Navus Ventures Investment Manager

Are you a strong believer in a circular economy? Would you like to invest in technologies and work with entrepreneurs that make direct, positive and sustainable impact in furthering the energy transition and the way we produce, deliver and consume food? My client is a family office investing in young companies (VC and growth). They are further expanding their team and looking for an investment associate and an investment manager.

Short Description
Navus Ventures is a successful and fast-growing Venture Capital headquartered in Maassluis (Rotterdam). They are part of a family office founded by the owners of Lely (a large corporate in the agricultural sector, 2,300 FTE, revenue of over €700m and exporting to more than 50 countries worldwide). Navus Ventures is situated at the Lely Campus in Maassluis.
Navus is a no-nonsense, down to earth, young, highly entrepreneurial and energetic team of VC investors. There is an enormous deal flow (600+ business cases per year) resulting in some 4-6 new deals. They are currently managing some 22 startups and young companies in the food and energy sectors.

Company Profile
The Navus team currently consists of three professionals; one managing director, one (senior) investment manager and one associate. The team is looking to expand the team with one associate and one investment manager.
Navus Ventures is, via the family office related to Lely, not strategically linked or a corporate venture capital set-up. There is interaction with Lely to leverage the knowledge on developing and commercialising technology. Navus is fully independent and able to source and execute its own strategy and deals and to manage its portfolio.

Investment Criteria:
• Early stage (pre-seed through seed capital, Series A to Growth) in startups and young companies within the food and energy transition market sectors
• Minority investments.
• Tickets of +/- €1m to €2m and on occasion smaller or much larger.
• Significant opportunity for growth and technology driven
• Target companies are headquartered in Europe.

Approach:
Navus has an active approach in supporting entrepreneurs and managers with improving, building and growing their businesses into great companies:
• Their approach is collaborative, pragmatic and focused on the long term. There are no “forced” exits driven by fund cycles. Navus can remain in an investment as long as they wish to maximize growth and returns.
• After investing in a company, they work together with management to create strategic and operational plans and provide the support necessary to realize these plans, also leveraging the Lely patent office, engineers, commercial and other experts.
• They have substantial experience in helping entrepreneurial founders with their international expansion (including buy and build).

What makes Navus a highly desired place to work?
• Sustainability and impact: At the core of Navus’s investment strategy is a mandate to drive sustainable transition with technology, words such as sustainability, environmental impact and circular economy have real meaning at Navus. It is not “green washing” or the fine print of an ESG webpage. It is ingrained in their DNA.
• High Deal Flow: The team currently looks at some 600 investment opportunities per year. Origination is through various sources including CF boutiques, other investors, conferences, incubators, through the Lely network and above all through the teams ability to network with entrepreneurs. You are going to do plenty of deals at Navus.
• International scope: Navus is not limited by borders and scans the full European investment space to find the very best deals.
• Excellent investment team (experience, ambition, skills):
• Eduard Meijer (managing director): founded Navus 13 years ago and previously worked in several business development roles within the Lely organization. He has very deep sector experience within food industry.
• Jaap Zijlstra ((senior) investment manager): Engineering background with 5 years investment banking and some 5 years in VC (food and energy) investing.
• Olivier van Holthe tot Echten (associate): Masters in Physics with over two years of investing experience at Navus and a further 5 years at Eneco in sustainable energy finance.
• Culture: Ambitious, output driven, entrepreneurial, pragmatic, down to earth (non- hierarchical), hardworking but room for fun and self-development.
• Career Growth and responsibility: The team will continue to grow over the coming 5 years giving plenty of opportunity for further personal improvement (promotion, development and to further gain responsibility).

Job Description
In the role of investment manager your primary focus will be to take a lead role in origination, evaluation and execution of deals and support the management of the portfolio. In summary, but not limited to:

Deal-flow and execution
• Deal origination (e.g., market and company research, networking)
• Evaluation of investment opportunities (e.g., financial modelling, valuation, structuring, commercial and technology due diligence).
• Deal due diligence and documentation (technology / IP, financial, legal, tax and operational) by 1) managing individual workflows and 2) combining workflows to be able to partially execute deals.
• Deal negotiations and consortium building.

Portfolio management
• Portfolio management (e.g., financial reporting, KPI setting, strategy development, performance improvement projects, buy-and-build activities) .
• Preparation and execution of further financing and exits.
• Periodic portfolio performance reviews, valuation and return calculations.

Other
• Leadership: Coaching and development of team members and entrepreneurs.
• General marketing and operational activities.
• The investment manager will work towards having a lot of interaction with company owners, sector experts and CF advisors, through continued personal development in the direction of (senior) investment manager and director.

Requirements
• Strong academic background: Masters in a numerical discipline (Business, Finance, Econometrics, Engineering etc.). Strong grades will be a pre.
• 6+ years of work experience in investments (venture capital or private equity), investment banking/CF or strategy consulting. Also, if a candidate has founded their own business or worked in a scale up.
• The successful candidate is able to fully execute most of the work streams within the M&A deal whether it is valuation, building a financial model, legal documentation, financial dd or commercial dd.
• The candidate is a top performer and received excellent performance reviews.
• Self-starting, can perform multiple tasking and prioritize effectively, assertive, content and results driven with a high level of professional and commercial flair. A dose of personality is welcome. The social side is very important; energetic, down-to-earth and fun to win with!
• Ability to ‘connect’ with entrepreneurs and managers is a must.
• Native fluent in English and reasonable Dutch.

Triggered by this opportunity? Please contact Fishfin and let us elaborate on this unique place to work!
Michael Witts: 647304147, michael.witts@fishfin.nl