12 Food Tech Startups from Around the World Join the ProVeg Incubator

The 10th cohort focuses on high-impact technologies, regions, and solutions

Twelve pioneering, impact-driven startups, hailing from Thailand, Singapore, China, Israel, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, South Africa, the Netherlands, Ireland, the UK and the US, have joined the ProVeg Incubator for the 10th edition of its world-renowned accelerator programme for plant-based, fermentation and cultured food startups.

The team were looking for the most impactful food tech and biotech as well as ingredients solutions to speed up the transformation of our unsustainable food system. Here’s who they found.

The 12 startups joining Cohort 10:

Be Better My Friend (Netherlands, 2021): Founders Marikevan Beurden and Joost Lindeman have developed plant-based butter and cream alternatives for professional pastry chefs. Find out more at bebettermyfriend.com

FoodSquared (UK, 2021): Founders Frankie Fox, Wesley Yland, and Abi Aspen Glencross are using a ‘patent pending’ process and proprietary ingredient formulations to create next-generation plant-based shellfish, starting with plant-based shrimp. Find out more at foodsquared.earth

Ergo Bioscience (Argentina/US, 2020): Founders Alejandro Barbarini, Maria Laura Garcia, and Eduardo Peña develop complex animal proteins by plant cell precision fermentation. Find out more at ergofoods.com

Plant Origin (Thailand, 2022): Founders Pasakorn Niratbhand, Patarachet Soodsaguan, Panu Srisawasdi, and Akkasit Jongjareonrak are developing plant-based protein alternatives using hydrolyzed rice bran protein, which is extracted from byproducts of rice production. Find out more at plantorigin.co

Fattastic Technologies (Singapore, 2022): Founder Satnam Singh is developing a plant-based fat alternative that improves the sensory properties of alternative protein products with its innovative ‘oil structuring technology’. Find out more at fattastic.tech

Propel Foods (Mexico, 2022): Founders Joel González Gómez and Jayat Elena González Palomeras are using artificial intelligence to produce frozen, ready-to-eat, plant-based meals including tacos, burgers and chorizos with a strong emphasis on health and nutrition. Find out more at propelfoods.com

Algrow Biosciences (Singapore, 2022): Founders Sudhir Kumar Pasupuleti and Sukhi Wei create sustainable and nutritious protein using microalgae. Their clean-label process for removing chlorophyll results in a taste- and colour-neutral protein-rich biomass with a complete amino acid profile, packed with omega-3, iron, and potassium, that can be produced at a cost that is 85% compared to its competitors. Find out more at algrowbiosciences.co

MycoSure (South Africa, 2021): Founders Charles Reed, Greg Brown and James McLaren are developing mycelium-based fermentation technology to provide nutraceutical ingredients in a scalable and cost-effective way. Their B2B platform strategy is to supply branded ingredients to the food and beverage sector. Find out more at mycosure.co.za

StarPlants (China/Israel, 2021): Founders Eran Dubovi and Udi Baran run a plant-based food company specialising in chick pea milk and snacks. The company, which is based in China and led by owners based in Israel, develops, manufactures, and sells the products. Find out more at starplants.com.cn

SomaTech (Ireland, 2023): Founders Dr Tony Martin Callaghan and Dr Alejandra Omarini have developed a scalable solid state fermentation platform that uses fungal mycelium to upcycle locally produced side streams, creating affordable, functional protein-rich food ingredients. (No website currently).

Sticta Biologicals (Chile, 2021): Founders Eduardo Agosin and Andres Ariztia have developed a proprietary microbial platform that uses precision fermentation to produce proteins and natural biochemicals for the food, agriculture and wellbeing sectors. The company’s SmartSerumTM, all-in–one, customised serum-free culture media includes proteins and ingredients for the mass production of cultivated meats. Find out more at sticta.com

Bygg Foods (US, 2022): Founder Smári Ásmundsson is developing a product line including plant-based milk and vegan protein powder, created from upcycled ingredients. Bygg aims to cater to millennials and Gen Z consumers who prioritise health and environmental consciousness. The company aims to expand to a range of plant-based food and beverage categories. Find out more at byggfoods.com

Cohort 10 in Numbers

• 12 startups under 3 years old
• 4 startups from the Asia-Pacific region
• 4 startups from North and Latin America
• 3 startups from Europe
• 1 startup from Africa
• 7 are ingredients companies
• 5 are consumer products companies
• 5 are precision and biomass fermentation companies

Applicants came from 42 countries around the world. Startups in Asia and Europe led the charge, with 29% based in Asia, 29% in Europe, 21% in North America (including Mexico), 12% in South America, 4% in Africa, and 3% in the Australian continent.

Trends we’re seeing:

Next-gen nutrition. The ultra-processed argument against many plant-based products is a hot topic. By applying AI, upcycling side streams of the food industry and leveraging new ingredients, the startups in our cohort aim to provide clean label, nutritious, healthy and less-processed solutions, as this is top of the list for consumers, food producers, retail and food service.

The rise of Asia Pacific. We’re increasingly speaking to startups in this region, echoing the recent findings by the Good Food Institute APAC that investments into alternative protein companies in Asia Pacific rose by 43% from 2021 to 2022 in all three pillars of alternative proteins: plant-based, fermentation, and cultivated.

Precision and biomass fermentation (mycelium). The trend to leverage different fermentation approaches continues to be strong. We’re seeing more startups developing products and enabling tech in these areas. The offerings are promising in terms of impact, potential scale-up and sustainability.

Precision fermentation platforms as enablers. This is an exciting area and we’re seeing more startups exploring it for creating cultivated meat mediums, and plant cell cultivation as a new way to express complex animal proteins like caseins and myoglobin.

Innovative plant-based solutions to replace conventional ingredients. We’re seeing new and promising alternatives coming through, combined with B2B models, including butter, egg, milk and seafood, both for food producers and food service.

Tough investment landscape. Startups are finding it harder to find lead investors and close rounds, while rounds and due diligence are taking longer. Many investors are less active and are focusing on portfolio support.

About the ProVeg Incubator

The ProVeg Incubator is designed to support mission-driven startups working on plant-based, fermentation, and cultured-food products and technologies. Startups must have the potential to remove animals from the global food system, either by providing alternatives or with supporting technology.

The ProVeg Incubator, which is based in Berlin, Germany, is particularly interested in startups developing egg, seafood, and chicken alternatives, as well as other meat and dairy alternatives, ingredients and technologies that can help substitute animal-derived staple products on a mass scale. Focus areas include functional ingredients, precision fermentation and biomass fermentation, cell-cultivation and molecular farming, along with the enabling tech, processes, and platforms.

What does the programme include?

Startups that join the ProVeg Incubator are supported with a tailor-made accelerator programme, one-on-one expert mentoring, access to the Incubator’s extensive networks of industry contacts, and up to €300,000 in funding and in-kind services.

Since its launch in late 2018, the ProVeg Incubator has supported more than 80 startups from around the world, including Remilk, Better Nature, Vly Foods, Bosque Foods, Haofood, Omni, Kern Tec, Greenwise, Mushlabs, Formo, Hooked, the Live Green Company, and the Nu Company.

Collectively, the ProVeg Incubator’s alumni have raised more than €250 million, with products stocked in over 15,000 stores worldwide.

Startups that join have access to a global network including mentors such as Lisa Feria (Stray Dog Capital), Mark Post (Mosa Meat), Ryan Bethencourt (Wild Earth), David Benzaquen (Mission: Plant LLC), David Brandes (Peace of Meat), Frank Cordesmeyer (Good Seed Ventures), among many others.

ProVeg Incubator facts and figures

• Number 1: ProVeg Incubator was the first incubator for plant-based and cultured food startups when it began in 2018 and continues to lead the charge
• Mission-driven: ProVeg Incubator is part of the not-for-profit food awareness organisation ProVeg International https://proveg.com/
• Not-for-profit: All funds are reinvested in ProVeg’s overarching mission to reduce global animal consumption by 50% by the year 2040.
• Unique: ProVeg Incubator is the only accelerator programme with a mission to take animals out of the value chain, with all potential gains reinvested in charitable work
• Focused on startups: The team has screened more than 1,000 startups and worked with more than 80 alumni companies from all over the world through its programmes

More than the sum of its parts: ProVeg Incubator is not just an accelerator, or an investor, but a global organisation with partners across industries, spanning both commercial and Not-for-profit. 

Startups backed by MS Dhoni, Anushka-Virat Congregate at Smart Protein Summit 2022 in New Delhi Alongside Policymakers, Scientists, Investors, & Other Future Food Stakeholders

Dr. Ravishankar CN (Director, VC ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai) at the opening of Day 2 of the Smart Protein Summit 2022 by the Good Food Institute India and FICCI

Organized by the Good Food Institute India and FICCI, the Summit saw participation from representatives of the embassies of the Netherlands, Israel, Canada, educational institutions, companies such as Licious, Blue Tribe Foods, pioneering investors, and others

Yesterday marked the conclusion of the Smart Protein Summit 2022, organized by the Good Food Institute India (GFI India), the central expert organization and convening body in the ‘smart protein’ sector, in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI). The Summit was supported by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), and India’s Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) Eat Right India initiative.

For five years now, the Smart Protein Summit has served as a platform to bring together a wide range of stakeholders, all committed to transforming our protein supply by focusing on creating an enabling environment for smart protein. The 2022 Summit spanned two days, with 80+ speakers, 13 panel discussions, 8 curated roundtables, a plant-based tasting tour, an ecosystem networking event, and much more.

With the dual intention of building partnerships and propelling the industry forward, the Summit saw over 550 participants attend. It had every major player in the room - from Blue Tribe Foods, Shaka Harry, Licious, Greenest and other pioneering smart protein companies to leading investors including Magnetic, Brinc, CIIE.CO, Beyond Impact, and more.

Heads of research institutions, government and industry bodies such as The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), The National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), Food Industry Capacity & Skill Initiative (FICSI), The Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB) as well as young changemakers, students, and innovators took center stage at the Summit.

L-R- Nicole Rocque, Senior Innovation Specialist, GFI India , Chair Arun Seth, Advisor to GFI India, Board Member Narayana Health & Jubilant Group, HE Marten van den Berg, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to India, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Hagar Spiro-Tal, Political Counselor, Embassy of Israel in New Delhi, HE Cameron MacKay, High Commissioner of Canada, High Commission of Canada in New Delhi and Varun Deshpande, President, GFI

The Smart Protein Summit 2022 was designed by GFI India and FICCI to propel India to the forefront of the global race for smart protein innovation. Following the inaugural address, Deloitte India partner, Anand Ramanathan and Varun Deshpande unveiled topline numbers on the market size and export potential of smart protein from a rigorous study by GFI India and Deloitte India. The study projects that smart protein’s total economic opportunity (both domestic market size and exports) in 2030 is estimated to be INR 33,194 crore (USD 4.2 billion) in a high growth scenario.

Building on this, Varun Desphande, President, GFI Asia emphasized the need to become Aatma Nirbhar in smart protein and said, “India has crop diversity, a globally competitive talent pool, and hundreds of people working on this opportunity - which can create immense job opportunities across the value chain, and GFI India and Deloitte India’s modeling shows that the total number of jobs created by smart protein industry in 2030 ranges from 1,51,025 in a low growth scenario to 4, 27,985 jobs in a high growth scenario.”

All stakeholders present recognized the work to be done in order to actualize these targets. Focusing on the immense opportunity, leading entrepreneurs and investors both emphasized the importance of building high-fidelity smart protein products - plant-based or cultivated meats that look, cook, taste, and sizzle like conventional animal-derived protein.

While the industry is still a sunrise sector in India, Anand Nagarajan, Co-Founder, Shaka Harry, the smart protein startup that just signed on MS Dhoni as an investor and ambassador, encouraged the sector to play on the front foot. He said, “We're in it for the long haul even if there are blips or market corrections. Technology stocks also lost 40% of their valuations this year, but nobody said the internet is dead. We need to be bold and break out into the mainstream.”

Speaking at a panel on nurturing biotech to mega-scale, Shubhankar Takle, Co-founder, MyoWorks expressed, “I'm very excited and bullish about cultivated meat - I think it will be a paradigm shift.” Incidentally, in 2019, MyoWorks had participated in the Innovators Showcase at GFI India’s flagship event, pitching to a panel of investors that featured Shreyansh Singhal, VP of Investments, Ankur Capital. Three years in, as Ankur Capital invests seed capital in MyoWorks, it is heartening to see them both return to the Summit and lead the conversation on the need for deep science funding.

In a similar vein, Dr. Ravishankar CN, Director, ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education in his key address, underscored that cultivated meat is a future food technology that can serve as a viable alternative to animal-derived protein. “Land is shrinking. Resources are limited,” he said, highlighting the urgency of transitioning to more sustainable sources of proteins. Dr. Ravishankar also touched upon the regulatory pathways that need to be created for new food tech innovations.

On day one of the Summit we heard both Siraj Hussain, FICCI Advisor and former Secretary, MoFPI & Agriculture, Government of India and Siraj Azmat Chaudhry, Past Chair, National Committee on Food Processing, FICCI, Former Chairman, Cargill India, and MD & CEO, NCML iterate the need to localize the supply chain. Quoting a popular idiom, Siraj A Chaudhary quipped, “They say 'ghar ki murgi dal barabar' and now we have dals and pulses coming back to compete with meat!”

While the smart protein ecosystem has grown at a remarkable rate over the last five years, very little has happened in the direction of building the necessary talent in this area. To address this, the Summit hosted dedicated roundtables and sessions on building the talent pool, with heads of universities such as NIFTEM, Gujarat Biotechnology University, TransDisciplinary University (TDU), and skilling bodies such as the Food Industry Capacity & Skill Initiative (FICSI) coming together to deliberate how to bridge the gap between industry and academia.

The Summit also celebrated the progress made in fostering an ecosystem for building talent over the last year. In a first for India, students in collaboration with GFI India set up the ‘Delhi University Smart Protein Project’, a chapter of the global Alt Protein Project, dedicated to turning universities into engines for smart protein education, research, and innovation.

Introducing the project, Devika Suresh, Innovation Associate, GFI India said, “Indian talent powers the global smart protein sector just as it does other strategically important industries, and we’re delighted to continue seeding the talent landscape through the Delhi Smart Protein Project. These student leaders will strengthen the ecosystem of education, incubation, and technology transfer in smart protein, and be propelled forward as the drivers of a more secure, sustainable, and just future of food.” 

While felicitating the student organizers of the project, Dr. Chindi Vasudevappa, Director-VC at NIFTEM, added, “Plant-based food is where we are headed, and I’m delighted to see Delhi University students taking charge and innovating.”

The Summit concluded with the ‘Smart Protein Corridors’ session that hosted HE Cameron MacKay, High Commissioner of Canada, High Commission of Canada in New Delhi, HE Marten van den Berg, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to India, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New Delhi, and Ms. Hagar Spiro-Tal, Political Counselor, Embassy of Israel in New Delhi with inputs from session chair Arun Seth, Advisor to GFI India, Board Member Narayana Health & Jubilant Group. The dignitaries discussed opportunities for bilateral and multilateral partnerships within the smart protein ecosystem and how smart protein hubs like Canada, Israel, and the Netherlands can work with India for mutual gains in this sector. Speaking to these complementary advantages, High Commissioner of Canada to India, HE Cameron MacKay said “Canada has technology around preventing post-harvest loss that Indian farmers could use, and in the same way, we can learn from Indian traditional knowledge and how farmers in India deal with climatic conditions."

Varun Deshpande, President, GFI Asia closed the Summit with reflections on the two days and said, “I firmly believe that what we do about meat, will be the principal challenge of our lifetimes. Over the last five years, we’ve talked about the promise of this sector. What’s changed since then is the fact that 50+ companies have launched their smart protein products in markets across India. The sector has launched, and the conversations we’re having now have matured and have become a lot more sophisticated. But we still have a long way to go in order to create a world where alternative proteins are no longer alternative.”

The Good Food Institute India (GFI India) is the central expert organization, thought leader, and convening body in the Indian ‘alternative protein’ or ‘smart protein’ sector. As part of an international network of nonprofits with partners in Brazil, Israel, U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific, GFI India is on a mission to build a healthy, sustainable, and just global food system. Since our establishment in 2017, GFI India serves as the central thought leader and convening body in the space of plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-based meat, eggs, and dairy that are collectively known as the ‘alternative protein’ or the ‘smart protein’ sector. With unique insight across the scientific, policy, industry, and investment landscapes, we are using the power of food innovation and markets to accelerate the transition of the world’s food system toward alternative proteins. In building the sector from the ground up in India, we’re aiming to establish a model for its growth all across the developing world.

For further information on GFI India, visit www.gfi.org.in

India to have Slaughter-Free Meat Cultivated in Lab By 2020 with a Centre to Support Related Startups

The size and demand of the meat industry is growing rapidly and according to estimates, meat consumption in India is going to rise with the rise in population in the coming years. Anticipating the same, the Maharashtra state government and the Indian arm of US-based NGO Good Food Institute (GFI) have had signed an MoU, in February this year, to set up a Centre for Excellence in Cellular Agriculture in Jalna city, Aurangabad Division of Maharashtra, in a bid to promote cell-based meat production in India.

Cell-based meat cultivation involves growing animal cells in a laboratory rather than slaughtering animals and therefore the meat cultivated in labs is also called as 'slaughter-free' or 'clean meat' and is considered as nutritionally equivalent to conventional animal meat.

The centre will look into developing methods to cultivate stem cells from tissue samples of sheep, to produce mutton.

Set up by Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai, the upcoming centre is touted as world’s first research centre focused on research and development in the cell-based meat category.

In its first phase, a lab is expected to come up in Mumbai next year. The second phase, a greenfield project, is expected to come up on 203 acres of land owned by ICT in Jalna by 2021, said GFI India Managing Director Varun Deshpande, to Indian Express.

Additionally, the upcoming centre will also provide facilities for related startups to investigate and create Proofs-of-Concept (PoCs). It will also conduct contract research for relevant private industries and startups and create curriculum and training for the sector.

[caption id="attachment_130386" align="alignleft" width="770"] Image Credit - nrn.com[/caption]

Washington-based GFI will offer expertise and guidance in setting up the lab through its network of scientists. "The concept of cell-based meat is still in an early stage in the country. However, the size and demand of the meat industry is growing rapidly. It is estimated that in the coming years, meat consumption in India is going to rise with the rise in population," said Deshpande.

Good Food Institute (GFI) is a nonprofit that promotes plant-based meat, dairy, and eggs as well as clean meat (also known as cultured meat and cell-based meat), as alternatives to the products of conventional animal agriculture. GFI targets scientists, policymakers, and entrepreneurs to promote plant-based products and cellular agriculture.

The current Indian meat industry is valued at an estimated Us $2.585 Billion ( ~ Rs 20,000 crore). Cell-based meat companies in Netherlands, Israel and Japan are receiving support from their governments, while regulatory authorities in America USA are in the process of developing a framework for cell-based meet.

In an another similar cell-based meat initiative, Hyderabad's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), in collaboration with the National Research Centre on Meat (NRCM), has also initiated research aimed at producing cell-based meat and Department of Biotechnology (DBT), government of India, has even agreed to fund the project with an initial grant of Rs 4.6 crore.

CCMB too has collaborated with GFI for same.

CCMB operates under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India, and is a designated "Center of Excellence" by the Global Molecular and Cell Biology Network, UNESCO.

Additionally, CCMB has also signed an agreement with Humane Society International India to launch a ‘Centre for Predictive Human Model Systems;, whiche will help enable shift in scientific research by focusing on new methodologies instead of animal models. This centre aims to stop use animals in research purposes. The alternative testing method would be to test the human cells and convert them into organoids (an artificially grown mass of cells or tissue that resembles an organ).

Source - The Hindu, Business Line, Indian Express, Food Navigator-Asia

[Top Featured Image - Techspot.com]