Foodtech Incubator launches a call for 10 high-potential agri-food start-ups

In Italia, start-ups still face a structural challenge in transferring nascent innovations from the laboratory to the market. In fact, only 17.6 per cent of technologies arise from direct collaboration with universities, despite the fact that 90 per cent of founders hold a degree and 35.2 per cent hold a PhD. Furthermore, 70 per cent of university spin-offs are concentrated in the Centre and North, whilst in the South – where 44 per cent of Italian agricultural businesses are based – innovation struggles to reach the productive sector.

There are two key issues – technology transfer and regional disparities – highlighted by Italia Agrifood Innovation Hub (Itaih), which, precisely to overcome these challenges, launched last year the Foodtech Incubator, a national incubator set up in collaboration with Eatable Adventures – one of the world’s leading foodtech accelerators – dedicated to transforming the best ideas and university research into the businesses of the future. Building on the experience of the first edition, the incubator will select up to a further 10 new high-potential projects to accelerate technology transfer and turn scientific innovation into business ventures.

The call for proposals opened on 15 September and will remain open for six weeks: it will select projects with high technical and scientific potential in five key areas of agri-food innovation: Innovative Agriculture; Next-Gen Ingredients & Products; Circular Economy & Upcycling; Biotech & New Production Processes; Deep Tech for the agri-food supply chain

The selected teams will be called upon to tackle the sector’s most pressing challenges – from the digitalisation of agriculture to climate change, from changing dietary habits to the urgent need for a new balance between human health and the health of the planet – and will take part in a 10-week incubation programme (from November 2026 to February 2027) that combines training, mentorship and workshops, through direct engagement with companies and investors.

The programme will begin with a two-day intensive bootcamp held in person at the University of Verona and will culminate in February 2027 with the Demo Day, the event at which the selected projects will be officially presented to investors, institutional partners and major companies in the AgriFoodTech sector. The aim is to support the projects from their earliest stages until they become well-established start-ups, ready to enter acceleration programmes and launch onto the market.