EIT Food announces 2018 start-ups for the EIT Food Accelerator Network
41 high-impact agri-food start-ups will join the final stage of acceleration
The finalists were selected from more than 200 applicants from around the world – a strong start to the new EIT food Accelerator Network (FAN) programme. Following a first round of online judging in April, 80 start-ups were invited to pitch their ideas to more than 150 experts during MassChallenge Switzerland’s final judging round at Campus Biotech in Geneva. Out of these, 41 high potential start-ups have been selected to join the EIT FAN programme.
The 41 selected start-ups invited to join the accelerator network represent 4 continents, 13 countries.
'We are thrilled to welcome the first cohort of 41 outstanding food and ag start-ups in the EIT Food Accelerator Network (EIT FAN) programme. The selected start-ups come from 13 different countries and cover the whole food value chain and encompass projects in Agriculture, Food & Beverages, Retail, Health & Wellness, Robotics, IT, Online commerce, etc. They will now go through a 4-months intensive acceleration programme in one of the 3 locations of the EIT FAN (Munich, Lausanne or Haifa), in which top-level mentors from our EIT Food industrial and academic partners will bring them to the next level. The challenges faced by Europe in the transformation of its food system will not be solved without the disruptive innovations developed by great entrepreneurs and fast-moving start-ups. More than ever, they are an essential piece of the puzzle and we are very proud to support them in their growth.' said Benoit Buntinx, Director of Business Creation at EIT Food.
As part of the accelerator, the selected 41 start-ups will be able to engage with industry experts, corporates and investors, while receiving world-class mentoring, tailored programming, free co-working space and numerous key networking opportunities.
The accelerator programme will culminate in November at the EIT FAN Awards Ceremony, where the 3 best start-ups will each be rewarded EUR 60 000 in zero-equity prize money.
'Apart from the wide range of industries in which the MassChallenge 2018 finalists are active in, the partnership with EIT-FAN addresses a specific problem which is increasingly worrying. The challenges imposed by demography and consumption habits have a tremendous impact not only on how we produce and consume food, but on the environment as well. This means that we need to innovate very rapidly in order to help the food industry evolve, and the EIT-FAN with MassChallenge Switzerland partnership provides the space to foster precisely such needed innovation', said Thierry Duvanel, Managing Director at MassChallenge Switzerland.
The following start-ups are selected for the 2018 EIT Food Accelerator Network:
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The Food Safe System (United Kingdom): Makes food regulation compliance easy & automatic for our customers.
Alver Golden Chlorella (Switzerland): Addressing the growing demand for tasty low impact, high protein foods with a range of healthy foods made with Golden Chlorella.
Tryna Grub (Israel): A social dining platform for hungry foodies to spontaneously arrange last minute meals with friends, instantaneously.
Farmerline (Ghana): Connects smallholder farmers to information, high-quality resources, and supply chains through innovative mobile technology.
Jet-Eat (Israel)
CocoA Switzerland GmbH (Switzerland): Fighting food waste and increase the income of small-scale cocoa farmers by carrying the exotic taste of cocoa pulp into the world.
Alkion BioInnovations (France): Develop & produce the new natural GMO-free 0-cal substitute for sugar using disruptive sustainable traceable cost-effective biotechnologies.
Embion Technologies (Switzerland): Customized extraction of novel functional ingredients starting from low-value natural plant resources.
AgroSustain (Switzerland): Aims to develop and bring to market efficient organic treatments against broad ranges of plant fungal pathogens.
wisefood GmbH (Germany): Developed Eatapple, the world's first edible straw
Avocadoo (France): Uses tech to promote healthier eating habits
Koepala (Finland): Develops takeaway food packaging to help foodservice and retail provide their customers convenient and sustainable meal experiences.
ten-ace (Germany)
farmee (Germany): Bridges the gap between farmers and software developers to make smart farming simple
Cambridge Sustainable Food Hub (United Kingdom): The Food Hub is a new model for food storage and distribution, serving as a living lab for perfecting a scalable, sustainable food system.
FlavorWiki (Switzerland): A digital consumer insights platform specifically designed for food and beverage products.
CULTIVANDO FUTURO (Colombia): Business intelligence tool for the agro sector, aimed to provide key market data to the ground level of the food industry.
Kiinns (Israel)
Phytoponics (United Kingdom)
Senorics (Germany)
ORBEM (Germany)
xFarm (CH): Offers an intuitive, map-based Farm Management Platform coupled with the Plug and Play IoT field sensors xSense.
FruitsApp (Italy): B2B Marketplace adapted for Fresh Produce Industry
Wine Picker (United Kingdom): The sommelier in your pocket. Never drink bad wines in restaurants again.
GreenhouCity (Switzerland)
LOEWI (Germany)
Acrai (Germany)
Completeorganics (Germany): Reinventing fermented vegetables – ancient foods full of probiotic life for the modern gut.
Noyanum (Germany)
Entoprot Oy (Finland)
Supp.li (Hungary): A B2B marketplace that enables European chefs to order specialty, unique food products directly from European SME producers.
The Sprouted Grain Company (Israel)
Foods for Tomorrow (Spain)
Agri Marketplace (Portugal): A B2B digital marketplace where fair food trade is made easy.
Lironix (Switzerland)
Climate Edge (United Kingdom): Making climate data accessible to smallholder farmers, to increase resilience to climate change and improve livelihoods.
Biofood systems ltd. (Israel)
Philosoffee (Germany)
Natufia Labs (Estonia): Machine-learning technology that grows the nutritious organic plants right in the kitchen. .
NeoCarbons (Switzerland): Equipment making migration from fossils by CO2 remediation profitable and competitive on an industrial scale.
About the EIT Food Accelerator Network
The EIT Food Accelerator Network with MassChallenge, is a multi-location accelerator programme delivered across Europe, to support high impact agri-food start-ups to maximise their success. This program fosters efforts to identify and support high-impact Agri- and Food-tech start-ups, making Europe the go-to innovation hub for this emerging industry. The 41 selected start-ups will be accelerated across 3 program locations running in parallel in Germany, Israel, and Switzerland.
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