with higher yields and lower input dependency. 
• Biological inputs and crop protection: Nature-based solutions that reduce reliance on chemical fertilisers and pesticides, improving soil health and biodiversity.
• Circular food systems: Tackling food waste, packaging and nutrient leakage by valorising what’s already in the system. It’s about doing more with less.
• On-field intelligence and impact monitoring (MRV): Tools that help farmers make better decisions and validate environmental outcomes, from satellite-based yield forecasting to AI-driven irrigation or carbon tracking.

Each of these verticals contributes directly to restoring balance within planetary boundaries such as climate, water use, biodiversity, and biogeochemical flows.

What do you consider the food tech sector’s greatest achievement in the past five years?

The biggest shift is that the food system is now understood as central to the climate and biodiversity challenge. That systems view is starting to shape real innovation, in science, policy and finance. The momentum is here, even if it comes with headwinds and tailwinds: sometimes faster, sometimes slower, depending on regulation, consumer appetite or macro trends.

But overall, the awareness is growing. Now it’s time to match that with serious investment. Public funding for the food transition needs to be on par with what we’ve seen in the energy transition.

If you could wave a magic wand, how would you fix plant-based meat?

We’d stop treating it as B2B tech and start treating it as what it is: food. It deserves its own category: driven by taste, nutrition (think protein, fibre, gut health) and relevance.

At the same time, we need to level the playing field. Current meat products don’t account for the environmental damage they cause. With impact-based accounting and fair taxation, the good stuff becomes the obvious and better choice.

What’s the top trait you look for in a founder?

Clarity. In vision, in communication and in decision-making. Agrifood tech founders deal with long cycles and very complex systems. The ones who can tell a clear story, stay focused and act with conviction tend to have a better chance of succeeding.

The One That Got Away: What is the deal you wish you had gotten into, but didn’t?

Soil Capital. They were ahead of the curve in linking regenerative agriculture to measurable climate outcomes – not via offsetting, but through insetting within food value chains. Their farmer-first, outcome-based model reflects exactly where we see the future of agrifood going.

At the time, we were still exploring the carbon space in agriculture. Looking back, they were already building what the market now demands.

What do you consider your most successful future food investment so far?

Ask us again in 7 years!

That said, we’re optimistic about several themes – from biologicals to food waste valorisation and MRV-based models. These aren’t point solutions; they target the root causes of environmental pressure in the food system and provide for a sustainable business case.

What has been your most disappointing investment so far?

We’re not disappointed in startups – the challenges are real and pivots are part of the process. But some verticals (for example, hardware and heavy indoor farming) haven’t lived up to the early hype. It’s a reminder of the fact that a novelty doesn’t equal scale.

What do people misunderstand/get wrong most about VC?

That it’s fast and we only get to pick the winners. In impact VC, especially in agrifood tech, it’s long-term work. You’re in it to help founders build through complexity and uncertainty. It’s strategy, not speed, and the biggest returns are usually in system change.

What is the most ‘future food’ thing you have eaten this month?

There’s a sample box on its way to us with cocoa-free, fermentation-based chocolate. No tropical land use, no deforestation. A future-proof indulgence we’re really looking forward to.

Where is your favourite climate-forward restaurant/dish/place to eat anywhere in the world?

Big fan of food, especially when an ordinary legume or vegetable gets turned into something spectacular. There’s something special about places that use whole, seasonal produce with care and creativity. That’s where sustainability meets joy.

What’s your ‘why’? What motivates you to do what you do?

I always joke that I’m a climate activist disguised as an impact investor, just without the tattoos. Whether it’s restoring biodiversity or greening a city street, I’m driven by solutions that bring us back within planetary boundaries. Sometimes that’s big and systemic, sometimes small and local. But if it moves us in the right direction, I’m in.