Innovation & Technology Innovation & Technology

Have an Idea for the Future of Food? Unilever, Cargill, General Mills, and More Want to Hear It

Startups that are innovating around nutritious, sustainable food are invited to pitch for a £3000 cash prize and a three-month mentoring program with the Unilever Foundry. The competition is open to innovators tackling food system challenges such as heart health, obesity, under-nutrition, food waste, and sustainability of the food chain.

By Hannah Furlong | Published 9 years ago | About a 2 minute read

Startups that are innovating around nutritious, sustainable food are invited to pitch for a £3000 cash prize and a three-month mentoring program with the Unilever Foundry. The competition is open to innovators tackling food system challenges such as heart health, obesity, under-nutrition, food waste, and sustainability of the food chain.

Startups must register and apply by October 8th. Five of the best applicants will be selected to pitch on the mainstage to expert judges at Food Matters Live — an event that brings together professionals from across the food and beverage, nutrition and health industries to address the relationship between food, health, nutrition and their connections with the environment, population health and wellbeing — on November 18th at ExCeL in London, UK.

Food Matters Live is also hosting the 4th Food & FMCG Innovation Pitching Event on November 17th. Individuals, research centers, and companies of all sizes are invited to pitch to members of the Open Innovation Forum — particularly FMCG firms such as Cargill, General Mills, Heineken, Mars, PepsiCo, Tesco and Unilever, among others — with solutions that address their business needs, in areas including life sciences, materials, manufacturing, information technology and electronics, marketing and business models, and more. The event is free to enter, and requests to pitch much be submitted by October 23rd.

Food issues are the focus of several recent innovation competitions. Last week, 8 finalists were selected for the 2015 Biomimicry Global Design Challenge, hosted by the Biomimicry Institute and the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. The finalists have each earned a spot in the first-ever food system-focused biomimicry accelerator program and eligibility to win a $100,000 Ray C. Anderson “Ray of Hope” Prize.

Also last week, Unilever Foundry announced the winners of its Ideas Platform’s first three sustainability challenges, which centered on solutions improving nutrition, sanitation and hygiene. Unilever Foundry’s next round of idea challenges will be announced at 12pm GMT on October 12th.