Food waste is both the simplest and most intractable climate problem. We throw out a third of what we grow, and when we throw it out, it becomes one of the most potent greenhouse gases we emit. Most solutions either don't scale or don't work.
Olympia Yarger walked us through the insect-bioreactor pitch and we left with a conviction we haven't shaken since: a rare deep-tech company that works at the unit economics of waste management today, not in some hypothetical future. The science (black soldier fly larvae) is real; the engineering (modular, robotic, stackable shipping-container farms) is the breakthrough.
Goterra's modular bioreactors now process tonnes per day for supermarkets, councils and defence. Olympia was named 2023 ACT Australian of the Year for the work.
Tenacious Ventures and Grok co-led Goterra's Series A; Rampersand participated as early backer.
Opened an Albury facility and expanded the Woolworths zero-landfill food-waste partnership.
Bridge backed by Grok and Tenacious to open a Western Sydney facility.
Board observer since 2018. Helen has been the Goterra sounding board through every hardware pivot and enterprise contract.