Category: Top 10 European Business Leaders Making a difference in 2021_profile

“Success is to contribute to solving some of the great environmental challenges and produce healthy and sustainable food!” – Ingmar Hogoy

Greentech Innovators AS, a humble entrant into the landscape of Biotechnology, is the brainchild of Ingmar Hogoy. The story of the innovative success of ‘Greentech’ started on January 30^th, 2018 by Ingmar and his partner to identify the needs in the market and collaborate with research communities, innovators, and industry to develop solutions for circular bio-economy.

Ingmar Hogoy, CEO and Chairman of the Board, Greentech Innovators AS/, is a business leader, visionary and expert professional within the aquaculture industry. He is an amazing project leader within the aquaculture industry in protein recovery, biotechnology, process technology, feed, hydrolysis, new aquaculture species, fish health, and project funding.  He holds expertise in fish farming, R&D, product development, process development, processing of fish by-products, marketing, and sales.

Working together with partners like researchers and employees to solve new and upcoming challenges within Aquaculture and sustainability has been a great inspiration for Ingmar. It has been an extraordinary journey since he started with aquaculture at the age of 12 up until today. And, his greatest achievement is to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse emissions by giving waste value.

The Beginning of a Business Leader

“My lifelong passion for fisheries and aquaculture started when I was a young boy. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents at their island home which gave me insights into marine life. At the age of 12, I started experimenting with microalgae in an aquarium using fertilizer for growth. I made a small pond and was catching wild trout fry for farming. When I was 15 years old, I began fish farming with rainbow trout in a homemade fish cage”, shared Ingmar.

“Later in my career, I have been dedicated to different parts of the aquaculture value chain in Norway, through research, product development, processing, and sales. In the early stage of the Norwegian salmon industry, I was working in a salmon processing plant when I realised that there was no waste management solution for the processed by-products like viscera and bones. This became an environmental problem. I found that the rest of the raw material from processing was a valuable resource containing high-quality protein and oil – left unutilised. I was hired at a pioneering company, built up a factory for processing the rest of raw materials from the salmon industry into fish protein and oil as feed. Ever since, I have been dedicated to the circular economy, utilizing waste from fisheries and aquaculture by developing new products as feed, special feed, and proteins for human consumption. The utilisation of the rest raw materials from fisheries and aquaculture is now a large and profitable industry in Norway”, he further added

Greentech Since Inception

Through his experience with aquaculture and by solving the challenges of by-products from aquaculture and fisheries, Ingmar realised that they still have environmental challenges with food waste. In 2018, he established Greentech Innovators and the subsidiary Algaepro. The idea was to find more sustainable solutions to organic waste like food waste. The environmental challenges with today’s waste management solutions became more and more obvious.

Food waste on landfills is contributing to 11 % of Methane emissions, a greenhouse gas 70 times stronger than CO2. Ingmar focuses on how they could develop more sustainable solutions and utilise the valuable resources in food waste? They found that the solution was using microbes and microalgae to convert food waste into highly demanded and valuable protein and omega-3. Since then, they have been working to develop our business idea and improve the fermentation process. One of their main strategic goals was a partnership with our local waste management company BIR which we succeeded within 2019.

Due to new EU regulations prohibiting incineration of food waste from 2023, waste management companies need to create more sustainable waste management solutions in partnership with start-up companies with new and innovative solutions. Ingmar and his team are acting as a service provider for waste management and producing feed ingredients for the growing aquaculture industry. They now have under construction a pilot plant for fermentation and like most start-ups; they are looking to raise capital.

The Challenges & the Driving Force

The leading man has always been fascinated by farming the ocean to increase food production. He has also been interested in sustainability and that they have to reduce the man-made negative impact of the climate. Combining these elements and improving utilisation of underutilised resources and reducing the negative impact on nature is fascinating and a driving force for me.

As a start-up, the challenge will always be to convince investors of what a “brilliant” idea this is. There are many challenges as a start-up but funding takes too much time and it would be better to spend time on developing products and markets.

Making the Solutions more Efficient & Sustainable

The goal is to grow microalgae on a large scale to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food waste and capture CO2 in microalgae, at the same time as they are producing sustainable and healthy seafood. That is really a win-win situation.

Keeping the Team Motivated & Innovative

The employee must be enthusiastic in making a difference and Ingmar always tells his team that they are contributing to solving some of the main global challenges, namely reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing food production. That is a good motivation for the whole team working in Greentech Innovators & AlgaePro.

The Current Landscape of the Waste Management

The current landscape of waste management and feed sources is emerging at high speed. Greentech mainly operates in two markets; the market of improved waste management and the market of new protein and omega-3 feed sources. Most countries are looking for more sustainable waste management solutions as it becomes clearer that food waste results in large Methane emissions from landfills and biogas production. New regulations are supporting this market growth.

Global aquaculture production is growing exponentially and requires new sustainable feed sources. There is a need for new protein and omega-3 sources in order to continue the growth in global aquaculture production. The dominating protein sources like fish meal and soy have limited supply and face environmental concerns regarding overfishing and severe deforestation.

The Business World of Europe

Europe is on the right track regarding the focus on environmental challenges with new green solutions flourishing, However, the access to capital for start-ups is a limitation slowing down the development and scaling of green solutions. Generally speaking, the governments, finance institutes, and industries are talking too much and doing too little. Now it’s time to take action!

Future Roadmap

Ingmar Hogoy’s vision is to scale the solution of food waste management and microalgae production and give a substantial contribution to reduce greenhouse gases and farm the ocean. Further, he believes that they need to utilise the ocean in order to produce more sustainable food.

Ingmar’s Advice to Aspiring entrepreneurs

You have to fight for your ideas and never give up. You will face expected and unexpected challenges. Being an entrepreneur is not an easy walk, but you have to go uphill to reach the top. Now, go out and do it!

A brainchild of Eugen Lukas Gross, aiconix GmbH has set a new benchmark for the analysis and processing of audio-visual content and positioned itself strongly in the market. Founded on 13^th April 2018, the company has been working with a mission to improve content production by using data science in a meaningful way. With solutions such as automated live streaming transcription and subtitling, speech-to-text, facial recognition, or AI analysis of media content, the company allows people to add significant value to their AV content production processes, gain innovative data insights, and increase monetization.

The Man behind aiconix’s Unique Concept

Eugen Lukas Gross is the Founder and CEO of aiconix. He is a seasoned professional with over 29 years of expertise in different fields. He started as a camera assistant (feature film, commercials, magazine) in Vienna, quickly became a cameraman for news when he moved to Berlin. In the 90s he worked as an SNG operator and technical lead of an OB-van. But he was drawn back to the camera, shooting mainly live music and entertainment productions for TV. In the 2000s Eugen became a partner of a TV production company in Cologne and produced a long-term documentary in Northern Germany where he was a shareholder. In early 2010 he also worked as a producer and director before he took a master’s degree in media management and set the course for aiconix in 2016 with his master’s thesis.

In his master’s thesis, he didn’t only focus on AI, but primarily on the possibilities of predicting the user behavior of viewers when consuming media content. While researching AI providers, he noticed that the market is quite opaque and that’s when he came up with the idea of building a platform that curates and orchestrates AI providers and features. There is a lot of need especially in the Speech-to-Text space and they received an overwhelming market echo. With the pandemic and the resulting reluctance of media customers to invest, the government space has come into focus.

What Influenced Eugen to Start a Business?

It happened by accident. When Eugen moved to Berlin in the early 90^th, as an Austrian not a member of the EEC, he did not get a working permit, so he had to work self-employed.

Again, after graduating, he initially wanted to work for a company. But he quickly realized that he might not be able to shape things there the way he would like to. Agile working, the courage to take risks and learn from mistakes, the joy of driving innovation. These are things that drive him. Due to his years of self-employment prior to his studies, it quickly became clear that he wanted to build something of his own.

Keeping the Team Innovative and Productive

The secret formula of motivating the team to stay innovative and productive by informing and educating them what they are working towards. Employees need to not only know the company’s vision and goals but also want to share them. This encourages everyone to work together to achieve better results. With clear and measurable goals that align with the vision, all employees can track progress and their success becomes tangible. In addition, fostering alignment and communication within and between teams is hugely important, as it increases productivity and can help employees feel valued and motivated.

Definition of Success

For Eugen Lukas, success is being able to earn a living by doing what he really enjoys doing. Success is being able to feed his family. Success is being able to determine one’s own life and being independent. Success is being able to constantly learn from people that you meet every single day. Success is finding your place in this world where you feel that you can make a contribution.

Eugen’s Views on the IT Industry  

The market is in upheaval. Everyone is talking about digitization and innovation management, but unfortunately, action is too slow in many areas. The larger the company (customer), the more sluggish it is in making decisions and implementing new technologies. This is usually due to the fact that too many stakeholders, who often do not have the technological know-how, have to be involved, and this delays decisions and the speed at which innovative technologies are introduced.

Current Business World of Europe

Many European countries still rely heavily on the “old economy”. Innovations are desirable and necessary, but the path to implementation is often too bureaucratic and full of legal hurdles. In general, digitization is also progressing far too slowly. But it is found that many, especially younger people, have an innovative mindset redefining entire industries. And, they are the future of a modern, high-performance Europe.

From the CEO’s Desk

The biggest challenge for me is to be patient. It never goes as fast as I want it to and focusing on just one topic is, for someone bubbling with ideas, just as big a challenge. A great team that pulls together with me keeps me motivated and positive feedback from satisfied clients is my daily ration of happiness.

Our platform aingine is the basis for all further products. My original idea of being able to predict people’s media user behavior with AI is still something I’m convinced could change the way media is produced and something I still want to implement. I want our AI solutions to empower people in all industries to work smarter. They should see AI as their assistant and not as a job killer.

Achievements & Accomplishments

Eugen Lukas Gross and his team believe their biggest success is their visibility in a European ecosystem and the inquiries from customers they didn’t know about before.

Eugen’s personal success was and is that he managed to come out of low blows, such as a sports injury that forced him to give up his old job, to reorient himself, and to have now embarked on a new professional perspective through a late master’s degree. Change as a drive.

Road Ahead

Discussing his future plans for the company, Eugen Lukas Gross shared, “We want to offer our customers the best AI solutions to facilitate, improve and monetize their daily work. We want to play a relevant role in our markets and strive for long-term, trusting customer relationships. Personally, I am satisfied when I get to lead a company that has motivated, happy and appreciative employees who enjoy going to work every day and believe in what we do aiconix and our products shall not be the last innovations I have worked on. More is to follow.”

A Piece of Advice to Budding Entrepreneurs

You need luck and perseverance. And it’s important to believe in your vision, but you also have to react, pick up and listen to what customers are saying. Products should always be in beta: you should constantly think about how to improve them. If you are personally balanced and have support from your family and environment, then you can excel professionally.

Closing quote

Experience only comes from taking detours.