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F&A Next Showcasing Innovations That Will Shape the Future of Food & Agriculture

Robots farmers; intelligent crop monitoring; vertical city farms; algae- or lupine-based ingredients; and sustainable methods for growing, nutrient extraction and waste valorization – if the latest crop of F&A Next finalists is any indication, all of these could be revolutionary new components of our food and agriculture systems in the near future.

By Sustainable Brands | Published 8 years ago | About a 3 minute read

F&A Next — the first European platform connecting cutting-edge startups with investors and corporates in the food and agriculture space — will shine a spotlight on startups creating food and agriculture innovations that are sure to whet investor and corporate appetites. Its next event brings the three together on May 25-26, 2016, at Wageningen University in The Netherlands.

May 25: Early and Mid-stage Startups

On Wednesday, May 25, 20-30 early and mid-stage startups will pitch and/or demonstrate their business ideas and products in front of a jury of investors. A selection committee has selected them from a large group of applicants.

International startups competing in the pitching competition include:

FoPo Food Powder [Germany] – Turns food into powder to increase shelf life
GrowX [Netherlands] - Vertical farms for growing food in cities
Prolupin [Germany] - Food ingredients made of Blue Sweet Lupine
Mosavali [Georgia] - Distance learning and online consultancy for farmers in emerging markets
Roots SAT [Israel] - Root zone temperature optimization for increased yield
Smart Dairy Cooperatief UA [Netherlands] - Dairy companies in East Africa, India and Latin America that focus on quality milk and a prosperous future for people
The Algae Factory [Italy / Netherlands] – Chocolate bars packed with spirulina for extra nutrition, which help support the communities in Africa that produce the algae
VitalFluid [Netherlands] – Plasma-Activated Water for agriculture, water-purification and medical purposes
CrowdFooding [UK] – Crowd investment in food companies

May 26: Scale-ups, Trends and Opportunities

The following day focuses on important trends and opportunities in the industry and features later-stage startups (scale-ups) that are growing fast (see the full program).

Entrepreneurs will pitching that day include:

Mazza Innovation [Canada] - Water-based nutrient extraction technology
In Ovo [Netherlands] - Gender selection in eggs
Naïo Technologies [France] - Robots for agriculture
Nutrileads [Netherlands] - Food ingredients with clinically demonstrated health effects
Iden Biotechnology [Spain] - Biotechnology as a tool to solve technological problems
CROPX [Israel] - Adaptive irrigation systems based on sensors and software

Fixes for our broken food system represent massive market opportunities for those with sustainable, scalable solutions. Everyone from Unilever, Campbell’s and General Mills to the Biomimicry Institute to Real Food Media have launched recent competitions seeking such solutions.