The Future of Food Production Speaker Profile: “Working together and examining the impact created by start-ups across the world is a great motivator for us as a team”

At The Future of Food Production Summit on 15/16/17 November, two Start-up Pitch Symposiums have been weaved into the agenda, within which 12 young companies over two days will present their innovations to a panel of VCs and experts – our agtech spin on ‘Shark Tank’ or ‘Dragon’s Den’.

The first pitch session takes place in the afternoon of 15 November. Semi Hakim is representing the Kök Projekt, an Istanbul-based vertical-focused start-up accelerator and a corporate innovation partner. Alongside Juliette Raoul-Fortesa from Capagro and Paddy Willis from Mission Ventures, Hakim will scrutinize and provide feedback on innovations from Muddy Machines, Greenhub, Cyber Farms, Gaia Tech, Seqana and Agroasco.

“As a consulting company that works with corporates, governmental organizations, and investment funds, we work on empowering start-ups through our start-up acceleration and corporate innovation programs,” explains the Co-founder & CEO of the company. “Our work focuses on supporting start-ups that provide solutions to the challenges we’re facing globally.”

Our work focuses on supporting start-ups that provide solutions to the challenges we’re facing globally

Hakim began his career in the kitchen though and during his time in chef’s whites worked in various areas of the food industry, including working with consulates on gastro diplomacy projects, organizing food events worldwide, and working for small-scale food producers in Türkiye on numerous EU projects.

“In parallel, my Co-founder, Shirley Kaston, started her career in finance and moved on to working in the IT sector as the CFO of a venture studio company, before moving forward with building their venture capital arm,” he continues. “After that, she decided to start her new career to become a chef, which was when our paths crossed.”

During the early stages of establishing the Kök Projekt, Hakim recalls that he and Kaston had many conversations focusing on the future of food. “We were always discussing future agriculture, food production, and the food sector,” he says. “Therefore, as we’re based in Türkiye – a highly agrarian country – we decided to focus more on the agricultural sector.

“We quickly realized the challenges in the agri-food value chain were heavily impacted by agriculture. What’s more, these challenges existed mainly in emerging markets, which featured most of the world’s food production and population. So, since day one, we have honed our work on these regions, to empower the start-ups – the initiative takers of the industry – to support the future of food within these geographies. Furthermore, as the agriculture sector is quite omnipresent across these geographies with various challenges, we focused our efforts mainly within agritech verticals.”

Since day one, we have honed our work on these regions, to empower the start-ups – the initiative takers of the industry – to support the future of food within these geographies

Hakim explains that, at the Kök Projekt, he and his team are always striving to build something that creates a tangible impact on food systems. “Working with start-ups that are solving the issues of climate change, food and water security, and food safety are the primary pillars of our work,” he says. “Working together and examining the impact created by start-ups across the world is a great motivator for us as a team.”

Globally, Hakim points out, diversification is vital when it comes to investments in the incumbent agritech and food-tech start-ups. “Throughout our experience since 2015, we’ve seen amazing growth in the number of start-ups within the agri-food and water sector globally. So, we have made it our mission to support these amazing teams locally and globally to empower them to change their food systems.”

Food security, he adds, requires global action and collaboration. “At Kök Projekt, we believe in tech-focused solutions and the initiatives of start-ups to change the world. Therefore, creating more opportunities for start-ups within emerging markets – and supporting them to increase the digitalization of the agri-food sector globally – is our goal.

“Our hopes and dreams as a team are to be part of a global sustainable agri-food value chain – that these technologies become a standard everywhere in the world – to give us more time to focus on producing potatoes on Mars,” Hakim adds. “As the saying goes, ‘We don’t have a Planet B’. That’s why we need to be acting globally to solve food security challenges and amplifying the solutions.”

He suspects technologies that focus on optimizing food production and financial solutions focusing on the sector will have the most significant impacts.

“The usual suspects of this conversation are always the alternative protein and nutrition-focused solutions,” he says. “Despite being arguably less exciting than cultivated meat technologies, I think the more impactful solutions will be concepts that help to lower the input costs of the products, agri-biotech solutions for regenerative agriculture, and agri-finance solutions for a more sustainable overall agri-food industry.”

I think the more impactful solutions will be concepts that help to lower the input costs of the products, agri-biotech solutions for regenerative agriculture, and agri-finance solutions for a more sustainable overall agri-food industry

Today, though, Hakim believes the main challenges within the agri-food industry are financial and environmental sustainability. “I’m a big believer and a fan of the alt-protein sector,” he says. “Nevertheless, until we see various types of alt protein products on our market shelves, we urgently need to solve the challenges of today’s agriculture sector.”

He believes that one of the main pillars for ag should be to optimize the inputs, given our resources are becoming increasingly scarce every year. “Therefore, technologies focusing on optimizing the inputs, water, and energy use – and solutions that produce yield increases and the development of climate-resistant crops – are crucial. Investing in start-ups within these verticals and implementing their solutions in the field would create a sustainable impact within the global agrifood value chain, featuring the highest impact potential.”

Hakim is hopeful that the challenges that lay ahead can be met, especially when he examines the rise of interest and the investments happening across the world within the agri-food, water, and energy tech verticals. “What we’ve experienced – and are still experiencing globally – is a once-in-a-century event, but the silver lining of these challenging times is that there is a shift in thought and interest in the start-ups and a sense of urgency to implement their solutions. I can confidently say we don’t just have the potential to reverse the tide with these innovative start-ups, but with the rise of teams and solutions worldwide, we also have more potential for climate-adaptation solutions.”

The Future of Food Production Summit is a virtual conference and takes place 15/16/17 November 2022. It features more than 75 speakers, 50 presentations, seven panel discussions and two start-up pitch symposiums. Even if you can’t attend live, you can access all the content – more than 20 hours’ worth – on-demand. Tickets are priced at just US$495. Click here to secure your virtual seat!