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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.
Steven Finn is the Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner at Siddhi Capital.
What future food technologies most excite you?
I am focused on those that can create actual businesses instead of save-the-world, pie-in-the-sky science projects. That usually translates to an interest in the technologies and ingredients that are positioned to improve taste and price, and can go into food products that are genuinely craveable by the mass market. It also means businesses that can be staged and not rely long-term on fickle capital markets.
What are three future food verticals you are actively looking at for 2025?
- Shared infrastructure, particularly around precision fermentation.
- Low-inclusion ingredients with borderline pharma-level health claims, many of these being around gut microbiome optimisation.
- Replacement ingredients for those with troubled agricultural supply chains or impending supply shocks. Think eggs, cocoa, and whatever the next disasters are.
What do you consider the food tech sector’s greatest achievement in the past five years?
Probably the approval and sales of cultivated meat products. I’ve tried most of them, and they have been a bit hit or miss – but the good ones are good, and the fact that they exist and are okay to sell is still an incredible achievement.
If you could wave a magic wand, how would you fix plant-based meat?
Make it taste like (or better than!) meat and cost less. As long as I have the magic wand, I’d probably also use Men in Black-style memory-erasing tech on everyone who’s tried the mainstream plant-based options, so they come back at it through a lens of excitement and wonder again, instead of with jaded disappointment.
What’s the top trait you look for in a founder?
Scrappiness. This boils down to capital efficiency; the ability to do more with less; the ability to pivot when necessary, no matter how far down a path they are; and the ability to see alternative uses for work they’ve already done to expand markets.
The One That Got Away: What is the deal you wish you had gotten into, but didn’t?
Series B of a well-known new-wave soda company. The valuation seemed like it was near a peak and we wouldn’t hit our return targets from there. I was wrong, and I drink it every day.
What do you consider your most successful future food investment so far?
Ask me in five years. We’ve got some will-be winners in our portfolio.
What has been your most disappointing investment so far?
All losers hurt, but the ones that have hurt the most have been those that raised stupid money from generalist tourist capital, and have run for the hills and left cap tables so messy, nobody could pick up the pieces. It’s what started me on a path to deeply understand cap table mechanics, which has become my speciality.
What do people misunderstand/get wrong most about VC?
At least for me, I expect to be wrong most of the time. Going in with that understanding, when I’m right, I need to be very right. I just hope to not be wrong all the time.
Also, when we invest, it’s because we believe in the product, market, and team at a point in time. When that shifts, we are not obligated to invest again.
What is the most ‘future food’ thing you have eaten this month?
Cookies made with Plantible’s Rubisco protein instead of eggs. I never would have known in a blind taste test.
Where is your favourite climate-forward restaurant/dish/place to eat anywhere in the world?
BlueNalu’s cultivated bluefin tuna nigiri, in their offices only (for now). Next up, the world!
What’s your ‘why’? What motivates you to do what you do?
I love and have always loved food. I want to be a part of the ecosystem and an enabler of great food for others. Most importantly, I want to make money for my investors (and myself and my team) in a way that doesn’t leave the world worse than I found it.
