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By: Michael Proman, Managing Director, Scrum Ventures
Original Article was posted on Medium
Back in September, we kicked off Food Tech Studio — Bites!, a virtual program focused on bringing much-needed change to the food sector through advanced technologies from innovative food startups around the world. The program was founded to bring food entrepreneurs to the front lines and connect them with leading corporations and industry thought-leaders, helping them realize top-line growth opportunities in Japan, the U.S. and around the world.
The launch of Food Tech Studio — Bites! came at an appropriate time for global action, as many people and communities across the globe battle with food insecurity and malnutrition due to COVID-19’s supply chain shortages, and face the threat of mass-produced animal meats on the environment due to greenhouse gas emissions and the effects of deforestation.
To combat these challenges, we founded the program on the belief that we must dramatically reshape the future of food for the betterment of both our planet and people. Since announcing the studio, we’ve been hard at work identifying the companies that offer new technologies in the food sector that can reduce our carbon footprint and eliminate world hunger and waste. Over the last three months, we have received hundreds of applications from startups with this shared vision that span across 24 different countries.
With less than a month left until the final selection process, we are pleased to share that today we’ve announced the first initial 20 startups that will be a part of the program. The initial startups reflect a broad range of categories in the food tech sector including wellness & health, next-gen foods & functional foods, supply chain and logistics, at home & consumer focused technologies and sustainability.
Early accepted startups:
myAir (Israel)
CANEAT (Japan)
Allergy Amulet (USA)
MiL (Japan)
Sun Coast Naturals (US)
Turtle Tree Labs (Singapore)
Kuleana (US)
COMP (Japan)
New Age Meats (US)
Ukko (US)
Rebound Technologies (US)
Kiwibot (US)
Gifmo (Japan)
FoodCode (Japan)
Drop Kitchen / Adaptics Inc. (Ireland)
MoBiol Holdings Pte Ltd (Singapore)
Mi Terro (US)
Flourring LLC (US)
Novel Farms, Inc. (US)
Exawizards (Japan)
We are also excited to announce that we have expanded our partners with the addition of Fujicco, Tokyo Gas, House Foods and Kagome to our Leadership Circle.
For more about the partners:
Fujicco Co., Ltd: with a vision to make everyone healthy and happy, Fujicco strives to create a sustainable society. Its business completely depends on natural food products such as kombu and beans, and the company has achieved health, tastiness, food safety and reliability through their quality ingredients and technological development.
Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd: as Japan’s largest provider of city gas, serving more than 11 million customers for over 130 years, Tokyo Gas works to respond to the needs of customers, society, and the next age while working to contribute to the realization of a prosperous, fulfilling way of life, and an environment-friendly society.
House Foods Corporation: with sustainability top of mind, House Foods provides the widest range of the fresh tofu products at affordable prices. With more than thirty years of service, the company shares its vision of healthy eating through a variety of convenient products made from high quality ingredients.
Kagome Co., Ltd: as a Japanese manufacturer and distributor of tomato-based foods, and fruit and vegetable juices, Kagome is working consistently to contribute to the wellbeing and longevity of people around the world.
We are honored to announce this initial selection of best in class startups and partner with such iconic Japanese corporations to discover the next innovators of our food future. Over the next month, we will work closely with all our partners on the final selection process that will bring better and more efficient processes within the food development ecosystem. We are confident that today’s newest additions will be a foundational ingredient to a recipe of success — and we are excited to announce more news to come in the future!