Felix Leonhardt (Oyster Bay) - from founding to funding, the Oatly story, reshaping food systems from Hamburg

No, but maybe one starting point would be Oyster Bay, right? So you're fun, 100 million, food tech, Hamburg.

Yeah.

I mean, I was telling him we can count probably on one hand the funds that are that size in the city.

And then food tech, right? The local food tech scene.

There are some notable companies, but it's also a humble size.

So how does that happen? How does one, you know, build a fund of that size here in Hamburg?

Yeah, I think the history is important here because my partner, Christoph, he spent 30 plus years in the consumer goods industry, quite successful.

At one point, he used to own Rathsherren.

No way, no way.

So, like, basically, Christoph was based here in Hamburg, started angel investing, and then Oyster Bay was his vehicle of professionalizing angel investing.

And so that's the reason we're in Hamburg.

It's just that personal background.

My own company was here in Hamburg.

Like I built my life here.

And so when I joined Oyster Bay, it was clear that we would stay here.

And at the same time, we're investing in all of Europe.

We have a lot of investments in the Nordics.

We have some investments in France, in the UK, obviously also in Germany.

And for our sector, it doesn't really make that much of a difference in the sense that we are quite certain that we see every deal in our space and every company in our space quite early.

And so, yeah, short ways means we do spend quite a bit of time on trains and planes traveling, but Hamburg actually is really well positioned in that way because you're quickly in Copenhagen, you're quickly in Stockholm.

You're also quickly in Berlin, Amsterdam.

So it's actually nicely put in the middle of Northern Europe.

Obviously, Southern Europe is a bit longer, but it's good for us.

It's a good location.

As you said, there's some notable companies here as well.