80 thousand kilometres travelled and 12 countries visited: an intense international scouting activity led to the selection of 9 start-ups in the Food industry, which in the next 15 weeks will be located in Milan for an incubation process aimed at developing 9 pilot projects.
We are talking about the second edition of Food Tech Acceletor, the annual program that brings together Cereal Docks Group corporate partners with Amadori, Birra Peroni and COPROB Italia Zuccheri, co-ordinated by Deloitte Officine Innovazione.
The 9 start-ups which have been selected among more than 600 applications, come from Hong Kong, Italy, Israel and Canada and in the coming weeks will have the opportunity to collaborate with corporate partners to define go-to-market strategies, internationalisation, industrial scale-up plans and product development. The acceleration program will highlight with the DemoDay, scheduled in May in Milan. During the event, the start-ups will present themselves to a network of investors: it will be here that the results of the pilot projects will be unveiled to the market.
"This accelerator is a great opportunity to network with important companies in the agri-food industry, in a city like Milan that is the core of Italian innovation - says Giacomo Fanin, Business Developer of the Cereal Docks Group - Thanks to this program, we create a system that enhances Italian start-ups and brings foreign ones to Italy as well, which is something unusual. So we are able to make a truly "open" innovation, without borders".
First of all it is the company duty to understand such approach at all levels: "The accelerator is for us an important initiative of open innovation, a paradigm that we have long adopted in the company. Being able to dialogue with stakeholders of a different nature, such as start-ups, research centres, universities, companies on a global scale, it allows us to keep a fresh mind and feed ideas, enjoying new and prompt points of view to grasp new market trends. We are very satisfied with the start-ups participating in this second edition. Their profiles are promising, we chose them on the basis of their innovative idea and adherence to global trends such as circular economy, sustainable packaging, agritech, innovative ingredients and improved shopping experience".
Among the 9 selected, Cereal Docks Group will closely follow the journey of 3 Israeli start-ups, which more than the others have profiles in line with the research areas already existing in the company: Agritask will have the opportunity to test in the fields its agronomic management platform, an agritech system that helps the operations of farms by improving their performance in a logic of efficiency and traceability; in the research of alternative proteins to those of animal origin, Innovopro will develop its chickpea-based protein concentrate, which has a high nutritional value, is GMO-free, has no allergens, and is suitable for different uses, from mayonnaise to vegan ice cream. Finally, Equinom will be focused on its business model. The startup develops and selects the optimal seeds according to the intended use that the agricultural raw material must have and the nutritional profile to be obtained.
