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In our new 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.
Anna Ottosson is a Founding Partner at Mudcake.
What future food technologies most excite you?
I’m always on the lookout for scalable technical solutions to some of the toughest challenges related to the food system. These challenges are typically related to how the food system affects the planet and climate change, but also to the opposite; how the food system is already, and will continue to be, affected by climate change. The solutions that excite me the most are the ones that can really move the needle if they succeed – especially from an impact perspective.
What are three future food verticals you are actively looking at for 2025?
I have a number of holy grails that I’m always on the hunt for, including a coffee alternative, a vegetable oil alternative, and a sugar replacement product. For all of these three, I’m dreaming about finding a great founding team with a very strong impact drive, an amazing product at a price that is ideally lower than the price for the original product that they are replacing, and a promising sales pipeline with prospective B2B customers – so I’m well aware that it’s quite a tough wishlist from my end.
What do you consider the food tech sector’s greatest achievement in the past five years?
Several things have developed in the right direction for the food system in the past five years; including a greater understanding of how the food system is negatively affecting the planet, as well as an increased consumer emphasis on nutrition and health. It’s evident that technical developments in biotech as well as AI and software are having ripple effects on the broader food system, including the development of GLP-1 products, and advancements in crop genetics to name a few examples.
If you could wave a magic wand, how would you fix plant-based meat?
It’s a complex topic, but if I could only do one thing it would probably be to remove subsidies for meat and dairy production to ensure that the price point better reflected the true cost of these products.
What’s the top trait you look for in a founder?
One thing I often come back to is a founder’s ability to build excitement around what they are doing, which is something that different founders can accomplish in different ways. It doesn’t have to be the cliché ‘extroverted-pitch-on-a-stage-capacity’– in fact, it’s probably not, but can be showcased by their conversational style, how they’ve developed their product, how they tell a story, how they view a certain problem.
When I leave a conversation with a founder with more curiosity and energy than I came with, it’s a strong sign that I should spend more time on the case.
‘The One That Got Away’: tell us about the deal you wish you had gotten into, but didn’t.
Hmm, I know that companies can look pretty different from the outside than the inside, so I honestly don’t spend a lot of time thinking about “what if” scenarios. But I do have a mental list of amazing founders in the space that I believe that I would personally have enjoyed working with, but where the stars haven’t been aligned for various reasons (at least not yet).
Some of those founders include Maricel Saenz of Compound/Minus, Henrik Bennetsen of Savor, Cecy Price of Biographica, and many more.
What do you consider your most successful future food investment so far?
Too early to tell! But some of our portfolio companies that have already made a significant impact dent in the food system are Planet A Foods, driving the shift to planet-friendly chocolate; InPlanet, which just delivered the first ever Enhanced Rock Weathering carbon removal credit; and Amatera, which is accelerating the natural evolution to sustain perennial crops like coffee.
What do you consider your most disappointing future food investment?
A lot of things don’t turn out as you expect in the startup world, and it’s just the name of the game.
What do people get wrong most about VC?
How fundamentally different that path is compared to just “building a great company”. There are so many ways to build an amazing company, and doing it the VC way is just one of them.
What is the most ‘future food’ dish or ingredient you have eaten this month?
I want to say traditional lentils and chickpeas? Nutritious, cheap food that is good for the planet.
Where is your favourite climate-forward restaurant/dish/place to eat anywhere in the world?
I always love to spend time in Copenhagen, so much great food!
What’s your ‘why’? What motivates you to do what you do?
As much as it’s a cliché, I want the time and energy that I spend on things to matter, not just for me, but for the next generation, and for my kids. When they ask me in 20 years what I focused on and why, I don’t want there to be any regrets about having wasted my time and energy on things that didn’t truly matter in the end.
Disclaimer: Green Queen founding editor Sonalie Figueiras is an advisor to Mudcake.
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