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FoodBytes! San Francisco to Showcase 20 Pioneering Ideas to Feed the World Sustainably

Dutch financial firm Rabobank has shared the names of the 20 startups to participate in the FoodBytes! event in San Francisco on 1 March 2018.

By Sustainable Brands | Published 7 years ago | About a 2 minute read

Image: Chef Koochooloo

Dutch financial firm Rabobank has shared the names of the 20 startups to participate in the FoodBytes! event in San Francisco on 1 March 2018. Participating startups will pitch their ideas for pioneering the future of food, which include solutions for enhancing soil productivity, purifying wastewater and improving access to locally and sustainably grown food. Part of Rabobank’s Banking for Food vision to feed the world sustainably by 2050, FoodBytes! provides entrepreneurs with a forum to share ideas and connect to Rabobank’s network of clients, mentors and investors to help fuel growth.

“The innovations coming through FoodBytes! are inspiring and helping to solve real challenges in the food and ag industries,” said Stephanie Edgecombe, Global Brand Manager of Food Marketing at ADM. “We’re pleased to support FoodBytes! and its family of entrepreneurs, who like ADM, share an unbridled passion and commitment to develop groundbreaking new ingredients, technologies and products to serve the growing consumer demand for a greater purpose.”

Over 145 startups from around the world applied to participate in the event. The companies with the highest rankings based on criteria such as sustainability, traction and innovation will have 3.5 minutes to present their ideas to an audience of investors, executives, entrepreneurs, media and an expert judging panel. The second highest ranked startups will have 1.5 minutes to pitch.

Chef Koochooloo is one of the startups selected to compete in the competition. The Mountain View, California-based startup has created a cooking app that provides a novel approach to teaching kids STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) through healthy eating. San Francisco startup Boost Biomes is working to address critical needs in food abundance and food security, and has developed new, safe and effective bio-preservatives to reduce waste and bio-pesticides to increase crop yield. Meanwhile, NewLavie is helping bring local, organic produce to the masses through its proprietary growing technology and strategic partnerships, and BioFiltro has created a patented wastewater filtration system that harnesses the digestive power of worms and microbes to remove up to 99 percent of contaminants in a chemical-free, four-hour process.

FoodBytes! by Rabobank is presented by global food processing and commodities trading corporation ADM. Since its launch in 2015, the event has drawn applications from more than 1,1000 companies in 30 countries. Tickets to FoodBytes! San Francisco are available now and applications to pitch at FoodBytes! Montreal (May 16) and New York (October 18) are open.