Finalists of the 2020 SeedBed Bilbao announced

EIT Food organises the Seedbed programme for the second consecutive year. The goal is to attract innovative ideas or projects that will enable the advancement and generation of new talent within the agrifood sector. This year, despite the mobility restrictions resulting of the COVID-19 health crisis, the European consortium has decided to proceed with this initiative by going 100% online and thus continuing its support to these startups during these convoluted times.

The best startups will receive €10,000 to be invested in the search for potential customers. Additionally, they will have the chance to present their projects to experts of the agrifood sector and, the best among them, will receive funding of up to €20,000, which will help them continue to move their business forward.

Meet the Bilbao Startup Teams that are the finalists for this year:

• Algdeha (Turkey): Algdeha produces sustainable and environmental solutions to decrease fishing activities. Because of global warming, contaminations in the oceans and over fishing activities, it is being foreseen that wild fish will be extinct in 2050. We produce algae in industrial scale with low cost to use as animal feed to cover the nutrients that fish provides such as Omega 3 and protein.
• Bio2Coat (Spain): Bio2Coat develop and produce edible food coatings, made entirely from natural sources, which are applied to preserve and extend the shelf life of food. It is a colorless, fragrance-free, flavorless thin coating that can be consumed together with the food product without any impact on its sensory characteristics. 
• BioTip (Israel): Freshness Stickers give an exact freshness indicator. The freshness of products, especially those that are refrigerated, is a direct result of temperature. The Freshness-Sticker is a small bag, which contains a sample of the product and bio-chemicals which through the chemical reaction indicates the freshness state via color change on the Freshness stickers. 
• Free Waste SRL (Italy): A patented system which consists of a fully automated compost bin linked to our proprietary software that allows remote maintenance. After 72 hours the biological process in our compost bin will have performed its magic and the organic waste will have turned into compost tea, a completely natural product, that can be used in agriculture because it is liquid and therefore easy to use in irrigation systems. 
• Plant on Demand (Spain): A software-based online platform enabling small and medium food producers, distributors and retailers to connect directly with their customers through this digital interface, proposing them their products catalogue and handling product offer, orders, invoicing and deliveries.
• ReGenius Loc (Italy): SLOPO is a device that can determine the amount of nickel in food/fluids in real-time and on-site, so that people allergic to nickel can make informed food choices. We want to create an easy to use tester so that people can monitor the amount of nickel they take and understand what their tolerance range is.
• Sound Safe (Portugal): An innovative solution to reduce wastes and increase post -harvesting life of fresh agricultural products using ultrasonic and microwave customized radiation.

 As well as two other startups from the Danone intra-entrepreneurial programme:

• Danone Volvicist: Volvicist aims to develop a refillable bottle and companion app that empower people to contribute to the preservation of water ecosystems and provide safe drinking water access to people in need via the numerous actions undertaken by Danone, while at the same time nudging toward healthier drinking habits.
• Danone Planetary Beverage: Originated from grass fed milk, completely natural and full of good nutrients, whey is today wasted by the dairy factories. With this project we aim to valorise whey into tasty and nutritional beverages under the Volvic brand, turning food waste into valuable resources such as the large quantities of whey readily available from Danone factories. We would like to share our knowledge and massively reduce food waste internationally while promoting enjoyable, healthy and natural hydration.