SCALE - RisingFoodStars

The higher goal of this programme is to give you a Pan-European recognition and to provide you with access to all the resources, tools and network you need to challenge, design and follow your own journey to successfully scale up and become a food star of tomorrow. 

By joining the RisingFoodStars programme, you receive the core services below: 

1.    SCALE UP DIAGNOSIS : You receive a thorough scan of your company by scaleups experts to assess your strengths and shortcomings and define together your specific needs in order to successfully scale up. 

2.       SCALEUP ACTION PLAN: After defining your strategic priorities, we provide you with small group customised and interactive workshops as well as 1:1 mentorship sessions to develop a plan of action and build your capabilities. The workshops menu is accessible to all your team. 

3.       PARTNERSHIP BUILDING: We help you identify and connect with the right decision makers within our 100+ corporate partners to widen your market access and commercial reach. Thanks to our corporate venture services, we support you to personalise your value proposition to industry partners and connect you with the right stakeholders in our partner organisations.   

4.       FUNDING: We help you to find the right funding opportunities through our own EIT Food impact fund and our network of 30+ leading investors including Food Sparks by Peak Bridge. As part of your core membership, you are also eligible to receive direct financial support from EIT Food impact fund to fuel your growth and your commercial partnership pilots with corporate partners: up to €500,000 per venture through a Simple Agreement For Future Equity (“SAFE”) instrument (this is not guaranteed, the decision at the sole discretion of EIT Food impact fund team). Read here for more information: Investment: EIT Food Impact Fund - EIT Food. 

5.       VISIBILITY: We give you privileged access to leading corporates and investors via the biggest pan-European conferences such as FutureFoodTech London, F&A Next or our own venture summit in Lisbon. As part of a RisingFoodStar, you also receive financial support to travel to those key events. On top of this, we highlight your success story in our media channels including social media, website, podcasts with a reach of over 8Mn. 

The core membership fees are priced at 4,500 euros starting from 2024. For companies joining us in 2024, since the starting date is July’24, you will be charged for only 6 months at 2,250 euros.

We also offer additional side tracks (optional) to boost your scaleup journey. Each side track is priced at 2,000 euros. The 3 tracks offered in 2024 will be “Series A Investment readiness”, “unlocking your commercial potential” and “boosting your visibility.

We welcome all companies that at the submission stage, identify with the following:

GENERIC CRITERIA

• You have your legal entity based in a member state of the European Union (EU) or Horizon Europe associated countries.
• You are a SMALL sized company as defined in the EU recommendation 2003/361 (between 5 and 49 employees and less than 10 million turnover or balance sheet)
• Your company exists for less than ten years .
• You complement the current pool of RisingFoodStars and EIT Food partners, and you can add value to the network.
• You are not involved in another EIT Food Entrepreneurs programme, i.e. Seedbed Incubator or the EIT Food Accelerator Network
• You have no conflict of interests. Ventures owned by EIT Food employees or members of EIT Food governing bodies and engagements in which EIT Food employees or members of EIT Food governing bodies have an interest are also excluded. EIT Food includes all CLCs of EIT Food and all governing bodies.

PROGRAMME SPECIFIC CRITERIA

• You have a technological solution within one of the 3 missions:
  • Healthy lifestyles
  • Net Zero
  • Fair and resilient supply chain

• You have a unique and scalable technology validated in market conditions combined with a healthy business model (TRL>6)
• You are generating revenues from a strategic multi-customers portfolio (Min 100K euros)
• You have a compelling vision with the right capabilities and mindset to transform from a technological product/service to a commercial organisation.
• You have a team of 10+ Full Time employees with both technical and commercial skills.
• You are aiming to raise a Series A within the next 6-12 months

• Terms and Conditions Calls 2025Interested candidates should apply & check if they pass the programme’s eligibility criteria. Once this is passed, you will be invited to complete your application, and after your answers are submitted, we will evaluate your application and submit it to the Advisory committee. Some applicants might be invited to an online pitching and Q&A session in April 2025. RisingFoodStars will issue a final decision on the acceptance of applicants to the RisingFoodStars network by May/June 2025 
• For more details, refer to the Terms and Conditions Calls 2025

Applications open from 21 Nov 2024!

The RisingFoodStars manager undertakes an annual evaluation of the RFS members to assess their eligibility to remain a member of the association based on the following criteria:

• You must be supporting the aim of the EIT Food RisingFoodStars programme
• You must still be directly or indirectly active in the food sector, in one of EIT Food’s missions
• You must be involved in a minimum of 3 x EIT Food activities in one financial year, such as workshops, events or mentorship schemes.
• You must attend EIT Food (supported) events
• You must be showing signs of growth and progress

For more detailed information about RisingFoodStars, see programme Terms and Conditions