Entry of GreenTech investor Sven Schulz via minority shareholding / All existing investors remain on board / Company to continue dynamic growth in the coming years / Leading market position to be significantly expanded internationally as well
Followfood ignites the next growth stage: With Sven Schulz, the sustainable food pioneer from Lake Constance brings an experienced GreenTech investor on board. Schulz is the founder of AKASOL AG, a pioneer and European market leader for e-mobility battery systems, which he successfully sold to a strategic investor from the USA at the beginning of the year. The entrepreneur and investor is joining the organic brand, which has been growing in double digits for years, as a minority shareholder with immediate effect. Together, the food producer and Sven Schulz want to make followfood the leading brand in Europe that stands for ecological transformation. The two founders Harri Butsch and Jürg Knoll remain majority shareholders of followfood. Recently, followfood was ranked 7th in the ranking of the most innovative medium-sized companies by the magazine Wirtschaftswoche and the consultancy Munich Strategy.
Since the founding of the sustainable fish brand followfish in 2007 and the introduction of the novel tracking code to prove producers and supply chains, the company from Friedrichshafen has continuously driven the business of the two brands followfish and followfood through innovations and thus also changed the industry. Now, together with the new investor, the sustainable food producer wants to grow much faster. Sven Schulz and followfood are united by the conviction that a transformation towards demonstrably sustainable food and sustainably managed companies will shape the coming years. By joining forces, the followfood brand is to become significantly better known, grow faster and become the leading brand for ecological transformation in Europe. Sven Schulz will acquire around 29% of the shares through his investment company Summiteer. In addition to Schulz, experienced green tech investor Thomas Holeczek will remain a minority shareholder in followfood. Holeczek has been involved in the company through his investment company MH Holding since the founding days and welcomes the expansion of the shareholder base through the entry of Sven Schulz. The other shares are held by the company founders Jürg Knoll and Harri Butsch.
Sven Schulz, an industrial engineer by training with an MBA from the University of St. Gallen, founded AKASOL in 2008 and took the company public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2018. AKASOL AG is considered a technology and market leader for high-performance battery systems in commercial vehicle applications such as electric buses or trucks. In mid-August, AKASOL officially opened its Gigafactory 1, Europe’s largest factory for commercial vehicle battery systems. The successful sale of AKASOL to the US company BorgWarner at the beginning of the year now enables Sven Schulz to further expand and strengthen his holdings in companies with a sustainable business model.
„My partner Harri Butsch and I have spent 14 years bringing followfood to where we are today with our own resources and a great deal of passion, courage and vision. We are delighted to have found in Sven Schulz a person and entrepreneur who shares our values and ideas. With his team, we want to make the followfood brand the leading sustainable food company in Europe.“, comments Jürg Knoll, Managing Director of followfood.
„Followfood is a real success story that I have been following with keen interest for some time. With great vision, a clear focus on serious sustainability and sound commercial management, the company fits perfectly into our portfolio of green, ecologically oriented companies with enormous growth potential. Harri Butsch and Jürg Knoll, together with their team, have created impressive things so far. I am very pleased to now contribute my entrepreneurial know-how and make an important contribution to the further growth of followfood,“ says Sven Schulz, new minority shareholder at followfood.