In Milan we presented the 7 international start-ups that will join FoodTech Accelerator, the acceleration program of Cereal Docks as corporate partner together with two other important names in the food sector, Amadori and Finiper Group, with the coordination of Deloitte.
After 4 months of roadshows around the world to promote the opportunity to the international community of start-ups - we reached 12 countries - and received more than 300 applications from 41 different countries.
Two start-ups from Israel, two from USA and three from Italy were shortlisted, and are now accessing a 15-week program. During this period, they have the opportunity to consolidate the business model and look ahead to their growth goals, supported by more than 50 mentors specialised in innovation and business development issues, all coming from both partner companies and the food ecosystem.
The journey will end in May 2019, at the fourth edition of the Global Food Innovation Summit of Seeds&Chips scheduled at Fiera Milano. At that moment each start-up will present its project to an audience of investors and experts in the world of FoodTech.
To reach this goal, the seven start-ups will benefit from a dedicated space in Milan, as well as an initial equity investment of € 150,000 in total, and a support in terms of services and consultancy worth € 350,000. Beside the support of Cereal Docks and the other two corporate partners, the initiative counts on Innogest, Digital Magics, Italian Angels for Growth, Seeds&Chips, Federalimentare Giovani and Campari Group, as supporting partners.
Being one of the promoters in this initiative shows Cereal Docks' willingness to play an active role in the research and development of new ways to make the food industry increasingly sustainable in terms of processes, but also in terms of products that can better nourish the consumer. The "open" approach to innovation is both cultural and strategic for Cereal Docks: in a world that runs fast, it is increasingly important to absorb ideas and skills coming from the outside world and that can integrate those inside the company.
Who are these 7 start-ups?
FeatFood - Coming from Italy, FeatFood is an integrated multichannel operator that produces, sells, and distribute healthy and balanced food to support a diet for a sporty lifestyle. FeatFood products are currently sold online, as well as in dedicated channels (i.e. fitness centres, gyms).
Inspecto – Coming from Israel, it developed a nanoscale portable device to detect contaminants within commodities. Scanned data are archived on cloud and protected by block chain.
Petzamore – Coming from Italy, it produces and sells human-grade food products for pets, using high-quality ingredients and balancing their nutritional properties thanks to a proprietary algorithm.
Planetarians – Coming from the US, Planetarians has a vision that new ingredients can proactively change what we eat. They studied a process to create a low cost, protein-flour extracted from sunflowers seeds.
Rise - Coming from the US, Rise produces an organic flour for the pastry industry. Their product is nutritious, low cost, and produced by recycling barley seeds.
ReOlì - Coming from Italy, ReOlì produces a spreadable extra-virgin olive oil cream that replaces butter and margarine. Their product is obtained through a patented and innovative production process that enables the oil solidification.
Wasteless - Coming from Israel, Wasteless uses a scalable AI algorithm to offer a dynamic pricing solution for supermarkets. The algorithm is based on food expiration date thanks to the real-time monitoring of sold items.
