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1-2-Taste Successfully Closes Seed Investment Round with Icos Capital and Navus Ventures

Wageningen, 12-3-2024 – 1-2-Taste, the online B2B platform transforming the access to food and beverage ingredients for food manufacturers in Europe and India, proudly announces the successful closure of its Seed investment round, led by the strategic addition of Icos Capital and the continued support of existing investor, Navus Ventures. This accomplishment highlights a significant vote of confidence in 1-2-Taste’s potential and future.

1-2-Taste stands as the leading platform dedicated to offering unparalleled ease in the discovery, selection, and ordering of a wide range of food and beverage ingredients. Selling amongst others flavours, sweeteners, fibres, nutraceuticals, proteins, emulsifiers and much more, 1-2-Taste caters to a wide range of applications across the food and beverage industry. 1-2-Taste’s mission is to make ingredient sourcing as effortless as possible for all food and beverage companies, fostering innovation, sustainability and efficiency in product development.

The investment from Icos Capital, a new partner, and the continued support from Navus Ventures, an existing investor, are testaments to the robustness and innovative edge of the 1-2-Taste platform. This financial backing is not just a testament to our past achievements but a strong belief in our vision for the future of sourcing in the food and beverage industry.

This new influx of funds will enable 1-2-Taste to further scale its operations, advance its technological infrastructure, and broaden its ingredient offering. This development is geared towards meeting the evolving needs of our diverse and expanding customer base, reinforcing our commitment to streamlining the ingredient sourcing process for the food and beverage sector.

"We are overjoyed to welcome Icos Capital as our new investor and to continue our journey with Navus Ventures," said Jasper Schouten, CEO of 1-2-Taste. "Their belief in our mission fuels our ambition and enables us to accelerate our growth trajectory. With the renewed support, we are set to further our innovation, enhancing our marketplace platform and broadening our ingredient offering. 1-2-Taste is making the unscalable activities of a traditional distributor scalable: Already now, each week the 1-2-Taste platform is taking 15,000 'virtual’ customer visits and is representing more than 100 suppliers - among which are global leaders in the industry. We are now entering an exciting new phase of development, driven by our shared vision for a more innovative and sustainable food industry: What we want is making ordering ingredients for food businesses as simple as ordering on Amazon. It’s exciting now to also integrate gen AI features in our platform, so that we can inform customers better about exactly the right ingredients for their application.  We are grateful to have been able to get so far already thanks to the dedication of the 1-2-Taste team in Europe and India, and thanks to the suppliers and customers who are already embracing the transition to ordering food ingredients online."

"We at Icos Capital are thrilled to announce our investment in 1-2-Taste, a pioneering venture at the forefront of revolutionising the food industry. 1-2-Taste is not just another player in the market; they are setting a new standard by marrying exceptional quality with groundbreaking sustainability. Their commitment to reducing the carbon footprint of the food logistical chain, while leading the market in specialist ingredients, is precisely the kind of innovative thinking that aligns with our mission to support climate tech startups. This investment signifies a leap forward towards a more sustainable future, demonstrating our shared belief that the path to environmental stewardship is through intelligent, forward-thinking investments.”, Nityen Lal, founding partner at Icos Capital.

“Since our first discussions with the founders in 2021 and initial investment in 2022, the 1-2-Taste team has shown strong execution, steadily expanding sales volumes while building highly scalable technology and operations. They are digitising and simplifying otherwise complex, expensive and archaic supply chains, enabling SME food innovators to access ingredients and allowing ingredient suppliers to cost effectively serve broader and more niche markets. The market is recognising the value of 1-2-Taste and therefore we are continuing our support with this second investment”, Jaap Zijlstra, Senior Investment Manager at Navus Ventures.

About 1-2-Taste: 1-2-Taste is the world's first platform offering easy access to a comprehensive selection of food and beverage ingredients. Our platform simplifies the sourcing process for food and beverage companies, making it easy to find, select, and order the ingredients they need. 1-2-Taste is committed to fostering innovation and efficiency in product development across the food and beverage industry.

About Icos Capital: Icos Capital is the leading climate tech venture capital firm focused on reducing the carbon footprint of the industry by investing in innovative technology driven companies in the scale-up phase. www.icoscapital.com

About Navus Ventures: Navus Ventures is a venture capital firm, part of a family office linked to Lely, aimed at unique high-tech start-ups and scale-ups that drive the sustainable transitions in food and energy. In addition to a financial contribution, Navus Ventures adds hands-on value by actively sharing its knowledge, network and experience.