EIT Food announces new cohort of agrifood startups

Leuven - EIT Food, the world’s largest food innovation community, has announced its new cohort of 104 ground-breaking startups for its prestigious entrepreneurship programmes: Seedbed Incubator, EIT Food Accelerator Network (FAN) and RisingFoodStars. EIT Food is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.

The successful startups were chosen for their potential to accelerate innovation to create positive change in the food system, ranging from achieving carbon zero farming to protein diversification.

Each startup will receive access to the world’s largest and most dynamic agrifood community of industry experts, research institutions, corporate partners and investors.

The startups will also be able to benefit from world-class mentorship, leadership development, tech validation, business support, and training, all designed to accelerate their growth, impact and market-readiness.

The chosen startups from across Europe, North Africa and Israel include:

EIT Food Seedbed Incubator (41 startups):

• Freeshakes (Spain), which has developed a new generation of fructose-free fruit products that maintain the integrity and nutritional value of the fruit.
• Kiana Agriculture (Netherlands), which has innovated climate-smart bio-inputs, regenerating the soil, and decreasing chemical fertiliser usage, while increasing yields significantly
• Meat Tomorrow (Denmark), which is developing a low-cost sustainable production platform for cultivated pork from pluripotent stem cells
• Ribes Technologies (Poland), which is using spectroscopy and AI to detect infections that protect berry plantations

EIT Food Accelerator Network (50 startups):

Achieving carbon-zero farming, Bilbao Hub:

• Oligofeed (France), which has developed a scientifically proven supplement that boosts bees’ natural immunity.

• SpaceCrop Technologies (Hungary), an agricultural software company that helps farms manage irrigation using satellite data and artificial intelligence.

Food as medicine, Haifa Hub:

• Ani Biome™ (Croatia) harnesses the power of fermentation science to create personalised AgeBiotics™ for elevated gut health and vitality.
• WeZoop (Lithuania), a startup venture developing a foods to promote healthier ageing.

Scaling the alternative protein revolution, Helsinki Hub:

• Adamo Foods (UK) is a food technology company, launching the world’s first sustainable and delicious steak entirely made from fungi.
• Cultivated Biosciences (Switzerland), which is developing an alternative fat ingredient from oleaginous yeast, which offers the creaminess needed for plant-based dairy.

• Yeastime (Italy), an innovative startup that uses sensors and mechanical stimulation to reduce time, consumption and energy costs of the fermentation process.
• Nutropy (France), which produces real milk ingredients, identical to those produced by cows, to enable the development of cheese alternatives that are more sustainable, healthier and better for the animals.

Accelerating the tech revolution in agriculture, Munich Hub:

• Agrodit (Sweden), which provides real-time data directly from crops, enabling growers to respond to suboptimal environmental and soil conditions before visual symptoms appear.
• Seabex (Tunisia), which builds intelligent solutions to help farmers better manage their operations for a better yield production.

• Ant Robotics (Germany), which has created VALERA, a product that supports workers during the harvest of fruits and vegetables, reducing non-productive time spent on transporting crates.

Novel ingredients and processes, Paris Hub:

• Revive Eco (UK), which produces a sustainable palm oil alternative made from local coffee waste.
• Got Foods (Latvia), which is creating dairy-alternative cheese with high protein content made from fermented yellow peas.
• Colipi (Germany), which develops and scales two distinct technologies to upcycle waste carbon to edible oils.

EIT Food RisingFoodStars (13 startups):

• Bosque Foods (Germany) which aims to create the next generation of meat alternatives, starting with whole-cut products grown naturally from fungus-derived mycelium.
• Onego Bio (Finland) which has developed a way to produce egg white without chickens.
• FreshSens (Turkey), which has developed an AI-powered platform to prevent fruit and vegetable waste by predicting and extending their shelf-life after harvest.

Disrupting the agrifood industry

Over 1000 high-impact startups from across Europe were evaluated by more than 100 experts from the agrifood sector to ensure that the chosen startups not only have the potential to disrupt the food industry, but also share EIT Food's commitment to achieve impact towards the following missions:

• Healthier lives through food
• A net zero food system
• Reducing risk for a fair and resilient food system

Each startup underwent a thorough and comprehensive evaluation process to assess of their innovative potential, their impact, their tech and commercial viability, their business model, leadership and growth potential. Various startups have moved to the next stage of their entrepreneurship journey within EIT Food programmes, from launch (EIT Food Seedbed Incubator) to accelerate (EIT Food Accelerator Network) and scale (RisingFoodStars).

Corporate partners for the EIT Food Accelerator Network programme include: Bayer, IFF, General Mills, The Südzucker Group, Danone, Sodexo, Ingredion Incorporated, ICL Food Specialties together with ICL PLANET Startup Hub, FrieslandCampina, Valio Group, Paulig Group, Lantmännen, John Deere, the CORE by CBC Group and the Kerry Group.

For more information about EIT Food’s entrepreneurship programmes, please visit: https://entrepreneurship.eitfood.eu.