Agriculture / Agribusiness

BayWa, Bindewald and Gutting Mühlengruppe and MULTIVAC Establish AgriFoodTech Venture Alliance

BayWa Venture GmbH, the processing and packaging machine experts MULTIVAC, and Bindewald + Gutting Mühlengruppe are jointly investing around 20 million euros in AgriFoodTech startups. The alliance builds on BayWa Venture GmbH’s efforts, a BayWa AG subsidiary, known for investing in twelve promising AgriFoodTech startups in the last three years aimed at enhancing sustainability in the food sector’s value chain.

The AgriFoodTech Venture Alliance’s investment focus spans multiple areas:

  • AgTech / BioTech: Enhancing food production’s efficiency and sustainability.
  • FoodTech: Innovative uses of plant proteins in nutrition, along with advancements in healthy eating and food safety.
  • Circular Economy: Upcycling by-products, minimizing food waste, and promoting biodegradable and recyclable materials.
  • Automation & Digitalization: Increasing transparency in the agri-food supply chain, utilizing robotics, AI, and predictive analytics for maintenance

Bindewald and Gutting, Germany’s foremost family-owned milling group, along with MULTIVAC, a leading provider of processing and packaging solutions, will join as shareholders in this venture. Through a capital injection of nearly €10 million, they will obtain equal stakes in what is now AgriFoodTech Venture GmbH, with BayWa retaining a 51% majority. Marcus Pöllinger, BayWa AG’s CEO, views this collaboration as a significant achievement, positioning the alliance as a key investor in the market and reinforcing BayWa’s role in driving agricultural and food sector transformation.

BayWa skyscraper
© Baywa AG

The alliance will incorporate BayWa’s existing startup portfolio, consisting of growth companies from Europe, Israel, and the USA, aiming to expand to around 20 startups. This new alliance will prioritize investments in startups that leverage novel technologies to render food production and packaging more efficient and sustainable.

“Our merger is unique in Europe”

“With Germany’s largest family-run milling group and a market leader in food processing and packaging solutions, we are taking our existing innovation activities with start-ups to a new level,” says Kristal Golan, Managing Director of AgriFoodTech Venture GmbH. “Our merger is unique in Europe and makes us a specialised and focused early-stage investor in Europe in the AgriFoodTech sector. We are leveraging the potential of our parent companies and generating real added value for start-ups. Market and customer access is exactly what young companies that are actively shaping the transformation need.”

“For me, Allianz is more than an investment instrument, it is a catalyst for change. Together, we are not only investing in start-ups, but also in a better future for our agriculture, our food supply and our planet,” says Michael Gutting, Managing Director of the Bindewald and Gutting Mühlengruppe.

BayWa Windpark La Muela
© BayWa AG

The AgriFoodTech Venture Alliance will act both as a financial investor and as a supporting cooperation partner. In addition to traditional financing, the startups will also benefit from the global network and the entrepreneurial and technical expertise of the alliance partners involved.

“On the basis of this alliance, as a leading supplier of integrated solutions we have the opportunity to actively support the future developments of our customers in the food sector and to shape them together with them,” adds Alexander Hauschke, Executive Vice President Corporate Strategy and representative of MULTIVAC.

The merger is still subject to the approval of the relevant antitrust authorities. Further information on the previous activities and the start-up portfolio of BayWa Venture GmbH can be found here: AgriFoodTech Report 2023

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