Category: Investor Stories

Béla Hatvany – Born in 1938, now thinking AI, enoughness, precision fermentation and building a care economy

3rd June 2025 koenvanseijen Investor Stories, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Béla Hatvany, pioneering entrepreneur in the automation of libraries and the information industry, born in 1938, turned into angel investor and philanthropist, on his journey, what’s enough, the role of AI and EI (empathetic intelligence), and the potential of precision fermentation.

Bela and his wife Ellen founded in 2011 Mustardseed Trust, a charity with the vision of a world in which all beings live in partnership with the web of life for all to thrive. Mustardseed Trust, which has been steadfastly supporting a variety of organisations and individuals across the globe and focusing on Care Economy and Regenerative Food Systems, is winding-up its operation this June.

Fernando Russo – From selling Playboy’s to growing coffee, cacao, credit and lots of cows

11th June 2024 koenvanseijen Ecosystem Services Payments, Investor Stories, Regenerative Agriculture, Transition finance 0 Comments

A deep dive conversation with Fernando Russo about the reasons why he is going deep into coffee and cacao without being a coffee drinker and how he turned from being a Playboy’s salesman and a travel entrepreneur to an impact investor in the regenerative agriculture and food. We also talk about fashion and heights, the Amazon, deforestation, reforestation, the role of cattle—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and, of course, the potential and why he is in the water camp, not the carbon camp.

What is driving one of the most active impacts investors in the regenerative space? What Fernando tells fellow impact investors when they ask him about this regen thing?
Getting credit and other finance into the hands of farmers and land stewards who want and can change is way more important. Let’s get to work.

Paul McMahon – With over $500M invested, there is a regenerative edge of about 1-3%

27th February 2024 koenvanseijen Investor Stories, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of Animals, Transition finance 0 Comments

A conversation with Paul McMahon, co-founder of SLM, about why it makes so much sense to put money to work in real regenerative agriculture, yields, and more importantly, profits and the regenerative edge, and more.

Few papers in regenerative agriculture have been shared more than the Investment Case for Ecological Agriculture written by Paul McMahon. We have shared it countless times, learned a whole lot from the simple investment terms describing why it makes so much sense to put money to work in real regeneration. Now it has been updated, even better, it has been completely rewritten and with a lot more science and a lot more experience from the field.

In the conversation with one of the most experienced regenerative farmland investors, we explore the modules of our recent video course on why we need to change agriculture and food systems urgently, and why now is the time to do it.

Martin Reiter – Why regen hasn’t produced Steve Jobs yet and how to build a modern Nestlé

23rd January 2024 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Investor Stories, Regenerative Agriculture, Short Food Webs, Transition finance 2 Comments

A conversation with Martin Reiter, former senior manager at Airbnb and Wayfair, and prior to this at McKinsey and Groupon, about what excites him about regeneration, where are the Steve Jobs and Elon Musk of regenerative agriculture going to build companies, and how can we help more talent flow into the space?

Randal Breen – How a first generation farmer uses holistic investment to double the farm

14th February 2023 koenvanseijen Investor Stories, Nutrient Dense Food, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of Animals, Short Food Webs 0 Comments

A conversation with Randal Breen, a first-generation farmer in Australia who managed to double their farm with a very innovative financing structure. We talk about investing holistically, non-flexible lease, ecological and social debt payments and more.

Brandon Welch and Phil Taylor – Updates with Mad Capital on how to enable billions to flow to regen organic farmers

10th February 2023 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Investor Stories, Regenerative Agriculture, Transition finance 2 Comments

A check-in conversation with Brandon Welch and Phil Taylor, founders of Mad Capital and Mad Agriculture, to talk about Perennial Fund 1 and 2, the lessons learned and building the vehicles to finance transition and funnel billions into the space.

Yanniek Schoonhoven – Training the next generation of farmers with an academy and regenerative farm of 1100HA

7th February 2023 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Investor Stories, Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Yanniek Schoonhoven, co-founder of the Regeneration Academy, a physical learning hub and model farm in the South of Spain, about building a space and community to become practitioners, entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders in the field of regenerative agriculture and eco-system restoration, specialized in semi-arid areas.

Jeremy Leggett – Learning from a solar energy pioneer on making nature recovery bankable

20th January 2023 koenvanseijen Ecosystem Services Payments, Investor Stories, Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with solar energy pioneer Jeremy Leggett about the nature recovery industry, the things we can learn from the solar industry, fossil fuel companies and much more. After Solarcentury, Jeremy is now working on Highlands Rewilding.

Luni Libes – Building a Warren Buffet style portfolio while serving 1M African smallholder farmers

10th January 2023 koenvanseijen Investor Stories, Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture, Short Food Webs 1 Comment

A conversation with Luni Libes, serial entrepreneur and investor, about the enormous opportunities of African food companies and on buying from smallholder famers and selling into the local regional markets. We also discuss why the traditional venture capital model doesn’t make any sense and a holding company does, plus why and how he wants to take the holding company public in a few years’ time.

200th EPISODE Emma Chow in conversation with Koen van Seijen – Regenerating ourselves before working on regenerative agriculture and food

3rd January 2023 koenvanseijen Beyond Food, Investor Stories, Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

The 200th of this podcast sees Koen van Seijen in conversation with Emma Chow, former head of food at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Emma Chow, former head of food at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, she’s back on the podcast to talk about her journey, her burnout, coming back from the Amazon to London and re-engaging with the food space. In a second part of the interview, though, Emma and Koen switch mics with Emma becoming the host and asking Koen about his lessons learned over the past 200 episodes.