Harry Briggs

Who they are

Harry Briggs is Managing Partner at Astanor Ventures — co-founded Firefly Tonics, a healthy energy drink sold in over 35 countries, and BGF Ventures, a £200 million UK-focused early-stage fund that backed Paddle and Gousto.

Person

Harry Briggs joined Astanor Ventures in 2024, moving from a decade-plus run building and backing European tech and food-health companies. He read Psychology (1st Class) at University College Oxford, then cut his teeth in strategy consulting at McKinsey before an early stint at Hutchison 3G doing pre-launch strategy. He co-founded Firefly Tonics — a healthy energy drink brand that reached over 35 countries before being acquired by Langholm Capital — which gave him operator credibility before he ever wrote a cheque. He then co-founded BGF Ventures, a £200 million UK-focused early-stage fund that backed companies including Paddle and Gousto, before moving to build out the European arm of OMERS Ventures as Managing Partner. He also founded Terra Instinct, a separate director-led vehicle. The through-line is founder-turned-investor, always in the food, health, and technology intersection — he chairs Create Streets Foundation, sits on the founding advisory board of Diversity.vc, and has been speaking at agri-food conferences — AgriFutures evokeAG in Melbourne (February 2026), World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit and Future Food Tech Summit in San Francisco (both March 2026) — at a pace that signals agri-food is now his primary public thesis.

Company

Harry joined Astanor Ventures in 2024, announced as one of two distinguished new partners. Astanor is a European impact-focused venture fund investing in agri-food and food-system innovation — the kind of mandate that matches Briggs's stated conviction that better agriculture is a means to save the planet. His joining marked a pivot from generalist European early-stage investing (BGF Ventures, OMERS Ventures) toward a sector-specific fund with an explicit sustainability lens. He has been representing the firm at major sector gatherings through early 2026, including evokeAG and the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit.

Market

Astanor operates in the agri-food tech investment space, a sector drawing increasing institutional attention as food-system resilience, climate agriculture, and alternative proteins attract both regulatory tailwinds and corporate strategic capital. The competitive set includes dedicated agri-food funds such as S2G Ventures, Pymwymic, and Idinvest's food arm, alongside generalist impact funds and corporate VCs from large food multinationals. Agri-food tech has seen heightened activity in precision fermentation, soil health, and supply-chain traceability — themes Briggs has signalled publicly through his conference circuit.

Network

No named relationship edges are available from the claims. His professional orbit can be inferred from institutional affiliations: colleagues from BGF Ventures, OMERS Ventures Europe, the Diversity.vc founding board, and the agri-food conference circuit (evokeAG, World Agri-Tech, Future Food Tech). The Create Streets Foundation chairmanship likely puts him in contact with UK urban-planning and policy networks.

How they likely show up

Co-founded Firefly Tonics (operating company) before moving into VC → he has direct founder experience and likely evaluates operators with that lens, not just pattern-matching on pitch decks.
Built two successive fund vehicles (BGF Ventures, then OMERS Ventures Europe) from scratch → comfortable with institutional-building and long ramp times, not just writing cheques into existing structures.
Possibly — medium tenure shape across roles → he moves when the institution is built or the thesis has run its course, suggesting deliberate chapter-switching rather than restlessness.
Three agri-food conferences in the first quarter of 2026 (evokeAG, World Agri-Tech, Future Food Tech) → actively in market-development mode at Astanor, not just portfolio management; he is building conviction and deal flow publicly.
Chairs Create Streets Foundation and sits on Diversity.vc founding advisory board alongside the day job → high civic engagement, likely values mission alignment in the people he backs.
1st Class Oxford Psychology degree → trained to read people and group dynamics; probably listens more carefully in a room than his conference-speaker profile would suggest.

Conversation tips

→ Come in with a specific agri-food thesis question — he has been on three sector panels in early 2026 and will have formed sharp views; vague questions about 'the space' will bore him.
→ Reference Firefly Tonics if you want to unlock the operator side of him — he built and sold a consumer brand across 35 countries before becoming a VC, and that experience is likely foundational to how he thinks about founder resilience.
→ Acknowledge the BGF Ventures chapter specifically (Paddle, Gousto) rather than treating his career as one undifferentiated VC tenure — he built that fund, it is a distinct point of pride.
→ If diversity in VC comes up, engage substantively — he is a founding board advisor to Diversity.vc, not a passive signatory, so surface-level gestures will land flat.
→ Ask about the move to Astanor and what drew him to a sector-specific mandate after generalist funds — the transition from OMERS to a food-system impact fund is a deliberate intellectual bet worth probing.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the evokeAG Melbourne panel (February 2026) — he was on stage discussing agriculture and the planet, and asking what he took away from that conversation signals you follow his sector work, not just his CV.
Reference Firefly Tonics — he co-founded a healthy drinks brand that sold in over 35 countries and was acquired by Langholm Capital; most people who know him as a VC miss the operator chapter entirely, and naming it shows you did the work.
Bring up BGF Ventures and its portfolio specifically — he co-founded a £200 million UK fund that backed Paddle and Gousto; asking what he learned building a fund from scratch before joining Astanor is a sharp, flattering, and genuinely interesting question.

Discovery questions

You built BGF Ventures and OMERS Ventures Europe as generalist early-stage funds, then moved to Astanor with an explicit agri-food mandate — what does sector focus change about how you source and evaluate deals?
Having co-founded and sold Firefly Tonics yourself, what do you look for in a food or beverage founder that a purely financial investor would miss?
You have been at agri-food conferences across Melbourne, London, and San Francisco in the first quarter of 2026 — where is the market mispricing risk or opportunity right now?

Avoid

Don't treat his VC career as a single undifferentiated arc — he built and co-founded distinct fund vehicles at different stages, and conflating BGF, OMERS, and Astanor into 'years in VC' will signal you haven't done the prep.

Make it yours