In our interview series, we quiz future food investors about the solutions that excite them the most, their favourite climate-forward restaurant, and what they look for in successful founders.
Gil Horky is the Founding Managing Partner at Flora Ventures.
What future food technologies most excite you?
- The usage of peptides to deliver new functional benefits in food and supplements
- New sustainable and efficient cold-chain technologies to extend route-to-market and food freshness
- Blockchain and its applications in food transparency
What are three future food verticals you are actively looking at for 2025?
- Weight Management: The GLP-1 pharma market is exploding, but access remains out of reach for many due to hefty prices and unpleasant side effects, creating a massive opportunity for the food industry to step in.
- Supply Chain: Supply chain resiliency within the food chain is increasingly important due to climate change, geopolitical disruptions, and the most recent, crazy tariff war.
- Longevity: Longevity and nutrition are deeply intertwined, and we will see new food and supplement products tailored to promote longevity,
What do you consider the food tech sector’s greatest achievement in the past five years?
Globally highlighting the dialogue around the urgent need to fix our global system.
If you could wave a magic wand, how would you fix plant-based meat?
Sadly, I think that even a magic wand can’t fix it, because the majority of existing products have not delivered on the expectations of consumers and investors. There was just too much hype with overpromising (and underdelivering) products in this segment.
What’s the top trait you look for in a founder?
Grit, and the ability to fundraise.
The One That Got Away: What is the deal you wish you had gotten into, but didn’t?
Foreverland. I worked for many years in the chocolate industry for Mondelēz, and I love their carob-based ‘chocolate-like’ products – tasty and sustainable.
What do you consider your most successful future food investment so far?
It is a very exciting investment we made in a stealth startup in the GLP-1 space. The technology is cutting edge and led by a stellar serial entrepreneur.
What has been your most disappointing investment so far?
So far, none. I, of course, wish that some investments would progress faster.
What do people misunderstand/get wrong most about VC?
That it is not as glamorous as it looks like. Similar to entrepreneurs, fund managers are spending a significant amount of their time fundraising from LPs and managing the administrative aspects of running a fund (reporting, compliance, legal, etc.). More importantly, delivering outlier returns (which is what counts at the end) is damn hard.
What is the most ‘future food’ thing you have eaten this month?
I tasted some chocolate made with cell-based cacao.
Where is your favourite climate-forward restaurant/dish/place to eat anywhere in the world?
Noma Projects. Had the privilege to visit them last year – not only super tasty products, but also using a very thoughtful approach on the sustainable footprint of their ingredients and processes .
What’s your ‘why’? What motivates you to do what you do?
I truly love the food industry, I worked in it most of my entire career and cherished every moment of it. Food is ingrained in human culture and emotions, and everyone has an opinion or something to say about it. But it is also the industry with the biggest impact and potential return on human and planetary health.
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