8 start-ups from around the world join ProVeg Incubator foodtech accelerator programme

Eight innovative start-ups from around the world have joined ProVeg incubator programme.

Hailing from Japan, Estonia, India, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Israel, all the start-ups specialise in emerging food technologies and innovative and unique ingredients for the alternative-protein sector, including milk made from sprouted millets – a world’s first -, a functional protein extracted from mung bean, mycoprotein-based chicken and fish, and a lipid made from oleaginous yeast for use by the alt-dairy industry.

Berlin-based ProVeg Incubator was launched in November 2018. The Incubator mentors start-ups active in the alternative protein and plant-based sector, giving them tools and helping them to make contacts and secure investment, grow their businesses, and launch their products commercially.
ProVeg Incubator has already worked with 55 start-ups from all over the world. The start-ups have collectively raised more than €100 million and are sold in over 15,000 stores.

The latest round of the Incubator scheme kicked off on Monday (20.09.2021) and will run for 12 weeks. The eight start-ups taking part will receive one-on-one mentoring, access to the Incubator’s large networks of industry contacts, and up to €250,000 in funding and in-kind services.

The start-ups taking part in this round are:

• Altein Ingredients (India) is developing a functional mung-bean protein that aims to be the nucleus of plant-powered food. The resulting ingredient can be used to create soya-free, animal-free, and gluten-free plant-based products.
  
• Meet Future (Estonia) is a food-tech company developing the next generation of mycoprotein-based chicken and fish alternatives.
  
• Plant-based Japan (Japan) uses unique Japanese ingredients to develop plant-based egg and meat alternatives.
  
• Cultivated Biosciences (Netherlands) uses fermentation to develop a fat ingredient from oleaginous yeast, to add creaminess in plant-based dairy products.
  
• ProProtein (Estonia) is developing a scalable precision-fermentation technology for producing dairy proteins from yeast, without the need for cattle farming.
  
• Genesea (Israel) is a B2B food-ingredients company producing protein isolates and other ingredients developed from offshore-grown marine macroalgae.
  
• Alt Foods (India) is developing the world’s first plant-based milk made from a unique mix of grains and sprouted millets.
  
• Brain Foods (Bulgaria) produces and sells healthy, sweet-and-savoury plant-based snacks that nourish both mind and body.

Albrecht Wolfmeyer, Head of the ProVeg Incubator, said: “With its seventh cohort, the ProVeg Incubator once again brings together outstanding talent and innovative power in food-tech from all over the world. These startups all share ProVeg’s mission: to take animals out of the food equation and make our food system more sustainable.

“These eight promising start-ups are working on a new generation of functional ingredients and foods, using scalable technology –  particularly fermentation – that will take the transformation of the food industry to the next level. Globally, there is a fast-growing demand for better and more accessible plant-based products. Our startups are addressing these demands with solutions for both the industry and consumers.”

Start-ups interested in joining a future cohort at the ProVeg Incubator can apply online.