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The Bank announces three winners and three finalists of the AgVenture start-up competition -
Awards include grants, mentorships, and networking and exposure opportunities. -
Start-up competition to improve the growth and competitiveness of food technologies
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has revealed the winners and finalists of EBRD AgVenture, its food technology innovation competition for start-ups. The announcement was made today at Summit on consumption rules in Zagreb. The winners were start-ups Kumulus, SteakAnd Smapp laboratory.
Kumulus is a Tunisian company that produces and operates machines that reproduce the phenomenon of dew, thus producing fresh water in a sustainable manner. Biftek is a Turkish producer of growth supplements reducing the cost of lab-grown meat. Smapp Lab is a Hungarian insect monitoring platform that helps farmers optimize pesticide use.
Two of the finalists come from Bulgaria: Cup feewhich produces edible cups to reduce waste, and Ondo, specializing in automation systems for agriculture. The third runner-up is a Tunisian start-up Seabex. It provides farmers with artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions to improve irrigation and conserve water.
Start-ups presented to experts, including Micol Chiesa Churchill, partner and head of climate science at Planet Fund; Jan Kobler, managing partner at South Central Ventures; Daniel Kamsu, Director of Business Development at Fresh Start FoodTech Incubator; and Andrew Ive, managing partner at Big Idea Ventures.
EBRD experts included Ervin Luga, head of the venture capital investment programme; Wojtek Boniaszcuzuk, regional manager for Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey, agribusiness; Jelena Erker, associate director of agribusiness; and Nemanja Grgic from the Bank’s agribusiness advisory service.
Winners were selected based on various criteria, including relevance to the problem the companies are trying to solve; product/service differentiation; their go-to-market strategy; progress and traction; team experience and funding.
The winning start-ups will benefit from tailor-made advisory support worth up to €80,000 via the Star Venture Program and a grant of €10,000 for additional services, as well as networking opportunities and visibility in international forums. Finalists will receive up to €50,000 for tailored advice and an additional grant of €10,000.
EBRD AgVenture supports innovative start-up agri-food businesses and aims to address major issues facing food systems, such as food production efficiency, climate change and the inclusion of target groups and small businesses in chains of global value.
As the world’s population is expected to increase from around 7 billion in 2012 to 9.6 billion in 2050, food safety is now the urgent global challenge. Additionally, climate change negatively impacts all activities along the food chain. The EBRD addresses these issues by promoting the development of innovative products, services and technologies to make the agri-food sector more sustainable, efficient and inclusive.
Since 1991, the EBRD has invested more than €180 billion in more than 6,500 projects on three continents to foster the transition to open market economies and promote private and entrepreneurial initiative.
