The hub, which might be primarily based in Campinas, São Paulo, is FAN’s second exterior Europe, after the one in Haifa, Israel, and the primary exterior Horizon Europe-associated states. It should supply a 2-3 month programme for agrifood-tech start-ups, enabling them to speed up, additional validate their know-how, and put together for coming into the market. Functions for start-ups to affix the programme will open in December.
FAN has expanded to Latin America as a result of it’s a “key area after we are speaking about meals, accounting for 14% of world meals manufacturing and 45% of internet worldwide agrifood commerce,” Benoit Buntinx, Director of Enterprise Creation at EIT Meals, instructed FoodNavigator.
“The area due to this fact performs a pivotal function in world meals safety and addressing different international challenges, together with the local weather disaster.”
There are additionally sure rights to think about. “There’s a particular must help agriculture whereas defending tropical forests and the rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
Agrifood-tech’s new horizons
FAN’s previous hubs, which have included Haifa in addition to Paris, Helsinki, Bilbao, and Munich, have utilised educational and company data to teach agritech start-ups into readiness for going business. Firms reminiscent of PepsiCo, Nestlé and Givaudan have offered experience to nascent agrifood-tech firms.
Prior to now, start-ups which have labored within the programme have included Farminsect, which ‘gives farmers an answer to make use of regional natural residues to provide insect larvae’, and Spoontainable, which develops edible ice-creams spoons. Whereas there are as but no confirmed start-ups for Brazil’s hub since purposes haven’t opened, start-ups in Brazil and Chile have already expressed curiosity.
The programme “is principally targeted on supporting start-ups to be partnership-ready, assist them to run a know-how validation pilot with the precise accomplice in order that it accelerates their entry to the market,” Buntinx instructed us.
“Due to this fact our most vital worth proposition is to attach the start-ups with our community of over 200 companions from all EU nations (and now Brazil/LATAM), together with analysis centres, corporates, and traders throughout the entire meals system, from main manufacturing to upcycling of meals waste and meals packaging.”
The programme additionally provides start-ups entry to key occasions. “EIT Meals gives most publicity to the start-ups by means of facilitating their participation in high agrifood-teach occasions, such because the EIT Meals Enterprise Summit, Future Meals Tech, Anuga, and extra.”
Brazil’s EIT will concentrate on key themes reminiscent of meals bioprocessing, subsequent era of plant-sourced options, and sustainable meals packaging. The three themes, in line with Buntinx, have been chosen “primarily based on the suggestions, curiosity and challenges shared by our EIT Meals companions (particularly corporates), in step with EIT Meals’s three Mission areas. We then mentioned with our Brazilian accomplice which might be essentially the most related themes for LATAM stakeholders, and determined to concentrate on these three themes.”
Whereas the agrifood-tech start-ups might be anticipated to innovate, they may even be chosen in accordance with how far they fulfil FAN’s three mission areas: “More healthy Lives By way of Meals”, “A Internet-Zero Meals System” and “Lowering Danger for a Honest & Resilient Meals System”.
“The brand new hub might be adopting the identical tips and choice standards as all the opposite FAN Hubs in Europe,” Buntinx instructed us. “It implies that probably the most vital eligibility standards is that the making use of start-ups ought to show that they’re growing an modern answer that may instantly generate influence in step with EIT Meals’s three Mission areas.”
