About this episode

Alberto Criado discusses Cardumen Capital's execution-first investment approach and the innovative 'Coffee-as-a-Service' model.

Episode 107: Cardumen Capital: Alberto Criado on Why Execution-First Models Beat Capex-Heavy Tech and the Rise of "Coffee-as-a-Service" In this episode, I sit down with Alberto Criado , Principal at Cardumen Capital , an elite European venture capital firm that has rapidly scaled its assets under management from €50M to nearly €400M. Alberto walks us through Cardumen's highly opportunistic and execution-driven approach to the AgriFoodTech sector. He reveals the math behind their recent investment in Barcelona-based Incapto , explaining how they are completely dismantling the single-use coffee capsule market through an innovative "Coffee-as-a-Service" subscription model. Alberto also pulls back the curtain on portfolio risk management in a capital-scarce environment, discussing why clear exit viability, predictable recurrence, and fast tracks to profitability rule the market today over purely binary technology risks. 🎧 Listen to the full episode to hear Alberto break down why Starbucks isn’t specialty coffee, how they reverse-engineer target exit valuations between €250M and €500M, and how Cardumen uses its dedicated M&A and value-creation teams to act as a true service…

People in this episode

Host: Alex Shandrovsky

Guest: Alberto Criado

Topics covered

• venture capital
• AgriFoodTech
• investment strategies
• coffee industry
• subscription models

Keywords

• venture capital
• execution-first models
• AgriFoodTech
• coffee subscription
• portfolio risk management

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cardumen Capital, Starbucks, Incapto

Products: Coffee-as-a-Service

Places: Madrid, Spain, Tel Aviv, Israel

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