Vorwerk Ventures’ Peter Schmetz: ‘The Investor Summit allowed us to interact face to face with very well selected startups’

Every September, startup investors from around the world attend the TOP 100 Investor Summit, where they can meet with the most promising and relevant startups that are looking for funding. National and international super angels, venture capitalists, corporate investors, and family office representatives attend the invitation-only event to listen to startup pitches, meet entrepreneurs one-on-one, and watch presentations to identify the best gems that have what it takes to join Switzerland’s high-flying TOP 100 alumni. One of the investors who attended the Investor Summit for the first time in 2020 was Peter Schmetz: The investment manager at Vorwerk Ventures represented an independent EUR 150 million venture capital fund, grown out of the Vorwerk Group in late 2019, that focuses on consumer-facing digital businesses.

Venture capitalists from around the world come to Switzerland every September to discover the most promising startups of the number-one country in innovation. The invitation-only TOP 100 Investor Summit offers world-class investors trusted access to the most relevant startups looking for funding. One of those investors who joined the Investor Summit for the first time was Peter Schmetz from Vorwerk Ventures—and his first Investor Summit was a success: He met with Chris Jenny, one of the Planted co-founders, and ended up investing in the Zurich-based startup that revolutionizes the food industry by creating plant-based protein made of 100% animal-product-free ingredients. We asked Peter about his experience at the Investor Summit, Vorwerk Ventures’ focus, and the Planted investment.

Peter, how did you experience the Investor Summit 2020? 
Even though the Investor Summit 2020 took place in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, it was an extremely enjoyable event with great participants, a pleasant atmosphere, and the possibility to interact personally, despite precautionary measures. You took care of all the precautions with masks, hand sanitizer, and enough space to always keep a safe distance. Despite the rules, we had the opportunity to interact face to face with well-selected startups. This is very important for investors and for founders: It helps to get a much better sense of who you’re sitting at the table with and what kind of person, startup, or fund you are dealing with.  
I was a bit worried at the beginning because Switzerland is very well known for pharma and biotech, which are often very tech-heavy B2B models, but it turned out that there were many consumer-oriented startups at the event, which was very interesting for us. And Planted was, of course, one of them, so we attended a great event and got an investment out of it.  

Let’s talk about Vorwerk Ventures’ investment scope. You mentioned consumer-focused startups. What else do you focus on? 
Vorwerk is one of the largest direct sales companies in the world. This consumer focus, the direct-to-consumer approach, is one of the things that we had taken with us when we created Vorwerk Ventures. As an independent fund nowadays, we like consumer-enabling tech and enabling technologies. For us, that is everything in the B2C or B2B2C sector. So, anything that benefits the consumer in some way, that’s what we find exciting. 
We are also relatively market agnostic. Lately, we have made two investments in the digital health sector, for example. We always have been active in the food sector, and we find the passion economy and social selling very exciting, among others. We are investing in late-Seed and Series A rounds with initial tickets ranging from EUR 1 million to 5 million. Planted is a perfect example that illustrates our focus. 

Why did you invest in Planted? 
Planted is active in a large market, where a lot is happening right now and that is due for disruption. On the one hand, there’s the issue of sustainability: As the world’s population keeps growing, farming produces so many CO2 emissions that the planet can no longer be fed in this way. Planted is a problem solver when it comes to reducing CO2-emissions as well as animal cruelty. On the other hand, it is, of course, a top product. Planted’s basic ingredients are water, rapeseed oil, vitamin B12, and pea protein, and they manage to perfectly imitate the texture of chicken meat, which is impressive. During the commercial diligence, I went to the local supermarket, and even though I saw many plant-based products, most of them include myriad ingredients and food additives.

We also find Planted’s holistic approach very exciting: From the very beginning, they have developed, produced, and distributed the product themselves. This vertical approach was also very important for us since it gives them full control of the final product. 
Moreover, as a venture capital investor, you always have the exit scenario in mind. And for a potential acquirer, an acquisition becomes much more attractive when a new technology can be bought, including a proprietary production side. And, of course, Planted has a strong founding team that has the necessary expertise in both the business and food technology worlds. The team is continuously focusing on product development and research to launch better products that offer high quality at a competitive price, which is rare to see in the industry. To rely on sustainable, self-developed production, made in Europe, that is still a seal of quality; competitors can’t copy that easily.

So, will you be attending the Investor Summit 2021? 
At Vorwerk Ventures, we invest in the entire European region, and we have divided the continent into regions. Since Switzerland is on my list, I plan to come back this year, yes. Last year’s visit was definitely worth it, so I am looking forward to the upcoming event!



About the TOP 100 Investor Summit 
Venture capitalists from around the world come to Switzerland every September to discover the most promising startups of the number-one country in innovation. The invitation-only TOP 100 Investor Summit offers world-class investors trusted access to the most relevant startups looking for funding.