The European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Food has awarded three disruptive start-up companies for developing food-related innovations that promise to help tackle global food challenges. The winners of EIT’s 2018 Food Accelerator Network Program are Agri Marketplace, Jet-Eat and Wisefood which have each been given an equity-free cash prize of €60,000 (US$68,348). The winners were announced earlier this week at the EIT Food Venture Summit in Paris.

Portugal-based Agri Marketplace is a global digital platform that directly connects farmers and agro-industrial customers. It is a business-to-business marketplace between farmers and retailers, created to raise prospects for farmers and value to the food supply chain. 

Israel-based start-up Jet-Eat offers proprietary technology software and formulations that print fresh meat. The company claims that printed food will “shape our world for the better in the coming decades,” and that Jet-Eat is working on making healthy, sustainable, exciting and tasty printed food a reality. 

Wisefood is a German-based company that has created the worlds first edible straw made of apple pomace which offers a more sustainable and ecological alternative to plastic. 

The ten finalists were seleced from a group of 41 agrifood technology start-ups involved in the 2018 EIT Food Accelerator Network (EIT FAN) Program. Over a four-month acceleration period, these start-ups have had access to tools, connections, mentors and expertise to help them succeed.

EIT Food is Europe’s leading food innovation initiative, with the aim to create a sustainable and future-proof food sector. It is made up of a consortium of key industry players, start-ups, research centers and universities from across Europe. 

MassChallenge Switzerland, part of MassChallenge’s global network of zero-equity start-up accelerators, partnered with EIT and introduced a food-tech track in its 2018 cohort. Held in Switzerland, Germany and Israel, the EIT Food Accelerator Network aims to make Europe the go-to innovation hub for the world’s most promising agri-food start-ups.

“Many congratulations to our winners from our EIT Food Accelerator Network Program. The ideas of these start-ups is to help tackle global food challenges and address the gap between innovation and the realization of genuine business opportunities,” says Benoit Buntinx, Director of Business Creation for EIT Food.

“It has been a pleasure collaborating with the 41 agrifood start-ups over the last months and seeing first-hand the disruptive ideas they are working on.”

“The Food Venture Summit is not only about celebrating these great projects, but also about bridging the gap between early ventures and established players in food technologies and agriculture,” adds Thierry Duvanel, Managing Director of MassChallenge Switzerland.

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