The First Thirty

🚨 Deadline Alert! If you're a start-up in working on solutions in the regenerative agriculture and food systems space - you have just under 2 weeks to apply to pitch at RFSI Europe 2025 in Brussels on February 26-27. 🌎 The theme for this pitch session is: Driving Planetary and Human Health through AgriFood Innovation. Together with our partners at The First Thirty, we're looking for start-ups advancing the connection between planetary health and human well-being through transformative food systems. We'll pick 4 finalists to pitch in front of 300+ at this year's event! ✅ Be sure to get your applications in by January 2 and good luck! Regenerative Food Systems Investment #regenerativeagriculture #foodsystems #foodismedicine #startup #agtech

We’re thrilled to announce our investment in Cerve a company we see as a game-changer for data exchange in the food supply chain. We’ve long believed that the industry’s complexity—millions of organizations relying on outdated, costly data exchanges—requires a simpler, more unified approach. Cerve delivers just that: a platform that standardizes sharing, streamlines connections, and makes food supply chains more transparent and efficient. What really stood out for us was the team’s unique combination of deep industry knowledge and proven execution at some of the world’s leading tech innovators. They’re tackling far more than just operational inefficiencies. By making data accessible, actionable, and consistently valuable, Cerve is unlocking the kind of systems-level change that reduces waste, opens new revenue streams, and paves the way for a healthier, more sustainable global food system. We’re also excited to be co-investing alongside forward-thinking partners at SuperSeed Zenith Ventures and Ponderosa Ventures. Together, we believe Cerve can lay the groundwork for significant, positive change—impacting everything from supply chain transparency to climate resilience and long-term food security. If you’d like to learn more about why we’re confident in Cerve’s future and how its platform can reshape our food systems, feel free to reach out. TFT Team #digitalfood #foodtech #agrifood #foodwaste #api #ecommerce #traceability #connectivity

We are super excited about our latest investment; one that has had us excited from the first meeting... The First Thirty has participated in a £3.5m Seed round into Cerve. At TFT, we are grounded in data and intelligence being an unlock for systems change in food systems and ultimately in human health. But data in a silo will not be sufficient in changing how ALL stakeholders in the supply chain operate or how end users consume data. The data needs to move, to be exchanged efficiently and to be meaningful in today's context with the opportunity to drive future contexts. We have for a long time been looking for a company building the digital infrastructure that could solve for this data efficiency and transport problem in the food system. While we have met some great companies, there has always been a mismatch on scope, approach, domain knowledge, ambition, vision or impact. Then we met Dan Mazig🎗️. There was a sharpness rare to see and a lazer focus on a problem he understood well. But with that was also a calm thoughtfulness around the opportunity Cerve had in front it. Today Cerve tackles an unstructured data inefficiency problem that is a major contributor to food waste. Tomorrow, a structured data exchange can expose new meaningful data to make food systems more sustainable, efficient, healthy and productive. We knew immediately this was what we were looking for. Dan and commercial leader David Walker were the right team, with the right backgrounds, the right approach in today's supply chain context and with ambitious vision about the potential for transformation. TFT and Cerve share a vision that through their platform technology the supply chain can be more efficient today and decommodified tomorrow. Cerve is a platform that has the potential to reshape our relationships and decision-making processes throughout the food system. We are keen to continue to work with an incredible group of investors from the lead SuperSeed to our fellow participants Zenith Ventures and Ponderosa Ventures. Special thanks to Stephanie Mathern and Eric Walters for playing your parts. Congrats Dan Mazig, David Walker, and the Cerve team! Let's Go! #sustainability #foodsystems #humanhealth https://lnkd.in/e7gmEHpt

We don't mind the first thirty cm or six inches of soil. The important point is that we owe everything to the top layer of soil. It is our most undervalued or under-appreciated asset on the planet. Today, December 5th is World Soil Day #worldsoilday #savesoils #soilhealth #nature #sustainablegrowth #humanhealth

We've got an amazing panel lined up for tomorrow's exclusive webinar on the future of sustainable beef production 👏 We'll be joined by: Amanda Pinelli from Nature Tech Collective , Tim Tensen from Terra Genesis, Nicole Buckley Biggs, PhD from AgriWebb, Antony Yousefian from The First Thirty! Grab your spot to be a part of tomorrow's discussion here ➡️ https://lu.ma/r1c0dix7 In addition to presenting key findings from our comprehensive research project "Cattle Tech: Datasets and Technologies for a Sustainable Beef Industry" - our experts will lead an interactive discussion on the landscape of current solutions and opportunities for advancing sustainability in the global beef sector. Join us! #Regenerativeagriculture #sustainablebeef #naturetech #agtech

Food is essential to life - but how often do we think about it? This month, we ran a full event about AgriFoodTech in collaboration with our partners at Innovate UK. With food being the foundation of society, we addressed the challenges of continually scaling food production while also working towards reaching net-zero by 2050. There were many great talks from our amazing speakers: 📈 Harry Langford who introduced the current market for AgriFoodTech (hint: it’s booming with new companies joining the sector every year!) 🌽 Antony Yousefian who gave a deep dive on how AgriFoodTech is affecting every part of our food supply chain - from our soil to the stock at our grocery stores. 💹 Alastair Cooper who opened a conversation on how we can make more capital available to allow Agri-Food tech companies to scale up. We’re running 7 more of these events in 2025 so if you’re an investor and missed this one, stay in the loop! 👥 Check out Innovate UK’s Investor LinkedIn Group to hear about the next one: https://lnkd.in/dGjnEYWE 📧 And also Climate Connection’s newsletter for other events surrounding London’s climate space: https://lnkd.in/dBTbrKbA Thank you to all the investors who attended and contributed their perspectives on how we can drive capital into AgriFoodTech. And a HUGE thank you to Sarah Tennison, Dr Stafford Lloyd, Joanna Gosling and Kienan Bruemmer. These events would not be possible without you! #investors #london #agritech

We are thrilled to open up applications for participation for the Regenerative Food Systems Investment Europe Forum Pitch Session! Open call to high impact companies working to advance the connections between planetary and human health. There are 3 categories for application 1. Ecosystem Health and Regeneration
 2. Intelligent Supply Chains
 3. Nutrition and Health Optimisation
 This year we want to give more time to elevate innovation in this important space, so there will be an online webinar with the finalists from each category. The winner from each category and an audience choice will get the opportunity to pitch on stage at RFSI in front of 300+ investor centric audience in Brussels, 26th & 27th February 2025. To apply or learn more here: https://lnkd.in/dZ5c-eFS Feel free to reach out to any of the TFT or RFSI team for more information. #agritech #agtech #foodasmedicine #foodashealthcare #foodtech #healthtech #regenag #regenfood

We recommend more than saving the date. Register and see you there!

The search for the winners of The Earthshot Prize 2025 has begun and The First Thirty is proud to be an Official Nominator. The Earthshot Prize is a global prize and impact platform designed to find and grow solutions that will repair our planet in this decade. As an Official Nominator, we are part of a global community invited to submit nominations, selected for our ability to identify the most impactful solutions across all sectors worldwide. The Earthshot Prize will consider solutions that will make tangible progress towards one of the five Earthshots. We naturally focus on Protect and Restore Nature prize submissions, with 3 areas of interest.... i) Protecting areas of high biodiversity such as forests, wetlands, peatlands and wildlife corridors ii) Restoring damaged ecosystems iii) Feeding people while protecting nature (our favourite!) They should be beyond the idea stage, have tested their solution in-field or with target audiences, and are at a ‘tipping point’ for scaling their impact within the next five years. If you have a solution that is inspiring, inclusive and impactful, please get in touch with either myself or any of the team, Naeem Lakhani Saumeel Pachigar or Amy Godfrey for further discussion. Or, if you know anyone who should apply, please do share or tag them below! #nature #investinginnature #naturetech #earthshot #oneplanet #planetaryboundaries #sustainability #impactinvesting You can find out more about the Prize, our role as an Official Nominator, and the process of selecting winners at www.earthshotprize.org.

Today marks the one month countdown before I hang up my stethoscope, at least for now, and leave the NHS. This is not a decision I have made lightly, I ultimately became a doctor to understand and cure sickness, helping people in the process. But I can't ignore the reality - chronic disease is plaguing our societies, workplaces and homes. People are taking more medications, undergoing more operations and yet are sicker, more infertile, less productive and unhappier than ever. Something isn't working. What we need is not more money poured into an NHS buckling under the strain, we need more focus on the sources of the issue and preventative healthcare so the NHS can function as intended. There is no denying that the modern food system has a considerable part to play in directly causing chronic diseases, many of which are underpinned by metabolic dysfunction, and contributing to the climate and biodiversity crises. Our health is a reflection of our planet's health. It is here that I have decided to focus my attention and career because I truly believe, as a doctor, that how we grow and produce our food is the biggest opportunity of our lifetimes to transform our health and the health of the planet. I am therefore thrilled to be joining the team at The First Thirty, who share my ambition to transform an incrementally changin system - investing in and supporting companies that will be the disruptors and game changers of the future, changing the modern food system to save our planet and ultimately, ourselves.