I discovered Mathilde on another show and had to get to meet her, as her story and business was so inspiring to me.
We talked about Fresh.Land and how the idea for her sustainable business came about.
How she overcame challenges in the start up process
Advice for others wanting to make a positive impact on the planet.
Mathilde Jakobsen is CEO and Co-Founder of Fresh.Land, an award winning green tech startup with an innovative and disruptive model to the food industry.
The company shortens the journey from farm to table by connecting farmers, logistic partners and consumers in one integrated digital platform. With Fresh.Land's just-in-time model, instead of months, it takes just a few days from harvest to delivery. By cutting out 3-5 middlemen, farmers secure 20-50% more value and consumers get fresher, tastier products.
The model has a lower carbon footprint compared to that of the conventional chain — 88% lower, according to a study by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) — as it eliminated the need for cold-storage and ripening chambers, which are large greenhouse gas emitters.
Fresh.Land has been identified by Forbes as "truly pioneering" and "one of the most promising green start-ups in the EU", and awarded the "Climate Solver Prize" by WWF. We thrive to be the lighthouse of the food industry, setting new standards and leading the way for green transition. In Fresh.Land the trees and fields are our "natural warehouse" and products are only harvested after the order is placed by the consumer.
Our model disrupts the giant old food industry that has long been ripe for disruption.
Katherine Ann Byam 0:02
Welcome Mathilde!.
Mathilde Jakobsen 1:33
Thank you. I'm really happy to be here today.
Katherine Ann Byam 1:35
Thanks for joining me. So I'm inspired by your work. And I'm sure my listeners would like to know what prompted this idea and how did you bring it to life?
Mathilde Jakobsen 1:45
So it's very interesting because when we started out, the intent was not actually to do a platform, it was more a small hoppy project where we were trying to help Filipe’s dad who is an orange farmer. And the thing was that he was struggling to sell his oranges every single year to the middlemen, because the middlemen always wanted to pay a lower and a lower price. And they were criticising his oranges saying, "Oh, they are tasteless, they're imperfect," and so on, instead of actually appreciating them for what they are. So we started exploring opportunities for him to cut the middleman and go straight to the supermarket.
And that's actually how the idea started. Now, what we saw was that a lot of other producers like avocado producers, tomato producers, they had similar challenges with that business. And, we saw the new generation of farmers, which Filipe represented, not willing to go into farming, because there was no future in farming in that perspective. So we were kind of thinking, Okay, how do we make sure that our food system can survive? We need to invest in the farmers, we need to give them better opportunities.
And that's kind of how the idea to Fresh.Land came along. And then the other side of the coin is that Fresh.Land actually brings the products so fresh from the farmer to the consumer that you don't need all the chemical treatment you normally would have. And this has huge benefits in terms of, like what you're saying, the health of the fruits and the taste of the fruits, because they are fresh. So when they come four days from harvest, it's really a whole different product and the product you normally find in the supermarket.
Mathilde Jakobsen
3:29
Yeah. Now it's really fascinating because if you think about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, you're able to hit several of them with this one idea. In what ways is it special and sustainable in your view? Can you express exactly how you do it?
Mathilde Jakobsen 3:44
So what we're doing first is really kind of re-engineering the food system. So where a normal orange would have to go through three to five middlemen and be on his way to the shop. In Fresh.Land, we get straight from the tree to the final consumer - no warehouse, no cold storage, no ripening chambers.
And this is actually quite interesting because 72% of all carbon emission in the food industry is happening post harvest. So we can reduce that journey and reduce the time the fruits and vegetables have to lay in cold storage and in ripening chambers. We can actually cut almost that entire emission. It's not the transportation that is the biggest issue, it's actually the storage. So by eating fresh products, we can really have a significant impact on the carbon emission in the food industry. And that's what we're doing with Fresh.Land.
We are selling the fruits in the season that is right now on the trees growing on the fields and bringing that straight from the farmer to the consumer. That has huge environmental benefits and it also significantly reduces food waste because it just comes fresher and we are less picky about quality because for us, even an ugly tomato is a good tomato. It's about the substance. In FreshLand, and we didn't want to, we rethink the food supply chain and bring both a more sustainable food supply chain, but also more equitable bringing more value back to the farmer.
Katherine Ann Byam 5:13
So tell me a little bit about how politics has been in terms of shaping this idea? Have you met a lot of opposition?
Mathilde Jakobsen 5:23
Oh, yes. So when we started out, actually, one of the first experiences we had was that the middlemen that our farmer stopped working with, they basically took advantage of them having access to the farm. So they went there on the weekend when no one was there. And they picked all the unripe lemons. And this basically meant that our farmer couldn't sell lemons for the next half year, because all the new fruits that were supposed to grow and be ready to sell in half year time, were basically harvested too early.
Mathilde Jakobsen 5:53
Oh, my goodness, well,
Mathilde Jakobsen 5:55
And we saw similar actions taken on the middlemen side closer to the final consumer. So when we received the products in Denmark, we didn't understand how come our products are all the time disappearing, how come that the palletes, we are shipping, they are going to the green market in Denmark. But then our logistic partner tells us that somehow they've disappeared, and then they appear again a week later. And what we then found out was that our logistic partner, he subcontracted to one of the big middlemen in Denmark. And they didn't want us to bring the products fresh because it was competing with their business. So they purposely delayed the shipment. So it only would arrive One week later, and thereby not be as fresh as we were promising.
Katherine Ann Byam 6:39
How have you overcome these challenges?
Mathilde Jakobsen 6:42
So I think it's about being persevering, so when you have all these challenges against you and you somehow find strength in that because you think it cannot really be true. It cannot be true that a farmer cannot sell his fruits and actually make a living from it. It cannot be true that we cannot get the products fresh out to the consumer because someone is interfering in the process. So we just continued and continued and tried on the way to do small fine-tuning and adjustments. And somehow it has worked.
What we saw in our business is that when we were selling B2B. Of course, it made a huge difference both for the farmer and for the consumer in terms of a fair payment and the taste, and so on. But we still didn't solve the last bit of that puzzle, which was to make sure that from the supermarket, it would also get fresh out to the consumer. So last year in August, we actually changed our business a bit. So instead of focusing mostly on B2B, we also launched a B2C business. And that has been very successful and very good timing in terms of COVID. Because then, when COVID actually hit, we have been able to elevate and help a lot of Danish farmers that used to sell B2B but lost the sales due to COVID. And now they are making a success selling B2C.
Katherine Ann Byam 8:09
Well, so how long have you been around?
Unknown Speaker 8:12
So we started out in 2015. Back then it was a B2B business mostly. And then we have been steadily growing year after year. And then we launched our B2C as a focus area in August last year. And that is the majority of our business today.
Katherine Ann Byam 8:32
Well, and I can imagine that this is also encouraging younger people to get into agriculture. Now what have you seen in the markets that you're in?
Mathilde Jakobsen 8:43
So what we've seen is that especially the small and medium sized farmers, which are often young agriculturists, as they are lacking a sales channel, they're subject to these middlemen that only value price. And the way they have somehow found an alternative has been selling to restaurant business. But during COVID, the restaurant business has closed down and they have really been left on their own. So in that sense, it has been really, really a great success for them to have Fresh.Land as a platform where they could suddenly sell business to consumers. And that has allowed them to sell between 80 to 100% of their production.
We had a farmer doing mushrooms. And he called us saying he had 200 kilos of mushrooms that was going to waste and he said, Can you help me? And at that time, we had kind of closed our sales cycle for the week. But we then sent out a message to everyone that had ordered and said would you like to also order some mushrooms. And within two hours, we sold the 200 kilos of mushrooms to the existing orders that were already in the system. And this just made him so happy. But it was important for us at the same time that we were not just doing a fine sale but actually building a sustainable business for him.
So he would also want to continue after COVID. Now this farmer is selling 100% of his production. And we have advanced paid him so he could invest in a new vertical farm where he can double his production. So when the restaurant business is actually opening up again, he will be able to supply both his B2C customers and his restaurant customers. So this is like a true success story that instead of actually having to rely on these help packages, this farmer actually managed to double his production during COVID.
Katherine Ann Byam 10:31
This is really impressive. And I think a lot of my listeners will be super fascinated by the story. Can you tell us a bit about how you built the resourcing that you needed to do this? Did you go initially through bootstrapping? Did you go straight to VCs? How did you manage that resource build?
Mathilde Jakobsen 10:48
So it's really about being resourceful with your time. So in the beginning, you do everything yourself, and you learn to do things you never thought were possible. Like, my worst subject in school was accounting, for instance. And I just learned how to do accounting because there was no way around it. We couldn't afford hiring an accountant to begin with. So in this sense, you realise that your capacity is way beyond your thoughts.
So actually, this is a huge boost of self esteem, I would say because you realise you're so capable as an individual. And then of course, in the beginning, you have to somehow get the people you can onboard. You're not so attractive, because you are a small startup, and people don't really believe in you. But I think now we have moved to this scale up phase, where we were Fresth.Land is really the hot startup in the environment here in Copenhagen.
And we're seeing a lot of interest from investors, we see a lot of interest from applicants with the job post we have open right now we received more than 2000 applicants for the open positions. So it's really kind of a different ballgame now, where we have proven we can be a success. A lot of people are coming to us and want to take part in this success.
Katherine Ann Byam 12:07
Yes, it's really encouraging. And my final question to you is what advice would you give to young sustainable intrapreneurs? I currently lead a group of 650 female sustainable business owners, what advice would you give them?
Mathilde Jakobsen 12:25
So one piece of advice - that's difficult, but I will try to compress it. First of all, I think it's really important that you believe in yourself, you believe in your intuition, and you believe in your ideas because belief can move mountains. So what I mean about this is that when Fresh.Land started out, no one believed we could do a kind of a food tech platform without owning big assets and trucks and warehouses and bringing fruits just in time, no one believed in that. But what we have done is basically proving them wrong.
Because if there's any theoretical possibility, it is possible. You just have to insist and insist and insist. And I believe that perseverance is the strongest predictor of success. It is not your skills, your abilities, your network and so on. It is your perseverance, because if you don't let anyone bring you down, you will eventually succeed. So that would be my recommendation, continue and don't let anything come in your way.
Katherine Ann Byam 13:27
Thank you so much, Mathilde. This was a lovely session. Thanks for joining the podcast.
Mathilde Jakobsen 13:32
Thanks.