Key highlights

• How Backed grew from a $30M first fund to a newly closed $100M Fund III, with top-quartile returns and 5 unicorns across 100 investments.
• The founder traits they optimize for: deep competitiveness, speed under uncertainty, and “PQ” - a founder’s magnetic pull on top talent and early believers.
• Why the biggest outcomes come from betting early on markets that look strange, overlooked, or technically impossible.
• How events became Backed's secret weapon — sourcing better deals, meeting founders earlier, and building a tight-knit community through 40+ events a year.
• What it means to run a venture firm where portfolio founders also become LPs, and why this deepens alignment across every new fund.
• The frontier-tech themes they’re betting on now: financial services, manufacturing, and biotech — all at the edge of engineering and scientific breakthroughs.
• Why Backed is expanding their US presence while keeping the core of their thesis focused on European founders.

This episode is a masterclass for early-stage founders and investors navigating fast-moving markets, deep tech, and high-ambition company building.

Tune in to learn how Backed spots founders, builds community at scale, and chooses markets long before they become obvious.

Recorded live at Slush 2025 in Helsinki.

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Henrietta Hearth’s path to venture capital began with a deep interest in nutrition and public health. After realizing the limitations of public health campaigns, she pivoted to the corporate world, launching over 100 products at firms like Danone and L’Oréal. Her transition into venture capital came via an MBA and a desire to drive meaningful change in the food ecosystem, ultimately leading her to Big Idea Ventures where she set up their European operations in Paris.

Henrietta explains that 30% of global emissions are linked to food, especially meat and dairy, making alternative protein a key climate solution. But beyond sustainability, alt-proteins tap into health and ethical concerns too. While the sector has suffered from overvaluation, like the now-cautionary tale of Beyond Meat, Henrietta argues there's still strong potential if companies focus on taste, affordability, and customer satisfaction.

Some of the most promising innovations in food tech today combine scientific rigor with user-centric design. Henrietta points to Gourmey, a cell-based foie gras startup in Big Idea Ventures’ portfolio, as a standout example of aligning tradition, taste, and ethics. She also highlights the emerging role of AI in food R&D, citing companies like New Wave Biotech, which are using machine learning to speed up product development, especially in precision fermentation.

While Henrietta sees AI as a valuable tool, she urges founders and investors alike not to get lost in the buzz. Real impact still comes from solving core problems, like child malnutrition or the lack of innovation in infant nutrition. She expresses a desire to see more startups tackling urgent global issues, particularly in underserved markets, where food tech can truly make a life-or-death difference.

Henrietta stresses the importance of founders building companies around real customer problems, not just investor narratives. Many early-stage companies focus too much on raising funds instead of validating product-market fit. Whether the end customer is a family or a large food corporation, the key to long-term success is solving meaningful, scalable problems.

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Nicolas’s journey began with a first-hand experience in Bolivia, where he witnessed the environmental impact of industrial meat production and deforestation. This planted the seed for a mission-driven career focused on sustainable food. After stints in both corporate and nonprofit sectors, he became convinced that cell-cultivated meat could offer a breakthrough solution - if it could deliver on taste, scale, and affordability.

Instead of competing immediately with commodity meats, Gourmey launched with cultivated foie gras - a premium, high-margin product that addressed a real market gap due to supply chain volatility and regulation. This choice allowed the company to prove the viability of its tech without having to undercut traditional meat prices from the outset. By addressing an underserved culinary segment, Gourmey established credibility with chefs and customers alike.

Gourmey has raised over €60 million and grown to a team of 50+ people. Nicolas emphasized the importance of working with mission-aligned investors who understand the long road of deep tech development. With their latest cost analysis showing production prices as low as €5-€7 per kilo, the company is entering a new phase where cultivated meat could move beyond fine dining into broader markets. This opens the door to massive potential impact in the $2 trillion meat industry.

Consumer acceptance is rising, even before widespread availability. Gourmey's strategy includes launching in forward-looking markets like Singapore and collaborating with Michelin-starred chefs to drive trust and desirability. Nicolas believes chefs are the ultimate tastemakers who can help shift public perception - from skepticism to curiosity - by letting flavor lead the way.

Gourmey is currently raising a Series B round to fund its next milestones: regulatory approvals, commercialization in key global markets, and the expansion of its product range beyond foie gras and duck to other poultry and meat types. With a lean approach and efficient tech, the company aims to prove its model without the capital-heavy burden of massive infrastructure builds.

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