How NOUS Energy Raised a €2.3M Seed in 13 Months From 3 VC Funds

The company

• NOUS Energy — a foodtech company developing innovative ingredients for food, beverage and food supplements

• Incorporated in Italy

• The first ingredient was already industrialised before the raise, with the pre-seed money

• Raised — €2.3M from three VC funds: one lead and two followers

• Instrument — an equity round (capital increase), not a convertible

Founders

• Solo founder, Lorenzo — 27 at the time of the raise

• Nutraceutical consulting, then laboratory technician at a medical device company

• Bachelor of Science in General Biology

Pipeline and channel

• Investors reached — close to 100, all targeted: foodtech investors active at seed

• No geographic filter — Italy, Europe, the UK, Asia and the US, to start relationships before the Series A

• AI-assisted investor research plus introductions from VCs he already knew

• Cold outreach worked, but slowly — one VC took about 10 follow-ups before a meeting was scheduled

• Warm intros from founders who already raised from a fund are the best channel: the relationship already exists

• 35 first meetings, three term sheets

Timeline and runway

• Total — 13 months

• Due diligence — about nine months: legal and business, plus the CVC’s review of the scientific data and the chemistry behind the ingredient

• Term sheet to money in the bank — the remaining four months

• Lead investor happened in reverse — the CVC came in as a follower, then increased its ticket and took the lead after the clinical study results

• Runway at start — 15 months; the last months meant cutting expenses and delaying plans

• Stayed transparent with investors — “if you don’t close this thing in the next month, we will have a lot of problems” — and closed before the summer break

Pitch deck and data room

• Pitch deck and business plan

• P&L, commercial pipeline, clinical studies pipeline

• Regulatory assessment

• Price list against competing ingredients

• Chemical analysis on stability

• Two data rooms — a general one with nothing sensitive, and an NDA room for the rest

Most common rejections

• Couldn’t share the clinical study results before publication

• Young, and a solo founder — investors like to mitigate risk

• Commercial pipeline not as mature as some investors wanted

Metrics at close

• Revenue at the start of fundraising — zero

• An industrialised product, ready to sell, before the raise

• Valuation — €4M to €6.5M pre-money

• Checks — €500K to €1.3M, one lead and two followers

• Instrument — equity round

Lessons learned

• Separate the general data room from the NDA data room — you don’t know which other investments a VC is running

• Founders help founders — to get a read on a fund, reach out to a founder in its portfolio and ask for the intro

• Be patient — foodtech timelines are not those of tech or AI, and investment in the category is slowing down

• Finding the right VC is commercial work: the more targeted you are, the better the results

• If raising again — improve the storytelling of the company

• Next round — a Series A, planned between the end of 2027 and the beginning of 2028