Lucas Fornoff, formerly an investment manager at Evonik Venture Capital, will manage venture investments at Rentenbank.
Lucas Fornoff has departed from Evonik Venture Capital (EVC), the corporate venturing arm of speciality chemicals group Evonik Industries, and joined Germany-based agricultural bank Rentenbank to make venture investments.
Fornoff had joined EVC in 2019 as a financial analyst before moving up to the investment manager role two years later.
Founded in 1949, Rentenbank is a development agency that promotes agribusiness and the rural economy.
Rentenbank invested €25m in European Commission’s European Circular Bioeconomy Fund, which targets agricultural and food technology startups, in February 2022.
Formed in 2012, EVC invests in innovative technologies shaping the food, healthcare and biopharmaceutical industries. The unit has 23 active portfolio companies, having achieved eight exits including Canada-based chemicals company FRX Innovations via a reverse triangular merger.
