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Meet the finalists of the 2022 Startup Innovation Challenge

The finalists of this year’s Startup Innovation Challenge have been announced. Find out which game-changing companies were selected for their innovative ingredients, technologies, and services. Winners will be announced on 6 December at Fi Europe.

Niamh Michail, Head of publishing

November 17, 2022

3 Min Read
Meet the finalists of the 2022 Startup Innovation Challenge
© Fi Global Insights

The Fi Global Startup Innovation Challenge, held at Europe’s biggest annual food ingredient trade show, Fi Europe, is a unique opportunity for startups to present their solutions to the food industry.

Each year, the Challenge shines a spotlight on agile companies breaking new ground in the food industry. In 2022, more companies than ever before applied to the Challenge and judges were impressed by the quality of submissions, which made picking finalists a difficult process.

All finalists – a total of 19 startups across four categories – will pitch before the panel of judges and winners will be announced on 6 December at Fi Europe.

The finalists of the 2022 Startup Innovation Challenge are:

Most Innovative Food or Beverage Ingredient

MeliBio

MeliBio provides a solution for honey that’s just as delicious and nutritious as the one that bees make, only without the negative impacts of factory farming bees and overbreeding a single bee species.

Resugar

Resugar offers the first all-natural, 100% sugar-like substitute that perfectly replicates the taste and properties of sugar while eliminating its harmful effects – all without the use of any sweeteners.

Maolac

Maolac uses tools of bioinformatics and computational biology to produce dedicated target-protein formulas with a wide range of health capabilities as a basis for preventive nutrition.

Cano-ela

Cano-ela aims to remove refined ingredients from the food supply chain by processing oil-rich seeds in an innovative way, helping food companies and plant-based food producers achieve a cleaner label.

Kern Tec

Kern Tec develops a set of proprietary processes to turn discarded fruit pits into valuable ingredients for the food and beverage industry, such as oils, protein powders, and even dairy alternatives.

Most Innovative Plant-Based or Alternative Ingredient

Cultivated Biosciences

Cultivated Biosciences provides naturally produced creamy fat obtained from the fermentation of non-genetically modified organism (non-GMO) oleaginous yeast.

Cultimate Foods

Cultimate Foods creates an alternative cell-based fat ingredient for plant-based meat products, which replicates the structure of animal fat tissue.

Brevel

Brevel develops microalgae protein, which is both colour and flavour neutral, available at cost levels comparable to pea and soy, and with a high nutritional profile.

Colipi

Colipi turns CO2 into CO2-light oils and proteins through a biotech platform that utilizes bacteria and yeasts.

Nutropy

Nutropy develops alternative cheesemaking ingredient solutions that are used to produce cheeses just as tasty as conventional cheese, but more sustainable and better for our health and animal welfare.

Most Innovative Processing Technology

Veloz Bio

Veloz Bio develops a transient expression platform through post-harvest second and third quality (unripe) fruits, using their metabolism to produce a recombinant protein.

Vanilla Vida

Vanilla Vida grows and delivers top-quality, tailor-made vanilla beans that perfectly meet the market’s demand and business needs, ensuring a stable supply chain and maximum flavour.

mk2 Biotechnologies

mk2 Biotechnologies develops highly efficient production processes for growth factors and cytokines, which are the key for success of the cultured meat industry.

Onego Bio

Onego Bio creates an animal-free egg white protein, which maintains all the functional benefits of eggs, including foaming, gelling, binding, and leavening properties.

Gaia Tech

Gaia Tech develops solutions to recover irrigation water from olive production waste and extract valuable ingredients for food and cosmetics manufacturers.

Most Innovative Service, Technology or Digital Solution Supporting the food and beverage industry

Capsoil FoodTech

Capsoil FoodTech provides technology that converts oils and oil solubles into a water-soluble powder, allowing brands in the F&B segment to easily use oils in their products.

Ai Palette

Ai Palette helps F&B ingredients brands create their next best-selling product thanks to the analytics SaaS platform that allows companies to spot trends and predict their trajectory in real time.

Bio2Coat

Bio2Coat creates a 100% natural, edible coating that extends the shelf-life of food products, keeping them fresh for longer without impacting their organoleptic characteristics.

Seppure

Seppure enables more sustainable separation processes in food ingredients manufacturing, significantly cutting energy consumption, carbon emissions, and operation costs.

Meet the finalists of the 2022 Startup Innovation Challenge

Read more about:

Fi Startup Challenge

About the Author

Niamh Michail

Head of publishing , Informa Markets

Niamh Michail has been writing about the agri-food and nutraceutical industries since 2015, covering topics such as food policy, nutrition science, sustainable sourcing, processing technology, and ingredient development. Former section editor of FoodNavigator (Europe) and editor of FoodNavigator-Latam, she joined Informa in 2022 where she is currently head of publishing.

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