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EIT Food Accelerator Network Welcomes Its Fourth Cohort of Impactful Agrifood Startups

EIT Food announced today the 60 high-impact agrifood startups that have been selected to join the EIT Food Acceleration Network (EIT FAN) 2021 in its 6 innovation hubs spread across Europe. The chosen startups will benefit from top industry connections, specifically tailored programmes, and key resources to accelerate their growth and impact.

23 Jun 2021

EIT Food announced today the 60 high-impact agrifood startups that have been selected to join the EIT Food Acceleration Network (EIT FAN) 2021 in its 6 innovation hubs spread across Europe. The chosen startups will benefit from top industry connections, specifically tailored programmes, and key resources to accelerate their growth and impact.

This year’s EIT FAN participants were selected from a record number of applications, making it the most competitive cohort of EIT Food's programme to date. Over 600 startups from across the EU and its associated countries were evaluated online by more than 130 experts from the agrifood industry. Throughout May, 120 agrifood startups advanced to a second evaluation round. Over an entire week, short-listed startups were invited to present their solution in front of diverse evaluation panels during this year’s technology deep-dive sessions.

On selecting the 60 EIT FAN startups, Dr. Christoph Mandl, Programme Manager of the EIT FAN said:

“We are thrilled to welcome the fourth cohort of 60 outstanding agrifood startups into the EIT Food Accelerator Network. These startups have gone through a rigorous and comprehensive review process to assess their innovative potential, commercial viability, and positive impact on our food system. Thus, we are extremely grateful not only to the startups for trusting us with their application but also for the tremendous effort of our EIT FAN community who supported us throughout the selection process.”

The 60 startups selected for the EIT FAN 2021 will be spread across 6 innovation hubs in Europe from Munich (Germany), Haifa (Israel), Lausanne (Switzerland), Bilbao (Spain), and Helsinki (Finland) to Cambridge (UK). The startups of the EIT FAN 2021 cohort are offering solutions to address diverse challenges within our food system, including sustainable agriculture (47%), alternative proteins (17%), targeted nutrition (13%), circular food systems (7%), digitalised traceability (7%), sustainable aquaculture (5%) and others (5%).

During an extensive matchmaking process, the EIT FAN will connect agrifood startups with industry-leading corporates and research partners to pilot their technology and achieve the ultimate goal: a successful market adoption of new, innovative, and impactful technologies.

“We are taking a lot of pride in the number of industry connections we broker during our matchmaking process. By the end of the programme we expect a record number of startups and established companies to enter into partnerships in the form of co-development activities, pilot projects, and/or commercial agreements' states Christoph Mandl. Furthermore, the startups selected are set to benefit from EIT FAN’s curriculum and unparalleled network. The curriculum was created by academic and industry leaders in agrifood to ensure that participating startups would transition from early-stage to impactful innovators.

 

On announcing EIT FAN 2021 startups, Benoit Buntinx, the Director of Business Creation at EIT Food said:

“I’m very excited to hear that each year more and more startups and industry partners alike express their interest in the EIT FAN programme. The programme is well on track to further establish itself as Europe’s number one accelerator in the agrifood space.”

To learn more about the fourth cohort of EIT FAN startups please download the full list at the bottom of this article.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Christoph Mandl
Programme Manager Business Creation / EIT Food Accelerator Network
+49 (0)172 436 9825
christoph.mandl@eitfood.eu

 

About EIT Food

EIT Food is Europe’s leading food innovation initiative, with the aim to create a sustainable and future-proof food sector.

The initiative is made up of a consortium of key industry players, startups, research centres and universities from across Europe. It is one of eight Innovation Communities established by the European Institute for Innovation & Technology (EIT), an independent EU body set up in 2008 to drive innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe.

EIT Food aims to collaborate closely with consumers to develop knowledge and technology-based products and services that will ultimately deliver a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle for all European citizens.

You can follow EIT Food via our website www.eitfood.eu or via social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube or Instagram

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