The Great Reckoning
Doubling down on a kinder, cleaner, healthier world — why committed fund managers will outlast the hype cycle.
The role of a fund manager is to be an honest, committed, and trusted intermediary. If that honesty, commitment, and trust fade, there is little a fund manager can do to regain investors' trust in a thesis they have formulated with deep sectoral insights and trends.
The issue I see with several funds in the private markets space is that they have such a short attention span and are driven by mega-trends that, in most cases, are just hype and lead to Ponzi-like behaviour. Many fund managers can show very high TVPI over a short period of a few years, while the committed fund managers who stick to fundamental catalysts are ridiculed for remaining honest and steadfast.
"Our value system is always present in our actions — consciously or unconsciously. At the same time, much care and profound reflections are needed to make explicit and justify what is ethically desirable and what is not."
Still Committed Since 2018
At Beyond Impact, we remain deeply committed to the space we have been invested in since 2018. Beachhead markets may have shifted, and go-to-market strategies have evolved, but the essence remains: we need a production transition in food, materials, nutrition, pharmaceuticals, and personal care that allows us to decouple our existence from the abuse of nature.
A valuation correction can, and perhaps should, happen, but there is still a future for alternative proteins, and we remain firm believers. Some markets are showing more positive signals than others, but the market itself has not disappeared; it has only vanished in the eyes of consultants or funds that were overexposed during the hype when money poured in only to leave for the next trend.
On the brighter side, those who found a way to survive these tough times — when almost no new money is flowing — are showing real resilience. This is a time when we should be talking about resilience and sovereignty regarding food, materials, and energy.
Structural Shifts in Northern Europe
Our conviction is further bolstered by the structural shifts occurring across the Nordics and the Netherlands. Helsinki is currently pioneering a landmark 'Meat and Dairy-Free' food policy for 2030, signalling a clear political mandate to decouple municipal procurement from high-emission animal agriculture. This is not just a lifestyle choice; it is a strategic sovereign decision to build a resilient, localised food system.
The Netherlands provides an equally compelling blueprint for the future of retail and governance. Dutch supermarkets are now leading the world by transparently reporting their 'protein split,' with many committed to reaching a 60/40 plant-to-animal ratio by 2030. While the 'hype' investors fled, the Precision Fermentation market has surged to an estimated $5.5 billion in 2026, growing at a staggering 48% CAGR.
From Hype to Habit
Ultimately, we are doubling down because the 'hype' has been replaced by 'habit' and 'industrial scale.' We aren't interested in the quick TVPI fix of a hype cycle; we are interested in the compounding returns of a world that has no choice but to reinvent how it feeds and heals itself. We remain patient, we remain committed, and we remain convinced that the most resilient companies — the ones that will bring systemic change — are being forged in this exact moment of market fear.