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MOA Foodtech: Jose Maria Elorza shares how to get funded in 2024

Investment Climate Podcast: Fundraising Playbooks From Food Tech CEOs and VCs 

In this podcast series, co-produced by vegconomist, Alex Shandrovsky interviews investors about benchmarks for funding Alt Proteins in 2024 and uncovers the investment playbooks of successful Climate Tech CEOs and Leading VCs. 

Podcast Host Alex Shandrovksy is a strategic advisor to numerous global food tech accelerators and companies, including alternative proteins and cellular agriculture leaders. His focus is on investor relations and post-raise scale for agrifood tech companies. 

Episode 10: MOA Foodtech: Jose Maria Elorza shares how to get funded in 2024

In this episode, Alex talks to Jose Maria, Co-Founder of MOA Foodtech who upcycle byproducts from the food industry to elaborate high value ingredients and sell back to food producers to elaborate different types of products, helping the society to eat healthier and to move forward into a more sustainable world. Jose Maria provided an insightful discussion on the process of raising funds and the importance of being prepared for due diligence.

Key Facts MOA Foodtech:

• Goal: To establish a new industry of sustainable food that solves growing global food demands without the need for arable land.
• Raised nearly 5 million in equity and over 2 million in grants.
• Last round closed in June 2024.
• ICOS Capital as lead investor

Alex’ Top Findings:

1. Maintain Conversation. MOA fundraising strategy involves maintaining continuous conversations with potential investors, even when not actively seeking funds, which helped them secure their most recent round in June 2024.He emphasized the importance of constantly engaging with potential investors, even if the timing isn’t right. 
2. Well-organized Data Room. Jose Maria emphasized the importance of a well-organized data room for due diligence, which in their case included legal documents, financial audits, projections, patents, and IP strategies. The data room was kept on accessible platforms like Google Drive or OneDrive, which is common among startups.
3. Human Due Diligence. A unique aspect of their due diligence involved psychological profiling of the founders to assess how well they work together. This process included meetings, individual assessments, and a final report that was shared with investors.
4. Copyright Registration. Jose also shared that MOA protected their proprietary algorithm by registering it with the U.S. Copyright Office, allowing them to safeguard their innovation without fully disclosing it publicly, unlike a patent.
5. Importance of Preparedness. In advising other startups, he highlighted the importance of having a clear IP strategy and being able to demonstrate that all aspects of the business, from legal to financial to technological, are being carefully managed. This level of preparedness not only speeds up the due diligence process but also instills confidence in potential investors.