Top 50 Food and Beverage Angel Investors in Europe in February 2025

Ralf Dummel, born on 02.12.1966 in Bad Segeberg in Germany, started his career on 01.04.1988 at DS Produkte as a sales assistant to the then founder. Over the years he learned the business from the ground and took full responsibility for purchases and sales after only a year. He vastly participated in the establishment of the company and has been apartner since 1996. Today, the group has an annual turnover of ca. € 250 000 000, 400 employees, and more than 4 000 products in its portfolio. He often travels the world to visit suppliers and customers, and to find inspiration in new innovative products. Dümmel knows Asia inside out, but Northern Germany is the place he calls home. Since 2016 he takes part in the TV program “Die Höhle der Löwen” (literally: The Lions’ Cave, German version of Dragons’ Den on German TV channel VOX ) where he plays one of the “lions”, looking for young entrepreneurs with brilliant products.Ralf Dummel is very convincing with his genuine and appreciative style. From day one, Ralf Dümmel brightened up the surroundings, thanks to his enthusiasm for business and for new products. He has a unique sense for trends and products; he can market them with more success than hardly anyone else. He proudly claims that there hardly is any household without a “DS product” in Germany. Dümmel is often on the road for professional reasons, and when he sees that a customer adds a DS product in their shopping cart, he feels the same tingle of joy after 28 years that he felt in the early days. The 400 employees are Dümmels’s most important asset. They actively take part in the company, invest themselves in it, and help it develop further. Dummel is very proud that the DS products are the result of such a varied cast of people and skill sets. These are people with different personalities and talents that complement each other in a cooperation shaping always innovative business and product ideas.

Dagmar Wöhrl

Sylvain is a French software developer turned entrepreneur, conference organizer and angel investor.

Marc Menasé is a Tech serial entrepreneur and Investor

Nils Glagau

Tom Horsey is co-founder of the Crazy4Media group, a group of digital marketing companies, several of which he has been a founder, and of the startup association the Connected Mobility Hub, Tom invests mainly in digital marketing and mobility companies with a special focus on Andalusian companies. He has done exit with The Mobile Life and QAShops, and currently has in his portfolio several successful startups such as Open Webinars, Mission Box / Mox, Workkola, Wuolah, Fheel, Ciclogreen, Checkealos and Levelbots / Güelcom. In spite of its English origin Tom Horsey is based between Seville (Spain) and St Julians (Malta).

Christian O. Edler is an investor and entrepreneur with a proven track record in sectors ahead of mainstream adoption. He invests opportunity-driven, sector- and business-model agnostic. Christian built a 10-year track record investing in early-stage ventures and securing exclusive deal flow in primary and secondary growth opportunites. He isco-investing with the best investors and VCs in the world – like Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel, Christian Angermayer, Gsquared, Bitkraft, Bessemer Ventures, Coatue, Sony, FirstMark Capital, DN Capital, FJ Labs, Moore Capital, Alexis Ohanian (Seven Seven Six), Left Lane, Insight, Tencent, Hive and many others. Due to his track record, he has access to exclusive opportunities in the EU/US. Christian’s >75 angel startup investments returned over 20x including several unicorns. As an entrepreneur, Christian recruited, educated and led over 1,500 sales people with $500M in annual sales. His primary focus is on world-class entrepreneurs with new categories of ideas and a potential for massive scale. If you like to co-invest with him, follow his syndicate on AngelList: https://angel.co/s/edleredler/fCORTChristian is a Scout Partner of Sequoia Capital, Venture Partner of BITKRAFT VC, an alumnus of Harvard Business School, a former semi-pro alpine skier, and based in Berlin & Los Angeles.

Verena Pausder

James Watt is an Aberdeenshire entrepreneur who co-founded one of the world’s most popular craft breweries, BrewDog.Before embarking on a hop-fuelled journey that would change the face of the beer industry forever, James completed an honours degree in Law and Economics. It didn’t take long for him to discover that the corporate suit-and-tie worldof litigation and libel was not for him, so he packed in his career in a law after a few weeks, opting to return to the bitter cold shores of Northeast Scotland to join his father as a fully-qualified Deepsea Captain.At 24-years-old, James took a new path. Inspired by the bold and experimental beers being crafted by a new movement of brewers on the West Coast of the U.S, James joined forces with friend Martin Dickie, and together the pair started brewing their own beers in Martin’s mum’s garage. In a world dominated by cask bitters and mass-produced lagers, their penchant for heavily-hopped and relentlessly bitter beers made them a unique duo, especially in the town of Fraserburgh. Undeterred by opinion, they pursued their passion through meticulous study, experimentation and boundary-pushing ideas, hellbent on showcasing that beer could be more than just fizzy yellow liquid made by global dominating brewers.2007 was a seminal year for James. BrewDog became a reality, setting up shop on a derelict industrial estate in Fraserburgh between a needle exchange and ‘The Godfather of Carpets’. While Martin took the reins on brewing and production, James focused on growing the business, handling accounts and spearheading the brand’s new breed of irreverent marketing that grabbed headlines for years to come. Not only did the pair produce some of the most exciting beers the UK has ever seen, but James also led the charge on Equity for Punks, a ground-breaking new crowdfunding initiative that would be mirrored for years to come by other brands across the globe. In 2014, James was awarded Great British Entrepreneur of the Year. He is also one of only a handful of people in Europe holding the title of Master Cicerone5, a title reserved for only the most diligent beer experts. In 2016, he was awarded the MBE in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours list. By this time, BrewDog was now 9 years old and boasted a 360-person strong workforce, 26 bars across the UK and Europe, as well as over 14,000 shareholders. Latter achievements include a number of publishing deals. James released Business for Punks: Break All The Rules – The BrewDog Way and co-wrote BrewDog: Craft Beer for the People. These books both showed the impact that BrewDog had on the beer, from both a business and marketing perspective, as well highlighting the importance of exceptional quality products in a world heavily populated by mainstream beer. But times were changing, and James was at the front of the pack, leading the way and carving a new path for the beer world.By 2019, James’ passion for sustainability had become integral to the brand. BrewDog was employing over 2,000 people at this time, with 100 bars located around the globe and over 130,000 Equity Punk shareholders. Amazing beer was still at the heart of everything James was doing, but building sustainability into this world was now not a question of if, but when.So, in 2020, BrewDog announced that they were the world’s first carbon negative brewery – a huge step that would see the industry take note and follow suit with commitments to change the way they do business. James worked closely with Small World Consulting’s Mike Berners-Lee to calculate the businesses carbon emissions and identify ways to reduce these through authentic reforestation programmes, which included a 9,308 acre plot of land in the Scottish Highlands and set forth to embark on one of the largest reforestation projects the UK has ever seen. In just 15 years, the beer world has transformed. Beyond the liquid in your glass, the breweries at the forefront of the movement are more than just suppliers of a product. They are social commentators, integral to local communities and beacons of quality and change. James has been paramount to these developments, showing that beer can be a force for good.

Tillman Schulz

Mario Götze is a professional footballer.

Ilkka Paananen, is the CEO and co-founder of Supercell, the Helsinki-based mobile games developer behind Clash of Clans, Hay Day, Boom Beach, Clash Royale and Brawl Stars. Since its founding in 2010, Supercell's five games have amassed 100m daily players and remain in the global top 10 years after launch. In June 2016, Supercell became thefirst European technology start-up to reach a valuation of $10 billion.In addition to his role at Supercell, Ilkka helps other entrepreneurs as both an investor and as an active member of the Nordic startup community where he mentors and coaches other founders. Alongside his co-founder Mikko Kodisoja, he has established the We Foundation to fight social inequality and help disadvantaged children in Finland.Prior to founding Supercell, he was the CEO & co-founder of Finnish games developer Sumea, which was later acquired by Digital Chocolate, where he worked as President until 2010. Ilkka holds a Master of Science degree from the Helsinki University of Technology.

Ali Omar is a Member of the Finnish Business Angels Network. He attended Aalto University and the University of Oulu.

Will Martin - Founder and Director @ Portfolio Ventures

Dr. Johann ‘Hansi’ Hansmann was born in Austria and studied economics in Vienna. He spent the major part of his professional life working as an executive in the pharmaceutical industry in Austria, Germany, UK and Spain. He gathered several years of entrepreneurial experience running successfully his own pharmaceutical company in Spain afterconducting a management buy-out of a big pharmaceutical plant, making an exit in 2003. Since this time he is active as investor and business angel. He currently holds investments with a geographical focus on Austria, Germany, UK and Spain both internet and in the health industry. He led Runtastic, shpock, mysugr and just recently durchblicker and Busuu to extraordinary exits. He was president of the ‘Austrian Angels Investors Association’ until 2021, was awarded 'Best European Early Stage Investor' in 2016 by eban.org and is now based in Vienna and tries to find spare time to ride his mountain bike.

Hubert Patricot - Executive Vice President and President, European Group @ Coca-Cola Enterprises

Tijen Onaran - CEO & Founder @ Global Digital Women

Bertrand Jacquelot is the Founding President of Projim. He attended the University of Marne-la-Vallee.

Bertrand Jacquelot is the Founding President of Projim. He attended the University of Marne-la-Vallee.

Exited Founder of DesignMyNight (Acquired 2019), Co-Founder trumpet, Founder of Venture Arm Horseplay Ventures, Angel Investor in 55+ Startups and Podcaster

Andreas is a German serial entrepreneur and angel investor having invested in more than 150 international startups.Andreas co-founded his first internet company Omniga in 1999 and, after reaching profitability within 2 years, grew it to a venture builder focused on B2C subscription models with more than 200 employees when he stepped back from hisactive roles in 2012.In the same year Andreas started investing in startups and later also got engaged in the Spanish ecosystem as the founder of Marbella Tech Angels, a network of more than 160 investors, founders & mentors living around Marbella. Andreas is also co-founder of the Global Super Angels Club, a platform for angel investors usually investing six-figure euro amounts in startups, supporting its more than 70 members to improve their deal flow and speed up their search for like-minded co-investors.Andreas received several awards incl. the Best European Early Stage Investor 2018 award from the European Business Angel Network (EBAN) and the Best Business Angel 2020 award at the Spanish National Business Angel Conference.

Thibaud Elziere is the Founder of Hexa. He previously worked at Fotolia as a Founder. Thibaud Elziere attended Technical University of Berlin.

Preben Damgaard - Director @ Axcess A/S

Will Brooks - Founder & Director @ Portfolio Ventures

Xavier Niel is the Co-Founder and CEO of NJJ Capital. He previously worked at Worldnet as a Founder. Xavier Niel attended Saint Michel de Picpus Catholic private high school.

Serge Chiaramonte

Bernardo Hernandez is leading Spanish Business Angel. He graduated from ICADE, a top Business School in Madrid Spain in 1993. He has a Masters in Finance from Boston College and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. At the age of 29, after 5 years as an analyst and portfolio manager in the asset management industry with companieslike Fidelity and Putnam Investments, he started his first internet venture idealista.com, now the leading real estate online portal in Spain. Since then he has participated in other online start-ups as a Business Angel, like floresfrescas.com, planetaki.com, 11870.com or the leading social network in Spain, tuenti.com.His latest venture is StepOne.com, a company that helps Spanish businesses to get established in the US. He is also member of the board at Bodaclick.com, the first Spanish internet company to go public.Bernardo joined Google in 2005 and is currently Director of Product Management and Managing Director for Zagat. He is based in New York.

Laurel is a General Partner at 83North (formerly Greylock IL), which she joined in 2008. Her areas of focus include: software, internet and fintech. Laurel has led investments in many leading European companies, including Just Eat (LSE: JE), Qliktech (NASDAQ: QLIK) and Hybris (acquired by SAP).Her current company boards and investmentsinclude Workable, Mirakl, NotontheHighStreet, Wonga, Wandera, iZettle, BlueVine, Ebury and Investec PLC & Ltd.Laurel was previously at GE and JVP. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town and an MBA from INSEAD.

Fredrik Jung Abbou is a CCO & Co-founder of KRY.

Quentin Griffiths is the Co-Founder and MD of ACHICA.

Angel / Sophisticated Investor and Trader (Ex London Stock Exchange(LSE), Deutsche Bank, London Clearing House(LCH) ) , Invested in 60+ Startups / 4 successful exits (with Avg 20x) and counting more. (Web3 -> udaybs.ETH )Invested in following asset classes from past 2 decades across UK / India / US / Europe / -Private Equity (Seed / Growth / VC/ Acquisition / Merger) - Equity Markets - Real Estate - FX - Commodity - Bonds - Fintech, Blockchain, Crypto Market, Web3 , DeFi, NFT - Derivative Markets / Hedging / F&O / CFDGrowing Wealth in bumpy economic rides - There is no secret formula. Investment is an art. Being vigilant, dynamic, connecting dots, evaluating risk with constant change, loads of patience and visualising medium to long term.Private Equity Investments across globe in following domains / categories: - Energy - EV / Carbon Footprint - Blockchain / FinTech / AI / ML / Web3 / DeFi - D2C / B2C - Food & Beverages - Pharma - Media & Entertainment

Oskar Hartmann currently works as an Angel Investor for YAP. He previously worked at Flaschenpost SE as an Investor. Oskar Hartmann attended WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management.

Passionate SaaS Startup and Growth CxO & Board Executive I BUILD WINNING STARTUPS TO SCALE AND BEYOND - Passionate and engaged SaaS growth phase leader and general manager with strong track record - Commercial at heart, driven by ambitions, with a calm yet fighting mindset and the desire to learn from failures and courage to win - Driver insuccessful execution of growing business, go-to-market strategies, venture capital funding, globalization, US and Europe entries - Growing performance by strong hiring, motivating individuals and leaders with empowerment, result focus and respect across cultures and functions

Daniel Skavén Ruben

A startup entrepreneur and angel investor. Currently Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Urban Massage - a B2C and B2B technology marketplace connecting wellness professionals with buyers in their local neighborhood. Prior to founding Urban Massage, he founded a social network and app-based job board TheStudentJob.com

Alex Chesterman is the Co-Founder of Houseful. Alex Chesterman attended the University College London.

Félix Ruiz, founder of Tuenti and president of Jobandtalent. He has invested in startups Jobandtalent, Syltek, Vitcord, Fudeat, Glovo or Deporvillage. As a business angel does not follow any pattern, invest for the team. Bet on internationally scalable projects that do not depend on a single market. Personal investments are made as entertainmentwithout being involved in day to day. When it involves investors, it decides to be part of the company's operations, such as Jobandtalent. He is considered an architect and accelerator of companies, invests in the technology and restoration sectors. His two exits are Tuenti and Buytheface.

Kağan Sümer is the CEO and co-founder of Gorillas.

Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen is a Co-Founder & serves as a Partner at 2xN. Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen was General Partner at Balderton Capital in London from 2015-2021 through four funds. He joined after spending a decade in Silicon Valley where he was with Uber and Dropbox.Since 2012 his venture track record includes two IPOs (Uber, Dropbox) and 11acquisitions.Lars joined Balderton from Uber which he joined when the company was operating in less than 20 cities. His role as Vice-President resulted in strategic alliances. Lars joined Uber from Dropbox as one of the company’s first 25 employees. As Head of Mobile, his growth deals with Samsung and other mobile OEMs helped Dropbox reach its first 100 million users. Prior to that Lars held positions at Voicesignal (acq. Nuance), Skyhook Wireless (acq. TruePosition), Ness Technologies (acq. Opentable), 3Jam (acq. Skype) and T9 Tegic (acq. AOL). More than a billion people have used the software and services distributed as a result of mobile growth partnerships led by Lars.His venture investments include Voi (Raine), Labster (A16Z), Hiya (Ericsson), Cambridge Quantum Computing (HON), Hopin (A16Z), Opensea (A16Z), Yassir (YC), Beacon (Eric Schmidt), The org (Sequoia), Octant (A16Z), Zycada (Khosla), Monarch Money (Accel) and Kukua (Tencent), Dubsmash (acq. Reddit), Tempow (acq. Google), Rahko (acq. Odyssey Therapeutics), Pocket (acq. Mozilla), Blue Bottle (acq. Nestle), Marble (acq. Caterpillar).Lars, who is Danish-Portuguese, grew up across Africa and served with the Royal Danish Guards. He holds a MBA from London Business School, where he also serves on the Board of Trustees, an MSc from Oxford University Keble College and a BSc from King’s College, London. He lives in London with his wife and three children.

Maria Raga is the CEO of Depop. Since being promoted to the position in 2016 from VP of Operations, she has presided over every element of the business from finance and engineering to marketing and product. An open and collaborative CEO, Maria is dedicated to her team, which has grown to 150+ employees in 5 offices worldwide in the last threeyears alone. Perhaps most importantly, since she took over as CEO, she has raised close to $100M in funding, which has helped to grow and nurture the community on Depop - now 13 million users. Prior to Depop, Maria held successively roles at Groupon and Privalia. Having graduated from Insead MBA, Maria joined Bain & Company as a consultant. Born in Valencia, Spain, Maria now resides in London with her husband and 2 children. In her spare time, Maria enjoys connecting with Depop’s entrepreneurial Gen-Z constituency and promoting women in the workplace

Bertrand Jelensperger is the Co-Founder and Advisory Board at TheFork.

Stefan Lemcke is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Ankerkraut.

Ludwig Cramer-Klett is an Entrepreneur and Investor.

Eamonn Quinn

Roger Hassan is the Founding Partner at Shorea Ventures.

founder at Voog.

Lea-Sophie Cramer (born April 16, 1987 in Berlin , Germany ) is a German entrepreneur . She founded in 2013 together with Sebastian Pollok, the online retailer and manufacturer of Sextoys, Amorelie, whose CEO she has been since. The business magazine Forbes named her in 2016 as one of the "30 under 30 Europe", the leading youngentrepreneurs in Europe. [1]

Dennis Aogo is a German former professional footballer.

Julien is an investor at Felix Capital where he focuses on SaaS (Worktech in particular) and gaming investments.Before joining Felix, Julien Codorniou spent 11 years at Facebook where he led the global platform partnerships team, helping Facebook partners to build, grow and monetize their mobile apps and games. From 2016 to 2021, he has beenserving as Vice President of Workplace. Under his leadership, Workplace went from 0 to 9 million paid subscribers at companies like Walmart, Grab, GSK, Nestlé, Chevron, MercadoLibre, ServiceNow, Astrazeneca, Lixil, Spotify, Save the Children and many more globally. Julien started his career in finance and before Facebook he was Director of Business Development at Microsoft Corp.Since 2012, Julien has served on the board of the French media group Le Monde. He is the co-author of the book: "The Kelkoo.com success story"published by Pearson in 2005.His former investments, as business angel include companies like TripleDot Studios, Bloom & Wild, Pigment, Xentral, Homesome, Olio, Peanut, Nabla, Curio, Linktree, Airlift Technologies and Sunday.He grew up in France and now lives in London with his wife and their two boys.

Alex Vassiliev is a Founder and CEO at Elixir Fine Foods.