Conversation with Jaakko Kaminen of SuperGround

“I’m from the Texas of Finland — Seinäjoki, Pohjanmaa. I’m a fourth generation entrepreneur. My upbringing is that entrepreneurship is hard and will kill you, and you should be proud of it," says Jaakko Kaminen, CEO of SuperGround, laughing, whom I recently had the chance to get to know better.

Jaakko, who describes himself as a creative person, has a commercial background, working in sales, marketing, and advertising.

JK: “Too many times I’ve seen people come with a bad product and hope a marketing agency can help them sell this bad product. In every unsuccessful company, there’s a solution looking for a problem.”

In 2017 he joined a materials tech company called Woodly, and was CEO of that for 7 years. Last summer, he met SuperGround, a startup founded in 2021:

“They said they had food scientists and engineers and lawyers, but that they needed someone to help commercialize their solution. So I took a look at the case, and did due diligence for 6 months before I accepted joining them as CEO. In tech, we expect our phones to update every new years. But in food, we expect it to remain the same. We want the recipe of Coca-Cola to remain the same. When companies try to change the recipe, people hate it. So changing the status quo in food is hard.

But what I realized is that with SuperGround, it’s not about new ingredients and raw materials. It’s about using what we’re already eating, fish and poultry, but using It in a better way.”

FTW: You said every unsuccessful company has a solution looking for a problem. So what problem has you found?”

JK: “There’s a sustainability problem with fish and poultry. Up to 50-70% of the fish caught or produced doesn’t end up on the plate. And we’re running out on fish.

If the world would take its undervalued sidestreams from poultry, globally, just for one year, and use them to satisfy the poultry demand of the 5M Finnish people, we could feed the Finnish people for 800 years. That’s the kind of scope of waste we’re talking about.

There are byproducts of poultry such as bones and hard tissues, and byproducts of fish like the head, tail, skin, and backbone. These byproducts are currently used as low value products for pet food, animal feed, or biogas, but not for human consumption.”

FTW: “So what do you do at SuperGround?”

JK: “We have invented an advanced machine that can turn the side streams — like fish and poultry bones — into a smooth, sterile paste. The nutritional value is high, there’s vitamin A and E, it’s high in calcium, collagen, and so on. And the taste profile is very good, and that is a big thing.

And we can take this sterile, hummus-like paste and use it to make fish sticks, fish patties, chicken nuggets, etc. Our process is purely heat, pressure, and mechanical, so there’s no chemicals or ultra processing.”

FTW: “So this is a sustainability case?”

JK: “Yes, but the #1 thing for us is that good product comes first. Affordability and sustainability are important factors, but we want to show chefs that they can build awesome, tasty, high-quality products with our ingredient. That’s what they really care about.”

FTW: “The impact case seems strong though?”

JK: “We’re looking to be a frontrunner in the upcycling of food-category. There’s a growing demand for food, and for protein, in the world. We have a solution for that. There are many wonderful companies and ideas — plant-based proteins, new sources of protein, solving the same problem. We feel our approach is just cheaper and faster. Again, we’re not re-inventing the wheel. We’re using the 50%+ of poultry and fish that’s currently not used for human consumption — not because it's unsuitable, but because the expertise to do so has been lacking. However, we have that know-how.

FTW: “And what’s your business model?”

JK: “We’ll license our technology to ingredient providers and food companies. There’s lots of demand from the food companies.”

FTW: “How far along are you with all of this?”

JK: “We have a pilot line at the moment, meaning we can demonstrate the technology and convince our potential customers that the technology works. The next stage is to commercialize this and go to industrial scale, in 2025. We can scale up together with industrial partners, or on our own if we want to.”

FTW: “Is there an actual demand for this?”

JK: “Yeah, we have 5x more demand for the paste than we can produce, with our pilot production.”

FTW: “On a scale from nothing to massive, how big do you think this can become?”

JK: “We know SuperGround can become huge, meaning thousands of machines licensed all over the world. The numbers are ridiculous. It’s a VC case. But instead of just big vision, we also have a clear path forward to build the company one step at a time.

FTW: “How many are you in the team right now?

JK: “There’s 7 of us and we are growing.

FTW: “Have you raised any funding for this?”

JK: “So far, we’ve raised €2.5M in equity. The next round will be a pre-Series A. We’re currently talking to VCs, and looking to close the next round in 6 months. The round is basically open. With that money, we’ll go to industrial scale.

FTW: “What are your asks for anyone reading this?”

JK: “We’re currently in conversations with institutional investors and family offices, and like to speak more of those folks. We’re also interested in getting in touch with the right people at food manufacturers, like product developers, chefs, and CEOs. We know they have a need for this.”

FTW: “How can people get in touch with you?”

JK: “Email or LinkedIn is fine!”