Agri-food “disrupters”: Winning start-ups of EIT Food Accelerator Network revealed

14 Nov 2019 --- The European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Food has announced the winners of its 2019 EIT Food Accelerator Network Program: Orbem AI, uFraction8 and Trigger Systems. The finalists were invited to compete for three awards, consisting of financial support worth €100,000 (US$110,000) each.

Germany-based Orbem AI has developed a patented artificial intelligence (Al) technology for the poultry industry to “revolutionize” food production. UK-based uFraction8 is helping bio manufacturers to de-water and concentrate biomass using technology to build sustainable and scalable systems. Portugal-based Trigger Systems provides a web platform to control several systems for the automatic and efficient management of water and energy.

The twelve finalists were selected from a group of 52 agri-food technology start-ups involved in the 2019 EIT Food Accelerator Network (EIT FAN) Program. Over a four-month acceleration period, the start-ups had access to tools, connections, mentors and expertise.

Held in Switzerland, Germany and Israel, the EIT FAN aims to make Europe the go-to innovation hub for the world’s most promising agri-food start-ups.

The winners of the 2019 EIT Food Accelerator Network Program received their awards at The Venture Summit in Lisbon, EIT Food’s annual event that brings together Europe’s best agri-food start-ups, investors and key figures from across the agri-food system.

“The ideas of these start-ups are helping to tackle global food challenges and address the gap between innovation and the realization of genuine business opportunities. It has been a pleasure collaborating with the 52 agri-food startups over the last months and seeing first-hand the disruptive ideas they are working on,” Benoit Buntinx, Director of Business Creation for EIT Food.

Edited by Gaynor Selby