Harrie Vollaard has been leading Rabo Frontier Ventures (RFV), the strategic investment subsidiary of Netherlands-based financial services firm Rabobank, since the beginning of 2017.
The vehicle targets four main areas within the fintech and agtech space: core banking, adjacent services, sustainable property and food & agtech – where there is a cross over between fintech and agtech.
To date, RFV has 25 active portfolio companies, most recently investing in the $70m series D round for AgroStar, an India agtech startup, as well as in the €12m ($13m) venture round for online payment security firm SurePay.
Other current investees include accounting and payment processing software developer Candis, farming networking provider WeFarm, and Agro.Club, a commercial effectiveness platform for the agriculture sector.
Martijn Scholtes, chief financial officer of Rabo Frontier Ventures, said: “Harrie has been instrumental in putting corporate venturing on the strategic agenda of Rabobank in their search for new scalable business models and future income streams for the bank.
“Under his leadership, RFV has transformed into a highly professional CVC outfit and managed to build an outstanding strategic investment portfolio of leading fintech and agtech companies and multiple fund investments around the globe.”
The unit has €150m under management, €120m of which goes to early- to growth-stage software startups, while €30m is used for its fund-of-funds tactics worldwide. RFV has made limited partner commitments in funds managed by VC firms Seedcamp, Valar, Greyhound, SpeedInvest and Northzone.
After finishing his master’s in biochemistry at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Vollaard started work as a lab technician at the University of Arizona before switching to the IT industry and eventually setting up and running Rabobank’s innovation department.
