The aim is to support start-ups which offer solutions that deliver safe, affordable, nutritious and delicious food that, if scaled globally, will contribute to feeding 10 billion people by 2050.

Through this new partnership, Givaudan and Bühler they aim to intensify access to knowledge, capabilities and global platforms for food start-ups, by hosting and mentoring entrepreneurs at their respective, newly-opened innovation centres in Switzerland. 

By offering their expertise in complementary areas, Givaudan and Bühler hope to provide all the support a start-up needs to scale-up and commercialise disruptive new solutions.

“As part of our strategy of collaborative innovation, we are delighted to partner with Bühler to help food start-ups succeed in bringing to market solutions that address our global food challenges. Our brand new Zurich Innovation Centre provides the perfect environment for outstanding start-ups to collaborate and access Givaudan’s world leading technology, expertise and capabilities,” said Givaudan’s Head of Flavours Science & Technology, Fabio Campanile.

Of particular interest are solutions in the fields of alternative proteins, sustainable animal feed, food safety, food fraud, authenticity, natural ingredients for food applications (colours, preservatives), flavours, nutrition (particularly fibre, sugar, fat and salt reduction), ingredients with proven health and nutrition benefits, and gentle processing.

Bühler’s Chief Technology Officer, Ian Roberts, said: “Our recently inaugurated innovation campus, the CUBIC, with collaboration spaces, laboratories and technology and scale-up facilities complements the new Givaudan facility. With our global presence, sales networks, digital platforms and brand strength we are convinced that, together, we can offer an unrivalled scale up partnership for start-ups. We consider that Switzerland can be a global leader in the food and agricultural space and we see this latest collaboration as an example of how we can achieve this.”

This is the latest in a series of collaborations between the two Swiss companies. Givaudan and Bühler are also both founding members of MassChallenge Switzerland, the start-up accelerator in Renens, partners in the EIT Food Accelerator Network and, with EPFL, ETHZ and Nestlé, partners in the Future Food Initiative.