Unknown Stories

Join us for a groundbreaking episode featuring Chief Researcher Gabriel Mora at Real Deal Milk, where innovation meets dairy-free transformation! 🌱

Discover how Real Deal Milk is revolutionizing the dairy industry, producing your favorite dairy products without a single cow involved! Their animal-free cheese fights climate change and preserves food culture using precision fermentation.

Plus, get the scoop on the Desafía food tech program, landing innovative Spanish startups in the Netherlands and gaining recognition from industry giants like Rabobank and StartLife. 🌟

Tune in to explore the future of dairy, sustainability, and innovative food solutions! 🎧👇

From melon seeds to innovation in ingredients, we delve into Väcka’s journey of creating planet-conscious plant-based cheeses. 

Väcka is a Barcelona-based FoodTech startup that produces plant-based cheese alternatives. Founded in 2021 by Luz Sanz and Maxime Boniface, who were inspired to create vegan cheese alternatives after changing their diet to a vegan one. Väcka's cheese alternatives are made with fermented melon seed milk and extra virgin olive oil, and are available in more than 400 points of sale, including retail and foodservice outlets. 

In this episode we sit down with Luz Sanz, CEO and co-founder of Väcka, to discuss their journey, which has been all about experimentation, connection, and learning. 

Tune in to learn more about their story and aspirations on

Despite its lengthy decomposition time and difficulty to be recycled, over 300 million tones of plastic is produced each year. Would we ever be able to deal with the ever-growing amount of discarded plastic? Well, first believe that it is possible, and then you'll see🎙️

Hailing from Israeli, founder Tal Cohen developed a unique solution. Through PlasticBack, Tal Cohen and his team work alongside waste handlers and petrochemical companies to turn plastic back into its original form. Commercial plants with 20.000 - 30.000 tons per year capacity to tackle plastic waste — at a remarkable CapEx and OpEx — coming soon in 2025.

Hop on Tal's journey to making an impact via unknowngroup.com/podcasts, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

Discover a truly unconventional solution that stores energy in liquid air. Meet Phelas, our guest on the Unknown Stories podcast.

In the fifth episode of this season, Leon, one of the co-founders of Phelas, joined us from Germany to explain how their solution is crucial for the energy transition. Phelas created a battery which uses the liquification of air to store energy and release it via expansion in a highly efficient manner.

After emerging as the Rising Star during the Global Meetup 2022, Leon and Phelas are joining us to share their vision of a world powered entirely by renewable energy.

Learn more about his solution and how it is fixing the future by tuning into the podcast on unknowngroup.com/podcast, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts!

In the first episode of Season 2, Jurgen is joined by Linda Klunder to go into an in-depth tour of the first cocoa pulp-based soft drink on the market.

Living at the poverty line, cocoa farmers earn only 6% of the final value of a chocolate bar. However, to produce it, much of the cocoa fruit is discarded as waste, when in reality, it is a rich pulpy fruit.

So, what can we do to increase the income of cocoa farmers? Drink more Kumasi!

Kumasi fights food loss and poverty by making soft drinks and thus creating an additional revenue stream for cocoa farmers out of the previously wasted cocoa pulp. Leading the “Juice Revolution”, Linda, co-founder of Kumasi, is already selling via Albert Heijn, Hema and speciality shops.

🎙️ Meet Oscar Via, Economic and Trade Counsellor of Spain, who is guiding Spanish FoodTech startups to The Netherlands and beyond!

In this parallel series of Unknown Stories, our host Willem Knaap aims to understand how governments act upon opportunities and innovation to reveal tomorrow’s taste. With the Desafia FoodTech Netherlands 2021, Unknown and ICEX aim to facilitate meaningful collaborations between leading Spanish FoodTech ventures and Dutch partners to successfully scale innovations.  

What makes The Netherlands a go-to market for food startups? Why is the perfect time now? How can Spanish startups benefit from such a program, and what is the role of the Spanish government in this scaling process? Find out what it takes to venture beyond known, to the Dutch market by listening to the full episode.

It’s tough for new, innovative ventures to collaborate with McDonald’s, but not impossible.  

In this Unknown Specials episode, our host Willem Knaap aims to understand how corporate leaders act upon opportunities and innovation to disentangle the future of food. This time, he is joined by Jeroen Dekkers, Head of Supply Chain at McDonald’s, to draw the route for newcomers into the McDonald’s system.   

Scale is their biggest advantage, but also disadvantage to integrate game changing solutions. Working with the same partners for over 25 years - without a contract - founders must form a trustworthy relationship based on transparency, and share the same vision to change the world. Find out what it takes to venture beyond known with McDonald’s by listening to the full episode on unknowngroup.com/unknown-specials, Apple and Spotify.

Collaboration between start-ups, scale-ups, (energy) companies and governments will fast-track the development of technologies which can help us tackle the challenges of climate change. Shell GameChanger stands out as the oldest of all corporate innovation programs. Since 1996, the Shell GameChanger program is fully focused on scouting for disruptive ideas that could be vital to meeting future energy needs worldwide. 

In this parallel series, our host Willem Knapp, director of Corporate Venturing at Unknown Group, aims to understand how corporate leaders act upon opportunities, innovation, and disruption. For this episode, he is joined by Lene Hviid, Global Manager Shell Research Alliance & GameChanger, to dive deeper into perhaps the world's greatest challenge: the energy transition — and not only. What comes first in a good startup? How to spot future trends and tech developments in advance? How can Shell help you as a startup or scaleup to further shape the energy system of the future? This episode of Unknown Stories uncovers the secret of successfully collaborating with industry leaders to bring innovations to the market.

We first met Vijaykant Nadadur, Co-Founder and CEO of Stride.ai, when we identified them as a viable solution for the ABN AMRO "Building the Bank of The Future" challenge in 2017. Winning this event elevated Stride.ai to process optimization superstardom especially in the Banking industry, with Stride.ai landing successful collaborations with ING's Fintech Village and EY.  

Today, Stride.ai is a one-stop solution that helps companies automate their processes without writing a single line of code. How did they get here? And where to next? Tune in to the newest episode of the Unknown Stories podcast to find out.

"Microplastics are everywhere. In water, air, soil, and in our food, they have been found in Arctic ice, on Mount Everest, in our bodies and so on... If we do not come to working solutions as soon as possible to remove microplastics and micropollutants, we directly have bad influence on our health and we get sick. This is for sure."

Dr. Katrin Schuhen is the Founder & Managing Director of Wasser 3.0. Although for many seemed like a bold direction to pursue, her extensive research on using hybrid silica gels to purify water gave birth to Wasser 3.0. The non-profit organization tackles the complexity of water pollution with three concepts to achieve zero pollutants in water, which is also the reasoning behind their brand name. In this episode, Katrin, together with our host Jurgen, put a spotlight on the necessity for innovation in the water domain — a vital topic for our survival on this planet — and provide a detailed overview of how Wasser 3.0 contribute in this area. No wonder they emerged as the public's favourite solution and the pitch battle winner of Get in the Ring Berlin - Impact. 

Omniflow upgrade regular street lights to sustainable infrastructures essential for smart cities. Their smart IoT lamp post, powered by wind and solar, is reducing energy consumption by more than 94%, while providing EV charging, smart car parking, 5G small-cell and other value added services. After winning Get in the Ring Lisbon - Impact a couple of months ago, we were eager to discover more about how Omniflow tackles CO2 emissions, while transforming this challenge into an opportunity to expand digitalization. Our host Jurgen is joined by Pedro Ruão, Founder & CEO at Omniflow, to touch upon an innovative business model, future cities, and much more.

New Unknown Group Chairman, Edward de Jager and CEO, Hendrik Halbe speak candidly about the motivations behind the merger between VenturesOne and Unknown Group, delving into what a Venture Engine is and how they envision it working to fuel founders of innovative solutions from all parts of the world. Both Hendrik and Edward have built numerous ventures from scratch over the course of their entrepreneurial journey - what are their key learnings? how do they use this knowledge to fuel the founders of today? and what do they believe it takes to stand out from the crowd?

For answers to that and more, tune in to special episode of the Unknown Stories Podcast to mark the announcement of the merger between Unknown Group and VenturesOne. For more information, visit www.unknowngroup.com/merger-announcement

Giving raw materials a digital identity which enables them to become traceable is a game-changing solution for the recycling industry. One that led Circularise to the Get in the Ring The Netherlands - Impact Final.

Mesbah Sabur, the founder of Circularise, built a decentralized platform that brings transparency to supply chains without comprimising confidentiality. Their innovative Smart Questioning technology allows stakeholders to exchange sensitive information about products in a trusted manner, while addressing competitiveness issues. Mesbah joins Jurgen at our studio to uncover the Circularise protocol and touch upon how they empower businesses to move towards a circular economy through collaborative advantage.

(Zoom Session)

The demand for protein is expected to double over the coming decades, as a result of the growing population and also a change in eating habits. Currently, the meat industry is responsible for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions around the world, but what about the moment when the demand will double? Dror Tamir, Co-founder of Hargol FoodTech, pursues an incredible difficult task - educating the market to embrace alternative-protein sources.

In this Zoom session with the student entrepreneurs of the Global School of Entrepreneurship, Dror goes back to the beginning of the world's first commercial grasshopper farm. How did Hargol FoodTech manage to transform grasshoppers from a farmer’s worst nightmare into a sustainable, high-quality protein ready for commercial farming? How can you leverage international innovation competitions, and how winning Get in the Ring 2017 was the final nail for them into closing a $600k funding round? This episode of Unknown Stories uncovers unique techniques suitable for an unique proposition. 

Brad Vanstone is the Founder of Willicroft, a sustainable plant-based cheese solution that aims to tackle global warming by providing a tasty alternative to dairy cheese. In two years, the finalist of Get in the Ring the Netherlands - Impact managed to put a whole range in the major supermarkets. But is it scalable? Brad joins Jurgen at the studio to touch upon Willicroft's to-market strategy and how they took the best elements of existing solutions to capitalize on the gap in the plant-based cheese market.

Plant-based cheese from nuts to white beans — Willicroft runs a crowdfunding campaign to switch from cashew nuts to beans and allow people with a nut allergy to also enjoy their cheeses. Their project aims to grow white beans in the Netherlands, and tackle the emissions generated by importing those from outside the EU. Let’s show our support: https://crowdaboutnow.nl/campagnes/willicroft

A water purification system driven by solar energy? One that can be rapidly deployed in times of crises, can bring relief to distressed communities and is wholly manufactured in Europe in-line with ESG frameworks? It's no surprise that Alexander van der Kleij's SolarDew were amongst the favorites of the Get in the Ring The Netherlands - Impact. Our host, Jurgen is joined by SolarDew Founder to touch upon a wide variety of topics around running an impactful venture while still being an efficient entrepreneur.

"Innovation is not only about taking risks, but is about exploring in a structured manner before you decide to build something."

Suzanne Charlotte Vos is the Innovation Coach & Consultant at ING Labs APAC in Singapore, and her main role is to scale disruptive solutions. She joins Jochem at the studio to discuss entry strategies for startups in Asia, further going into how innovative entrepreneurs can get in touch with ING for collaborations and scaling. What is the biggest misconception of doing business abroad? What opportunities are in Singapore for startups? How can ING Labs assist startups to grow and which are the most valuable skill sets they are looking for? This episode of Unknown Stories is a step-by-step guide on the journey of venturing in Asia.

(Zoom Session)

Starting an A.I.-powered solution that reduces the need for lawyers in the legal industry, an industry that is infamous for their slow adoption of new technologies -- it seems crazy until someone actually does it. And that's precisely what Shashank Bijapur, Co-Founder of Indian legal-tech innovator Spotdraft did! 

In this Zoom session with the student entrepreneurs of the Global School for Entrepreneurship, Shashank speaks about the challenges for disruption in the legal industry, how Spotdraft positioned themselves as saviors and not competitors of lawyers and his experience as Winner of the Get in the Ring Global Startup Competition in 2019. 

[Zoom Session]

From being the Global Winner of Get in the Ring 2013 with his company EyeVerify (now ZOLOZ), to being acquired by Ant Group for $100 million three years later, saying Toby Rush has some valuable insights to share is an understatement. He sat down for an AMA session ealier this year with students of the Global School for Entrepreneurship to detail his journey.

At Get in the Ring, we're eager to shine a spotlight on the next Toby Rush and the next Eyeverify - perhaps as soon as our next competition, Get in the Ring Berlin - Impact on November 19!

In this new parallel series, every month our Host, Willem Knaap (Director of Corporate Venturing at Unknown Group) aims to understand how corporate industry leaders act upon opportunities, innovation and disruption. In the inaugral episode, he is joined by Sake Algra, the Managing Director of T-Systems. "Is innovation a threat or an opportunity" is where we begin, before the episode navigates to the ingredients necessary for a successful startup-corporate collaboration, how 5G will effect businesses (and how T-Systems are unleashing it for their clients), hyper-adaptibility during the COVID era and the un-ended battle between purpose and performance.

Finalists of Get in the Ring Netherlands in 2016, Edorado Marine make fast-moving premium electric powerboats, matching sustainable charging docks as well as tailor made marina development and management services. This way they aim to offer what nobody else can - a complete zero emission water sport experience; from the powerboat to the dock.  

Their Founders, Godert van Hartenbroek and Giel Groothuis joined our host, Jurgen Nieuwenhuijsen to talk about the meeting of the minds that led to a professor with a passion for motorsports and boating enthusiast to come together and start Edorado to create a unique power boat.

Want to test, scale and prove your impact solution to expand your impact, while competing for a EUR 500,000 convertible loan? Register your impact startup now for the Get in the Ring Impact Competition: http://getinthering.co/impact