Foodseed, here are the most innovative start-ups that will make agrifood sustainable and green
Anti-drought algae, biocompatible packaging and systems that recognise food toxicity among the initiatives selected by the acceleration project managed by Eatable Adventure: 15 million over three years from Cdp venture capital, Unicredit and Cariverona
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From biomaterials replacing plastic for food packaging to a system that detects harmful toxins in cereals in real time. From an antimicrobial made from liquorice waste that extends the shelf life of food to the development of an alternative to caffeine without the typical side effects of caffeine. These are the foodtech projects that characterise some of the seven start-ups selected by Foodseed, the business acceleration programme now in its second edition and born thanks to the support of Cdp Venture Capital Sgr, Fondazione Cariverona and UniCredit.
Operations are managed by Eatable Adventures, one of the leading foodtech accelerators on a global scale, which is also a co-investor. Other partners are Amadori, Cattolica Business Unit of Generali Italia, Veronafiere, Accelerate for impact platform of the Cgiar and University of Verona.
"FoodSeed fosters strategic connections with companies, investors and key players in the agrifood sector from an open innovation perspective, an approach," say the promoters, "that aims to strengthen the national entrepreneurial fabric and foster new synergies to promote technological and ethical development in the sector.
"We received about two hundred applications (15% from abroad) and evaluated the 165 that met the starting requirements. In order to enter the programme and receive funds,' explains Alberto Barbari, Eatable Adventure's regional VP Italy, 'you need to be a limited company or be ready to become one. The trait d'union that unites the start-ups is not so much a particular field of innovation but an approach that starts from the real problems of agribusiness, proposing solutions that can be implemented in a reasonable timeframe. In other words, the approach must be business driven, not at the level of pure academic research. In short, we do not do deep tech, but work on scalable and concrete solutions.In Italy we are still a bit behind in the field of open innovation, companies still struggle to work by pooling their resources to solve common problems, but things are changing. It takes audacity to take a step forward in this direction, moving away from the idea that 'it has always been done this way'. Made in Italy must be enhanced but it must remain competitive. With FoodSeed we aim to create new synergies between emerging realities and consolidated companies, favouring collaborations that can transform the entire supply chain in a sustainable and even more competitive way'.
The programme's budget is EUR 15 million over three years. "Initially, each start-up receives an average of EUR 170,000 to develop its project, which we support with the classic business acceleration work, from training to one-to-one meetings and all the useful actions to fine-tune the business model. Then,' continues Barbari, 'the best star-ups in terms of performance, i.e., both on the basis of the degree of technological advancement and the number of letters of interest received from companies or any contracts signed, receive funds of up to EUR 500,000 for follow-up, and perhaps in the meantime other resources arrive from outside investors.
For example Foreverland, selected in the first edition of FoodSeed, recently closed a EUR 3.4 million investment round for its sustainable alternative to carob-based chocolate. "It is an important funding obtained in less than a year," comments Barbari, "but spent start-up projects need more time to be fully developed. And some have physical limitations, such as projects related to agriculture, which perhaps have to wait until the new harvest to see the first results'.
