FoodBytes! event held in London for the first time

A networking event is being held in London with 20 food and agriculture startup businesses that will look to take the stage.

FoodBytes! London will reveal 20 cutting-edge, sustainable businesses for its first London programme on Thursday 13^th September 2018, at One Marylebone. The startups demonstrate product innovation, commercial viability and all have one common denominator – a focus on sustainability throughout the supply chain through pioneering new products and technologies. 

Precision agriculture is the dominant theme amongst the startups, including AI-powered dairy farming and data-driven beekeeping. Packaging innovation and novel food waste applications will also take the stage, alongside crisps made from upcycled salmon skin. Supply chain transparency is another central trend, including light-emitting hardware that reduces seafood bycatch and the first portable food safety DNA detection kit.

The FoodBytes! event means scouring the globe looking for the world’s most disruptive food and agriculture innovators. The platform offers an opportunity for selected entrepreneurs to showcase their innovations in front of investors, corporates and media, as well as receive mentoring from industry leaders.

Nick Fereday, Executive Director – Food & Consumer Trends at Rabobank and FoodBytes! London judge commented: “This is Rabobank’s first FoodBytes! event in London and we are blown away by the calibre of the presenting companies that are developing technologies and products to disrupt the food system, whether it is to improve the transparency of the supply chain or bring alternative proteins to the market.”

The highest ranked startups based on specific criteria will have 3.5 minutes to pitch and the second highest ranked startups will have 1.5 minutes to pitch.

The 10 businesses with a 3.5 minute pitch are:

1. Connnectera (Agtech) – Building an artificial intelligence platform that will help grow food sustainably. Ida, its intelligent dairy farming assistant, helps dairy farmers run the worlds’ most efficient dairy farms.
2. Trapview (Agtech) – An automated pest monitoring and forecasting platform, which enables daily and reliable collection of pest monitoring data. Trapview’s AI-based pest insect dynamics forecast optimises crop protection activities and makes farming operations 10 per cent more profitable.
3. ViroVet (Agtech) – Dedicated to the development of disruptive and innovative technologies for the control of viral diseases in livestock.
4. Ubiqutek / Rootwave (Agtech) – Pioneering the use of electricity to kill weeds and offer a scalable and sustainable alternative to herbicides.
5. Mimica Lab (Food Tech)– Creating accessible, affordable freshness indicators for all types of perishable products, from food to pharmaceuticals, Mimica aims to become the globally recognised mark of freshness for industry, consumers and communities.
6. Easilys (Food Tech) – An SaaS software editor for back office and waste management solution for restaurant and foodservice activities.
7. SwissDeCode (Food Tech) – Its DNAFoil line is the world’s first portable, completely self-administered, on-site DNA detection kit, allowing staff to confirm product integrity in 30 minutes without lab delays.
8. TIPA (Food Tech) – Fully compostable flexible packaging solutions that will fully return back to nature in compost conditions within 180 days.
9. Yooji (CPG) – Frozen organic baby food in small portions. Low-temp steam-cooking and quick freezing help preserve organoleptic qualities, vitamins and nutrients. Finely minced and steamed-cooked portions offer a melting texture which is adapted to the baby’s age.
10. Creative Nature (CPG) – The creator of a wide range of invigorating raw superfoods and ‘free-from’ snacks, based on healthy ingredients with functional benefits.

The 10 businesses with a 1.5 minute pitch are:

1. BeeHero (Agtech) – On a mission to improve crop pollination by saving and empowering bees. Its technology allows commercial beekeepers to keep their colonies stronger and farmers to increase their yields dramatically.
2. Earth Rover (Agtech) – The first operating system that will make robotics work for farmers by leveraging best-in-class technologies to deliver working applications that cut farmers’ production costs.
3. EggXYt (Agtech) – Makes it possible for farmers to count their chickens before they hatch by using a biomarker on the male chromosome of a chicken embryo, making its sex detectable once an egg is laid. EggXYt is saving billions of dollars and unnecessary chick-death.
4. InnovoPro (Food Tech) – Maker of a unique, clean label, non-allergenic Chickpea protein, CP Pro70, for use in bakery, dairy and savoury products.
5. Provenance (Food Tech) – Empowers brands to increase trust, using revolutionary technology for greater supply chain transparency.
6. OddBox (Food Tech) – London’s first and only ‘wonky veg’ box scheme that fights food waste on farms by sourcing slightly imperfect produce, for a fair price directly from farms, delivering them straight to customers for 30 percent cheaper than similar box services.
7. SafetyNet Technologies (Food Tech) – Works with fishing industry stakeholders to design and build light-emitting devices that increase the selectivity of commercial fishing practices, reducing over-fishing and bycatch and making the industry more sustainable.
8. Biokind (CPG) – Producer of sustainable protein feed for aquaculture, livestock and pets.
9. Garcon Wines (CPG) – Flat wine bottles made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled PET and modelled on the traditional shapes, but the improved design makes them remarkably more efficient & eco-friendly for delivery, logistics, storage and retailing.
10. Sea Chips (CPG) – Upcycles often-wasted nutrient packed salmon skin into handcrafted crisps and donates 10 percent of profits to ocean charities to help keep the sea clean.