CAPSA replaces its CAPSA Vida innovation arm with CAPSA Impact, planning €10 million by 2030

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CAPSA FOOD, the dairy group behind Central Lechera Asturiana, spent five million euros between 2020 and 2025 on eight corporate projects through CAPSA Vida, its innovation arm. These ranged from measuring the carbon footprint of farms to probiotics that survive UHT processing, plant-based food and pet nutrition. Having looked at several hundred start-ups, the company now says it knows where it wants to act. The successor, CAPSA Impact, expects to mobilise ten million euros between 2025 and 2030 through the same mix of venture client pilots and corporate venturing.

The money is split across three pillars: Nature, Communities and Healthy Families. Communities is the new one, and its target is less a technology than a shortage of future dairy farmers. Its main tool is Paraíso Natural Ventures, a vehicle backed by CAPSA, the Fundación Caja Rural de Asturias and the Asturian regional government through SRP. Before spending anything, CAPSA ran a two-month study across ten Asturian municipalities, with more than 200 interviews. It found that jobs exist but do not match the people looking, and that housing and transport are part of the problem. Healthy Families covers metabolic health through dairy protein, pet products under YowUp! and investee Nucaps, with new deals channelled via the InnoHealth fund.

Rubén Hidalgo, director of impact investment at the group, describes the motive with some candour: "I always say this is out of selfishness. We want to be here in fifteen years."