Winners from previous editions

1st Prize – €40,000
BeadRoots, Italy

Led by Angela Bonato, Marco Laino, Paolo Pezzolla and Valerio De Luca, BeadRoots is acompletely biodegradable and eco-friendly solution to help farmers tackle drought through natural superabsorbent polymers, helping retain more water in the soil.

2nd Prize – €25,000
Biopols, Turkiye

100% natural biopolymer-based food packaging and coating solution that extends the shelf life of products like fruits, vegetables and meat. The startup, led by Sena Tarim Yalçinkaya and Naci Kahraman, aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the food and beverage industry by reducing waste and offering a greener alternative to current packaging.

3rd Prize – €15,000
BioDairy Labs, Poland

BioDairy Labs is the future of plant-based fats. Abdul Keeri and Monika Ledzion manufacture healthy, animal-free fat from plant oil, offering nutritious fat ingredients to the food industry without compromising taste and texture, while prioritizing environmental sustainability.

4th Prize – €10,000
Raw edge, Estonia

Mariliis Mia Topp, Kristel Vene and Aleš Ogorevc work on blending local, natural ingredients at the forefront of a new era in health, while grabbing attention with innovative nutrition and eco-friendly focus. Raw edge pioneers revolutionary fermentation tech, crafting delicious, low-sugar, gut-friendly eats that redefine wellness and taste.

1st Prize – €40,000

Noovi, Slovakia

Led by Martina Drobna, Roman Korbacka and Aysegul Yilmaz, Noovi is a unique line of host marking pheromones for non-toxic, zero-residue crop protection against pests, with no health risk to farmers and the environment.

2nd Prize – €25,000

MAKABI, Croatia

Develops small microcapsules for plant nutrition/protection for agroecological agriculture, functional food production. The startup, led by Marko Vinceković and Yana Horn, seeks to decrease the usage of fertilizers, reduce environmental pollution, mitigates climate change and increases the biopotential of produced food.

3rd Prize – €15,000

OG Sense, Latvia

OG Sense is the future of ammonia gas detection sensors. Aleksejs Korabovskis and Valters Slava aim to optimize ventilation costs and well-being of the poultry, with a unique optical gas sensor, fully resistant against ammonia and other aggressive gases in the very demanding space of chicken farming.

4th Prize – €10,000

NanoDrip, Poland

Zoltan Csipai and Andrey Poltavets work on a superb Nanobubble generating technology which boosts plants growth and health, increases fertilizers absorption efficiency and cleans irrigation systems by effective enrichment of water with billions of tiny oxygen bubbles.

1st Prize – €40,000

KOA Biotech, Spain

Led by Sira Mogas Diez and Hugo Marques Dias, KOA Biotech’s aim is to reduce production losses in fish farms by offering real-time monitoring services to track infectious pathogens. KOA offers a whole innovative service to enable the proper management of disease occurrences in aquaculture. They fuse living technologies with microelectronics to have a better track and prevention of pathogen infections in fish tanks.

2nd Prize – €25,000

Ekofertile, Slovakia

Ekofertile develops a biofertilizer enriched with bacteria, nutrients and organic acids, produced from bioleaching diverse natural resources such as mineral waste. The startup led by Darina Štyriaková and Juan Noriega supports plants health and growth without pesticides while helping farmers achieve double yield.

3rd Prize – €15,000

FreeShakes, Spain

FreeShakes is the future generation of fructose free products. The aim of the team led by Antonio Fenoll, Álvaro Valdes, and Monta Ronzenburga is to improve the quality of life of fructose intolerant people by creating the most delicious fruit products without fructose.

4th Prize – €10,000

FresCon, Greece

Danial Fatchurrahman and Marios Efthymiou are developing a post-harvest solution extending the shelf life of fresh fish by 3-4 times compared to conventional methods. Apart from extending the shelf life of fresh fish, the technology also helps preserve its sensory quality (taste, firmness, colour and odour) as well as its nutritional quality.