FoodTech Junkies

The food industry faces extraordinary challenges, and solving them is a Herculean task. For every entrepreneur that successfully navigates these choppy waters, hundreds of others struggle to stay afloat. And while every company faces a unique journey, there are some universal guidelines and rules that apply. The first one? Find a great mentor. In this episode of FoodTech Junkies, we set sail with The Kitchen FoodTech Hub's VP of Business Development Amir Zaidman for an honest and wide-ranging talk about the inner workings of success. About Amir Zaidman Amir brings to The Kitchen more than a decade of business development experience in prominent early-stage investment organizations, including a VC fund and technology incubators. Prior to that, he held executive marketing & operations positions in the high-tech sector. Amir is a certified accountant (Israel) and a member of the Israeli Bar Association. He also holds an MBA from the executive program in the Hebrew University. About The Kitchen FoodTech Hub Founded in 2015 by the Strauss-Group as a part of the Israeli Innovation Authority incubators' program, The Kitchen is Israel's only FoodTech focused incubator. The Kitchen addresses global food challenges by harnessing Israel’s renowned innovation eco-system. We strive to make the world’s food chain more productive, affordable, sustainable and healthy by investing in and nurturing cutting-edge technology startups. In addition to a capital investment, the incubator provides the portfolio companies with benefits such as: close mentorship from the incubator's team; access to expertise and know-how from within the Strauss-Group and its partners; connections with global F&B companies and access to international investors. Our vision is: Better Industry; Better Food; Better World We believe that technological innovation can overcome the challenges of the food industry and are teaming up with the best FoodTech entrepreneurs to turn our vision into a reality. More on http://www.TheKitchenHub.com/

How can we sow the seed for the future of food experiences? How can we make health go hand in hand with sustainability and taste? In this episode of FoodTech Junkies, we are joined by Alexandre Bastos, Head of Front End Innovation at Givaudan, a company that is rethinking the future of food through disruptive innovation. We talk about this and more.  About Alexandre Bastos Alexandre Bastos’ role leading the Front End Innovation programme at the flavours division of Givaudan, is to explore emerging food technologies, business models and adjacent spaces, while bringing new opportunities by connecting with start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovation thought leaders that are disrupting the food and agriculture ecosystem. Alexandre is an active leader in the Givaudan journey to drive a more collaborative and inclusive working model to deliver innovation. From innovation in taste science and technology to innovation in AgTech such as vertical farming, Givaudan knows what innovation in its broadest sense means. “Our view on innovation is holistic and broad, but we are always focusing on the product, solutions, technology and experience we deliver to our customers,” states Alexandre. About Givaudan Givaudan is a global leading company in taste and wellbeing, and fragrance and beauty. With its heritage stretching back over 250 years, the Company has a long history of innovating scents and tastes. From a favourite drink to your daily meal, from prestige perfumes to cosmetics and laundry care, its creations inspire emotions and delight millions of consumers the world over. The Company is committed to driving purpose-led, long-term growth while leading the way to improve happiness and health for people and nature. In the fiscal year 2020, the Company employed almost 16,000 people worldwide and achieved sales of CHF 6.3 billion and a free cash flow of 12.8% of sales. Let’s imagine together on www.givaudan.com.

In this episode of FoodTech Junkies, we interview Detroit Dirt/Culture of Carbon founder and FAO Food Hero, Pashon Murray. We’ll talk about her mission to create a zero-waste mindset throughout communities, drive forward a low-carbon economy and educate the world about giving back to the planet. About Pashon Murray Pashon Murray is a United Nations FAO Food Hero, entrepreneur, activist, and educator. She has been working towards sustainable solutions for 17 years. In 2010 she co-founded Detroit Dirt, a revolutionary compost company that provides organics diversion and food waste to resource solutions. Pashon began receiving national recognition and featured in Ads for Ford, Shinola, Pabst, and MasterCard, she also has been in magazines such as Forbes, Food & Wine, Vogue, Entrepreneurs, Newsweek named the former MIT Media Lab Fellow "13 Women in Business To Bet On" About Detroit Dirt  Detroit Dirt is the leading model of organic waste recovery and reuse. We recycle resources to increase awareness and actions leading to a more sustainable community. Our mission is to create a zero-waste mindset throughout communities and drive forward a low-carbon economy. We process food waste, green waste, spent grains, and herbivore manures and make high-quality compost using an aerobic process. About Culture of Carbon Culture of Carbon is an environmental consulting enterprise that specializes in servicing the comprehensive needs of sustainable businesses of today and the future.

Are we entering a golden age for tech entrepreneurship? With so many investment funds ready and willing to finance innovative projects and the startups behind them, the food and ag tech world may be on the verge of truly realizing its transformative potential. So is now the right time to bet on foodtech startups? How can we use this momentum to turn the entire system towards a regenerative and sustainable future? We talk about this and more with Mark Durno, Managing Partner of Rockstart AgriFood. About Mark Durno Mark's goal is to empower agrifood founders to drive the transformation to a regenerative and sustainable future food system. He is Managing Partner of Rockstart’s €22m+ AgriFood Fund, offering early stage startups access to capital, market, expertise and community through a customised program and follow-on investments. Mark is Scottish, based between Copenhagen and Amsterdam. He has a background in conventional/organic agriculture, law, early stage venture and vertical farming, having established some of Europe’s first commercial vertical farms since 2010. Mark is a qualified Scottish lawyer and holds an Executive MBA from Rotterdam School of Management. About Rockstart AgriFood Rockstart AgriFood gives you access to scale your business and helps drive the transformation to a regenerative and sustainable future. We shortcut your financing journey through domain focused mentorship and market introductions, customised content continuing with co-investments up to Series B. Rockstart is a global accelerator-VC empowering purpose-driven founders. Through our €22+ million fund focused on AgriFood startups we are dedicated to finding and investing in top tier founders. We empower early-stage startups going from early market validation to becoming market-leading companies, starting with our accelerator program and continuing with our co-investments.  Rockstart AgriFood is for (pre-)seed stage startups with a focus on agtech and foodtech (agrifood), who can show signs of traction (commercial, academic or other) and aspire to take a structured approach towards scaling the business. Your startup can be pre or post-revenue. Our customized program runs for five months, online and onsite (if local health regulations allow in Copenhagen and Amsterdam).

"Innovation is a human process". Food companies today are subjected to strict scrutiny and face intense competition. They need to adapt to rapidly changing consumer behavior and make sure their products and practices are sustainable. By building an innovation culture and nurturing talent, companies can successfully tackle these challenges as well as turn creativity into business value and growth. In this episode of FoodTech Junkies, we speak to Simplot’s Angeline Achariya about corporate innovation, leadership, and her vision of the future. About Angeline Achariya Angeline is a globally recognized and respected leader in commercializing innovations in global markets, with deep experience in export pathways into Asia markets. Angeline has a career spanning over 20 years of diverse international innovation, leadership experience, international speaker, advisory board and committee roles. Angeline was appointed Executive Director Innovation & Growth in August 2019 and is responsible for creating value across seed to plate opportunities. Angeline is accountable for the Innovation and Growth including new opportunities through Simplot Food Futures. Her previous roles have been in blue chip multinational companies like MasterFoods Japan, Fonterra, Yum! Brands and Mondelez International which as has resulted in more than 1000 innovations launched in grocery retail, foodservice and quick service restaurants. Angeline co-founded a world first food innovation hub in Australia and over its six year journey saw more than 7000 Food and Beverage organisations engage and co-create with the hub. Angeline’s leadership and passion has led to significant impact in supporting the Australian and global food and Agrifood sectors in a strong position to leverage growth through commercialising innovation. Angeline’s qualifications include Graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors, PhD in food systems from University of Melbourne, Graduate Certificate Food Business Management and Bachelor of Food Science (Honours) https://au.linkedin.com/in/angelineachariya Twitter: DrAAAchariya About Simplot Australia Simplot Australia is an agricultural and food manufacturing business, employing over 2,000 people across Australia and New Zealand and operates six manufacturing facilities. We are trusted as a leading provider of quality, sustainable, and nourishing food for the ever-changing needs of consumers and customers in Australia, New Zealand and chosen Asia pacific growth markets.  As a business, we pride ourselves on building long term partnerships with Australian farmers and our supply chain, investing in our people, and building mutually beneficial relationships with our customers. The Simplot Australia story began in 1995 when the J.R. Simplot Company expanded into Australia, acquiring iconic brands like Birds Eye, Leggo's, Chiko and Edgell. Today we are a uniquely diverse business that includes vegetable, seafood and sauce manufacturing operations that supply chilled, frozen and shelf-stable products to retailers and foodservice customers. Whatever the occasion our iconic and loved brands have been an integral part of Australian life for generations. Some of our brands have long histories that reach back more than 100 years.  At Simplot Australia, we' are inspired by our mission of Bringing Earth's Resources to Life, which enables us to deliver on our company purpose and Contribute to Feeding our World.

How are open innovation models evolving?  On FoodTech Junkies' newest episode, we ask Mondelēz SnackFutures' Gil Horsky to share his views on the topic. About Gil Horsky Gil Horsky's passion is investing and developing innovative snacking ventures that are good for people, kind to the planet and deliciously fun! Gil Horsky is part of the founding team for SnackFutures, the venture & innovation hub from Mondelēz International. Gil, and his team in SnackFutures, are on a mission to create a vibrant ecosystem of partners to invent and to make venture investments in the next generation of entrepreneurs and snacks. Throughout his career, Gil Horsky had the privilege to innovate for some of the most iconic global food brands: Milka, Pepsi, Quaker Oats, Toblerone, Cadbury, Oreo, Tropicana & Nestle, and to work across the globe at the: US, Europe and the Middle East. Today he is focusing on identifying and investing in high-growth snacking brands and foodtech capabilities. Gil Horsky is a regular contributor to leading industry journals and a speaker in international conferences about the topics of innovation, FoodTech and corporate venture investments. About Mondelēz International Mondelēz International, Inc. (Nasdaq: MDLZ) empowers people to snack right in over 150 countries around the world. With 2020 net revenues of approximately $27 billion, MDLZ is leading the future of snacking with iconic global and local brands such as OREO, belVita and LU biscuits; Cadbury Dairy Milk, Milka and Toblerone chocolate; Sour Patch Kids candy and Trident gum. Mondelēz International is a member of the Standard and Poor’s 500, Nasdaq 100 and Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Visit www.mondelezinternational.com or follow the company on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MDLZ. About SnackFutures SnackFutures is the Mondelēz International innovation and venture hub, deliberately designed to push boundaries in snacking by capitalizing on consumer trends and emerging growth opportunities in well-being snacks around the world. The group’s priorities support incremental growth against three key strategic areas: invent new brands and businesses, invest in early stage entrepreneurs, and amplify the SnackFutures impact with the CoLab start-up engagement program. Learn more at www.snackfutures.com.

AeroFarms is an indoor vertical farming company and Certified B Corporation that is transforming agriculture by growing flavorful, safe, healthy food all year round in an environmentally sustainable and socially responsible way. In this episode of FoodTech Junkies, we speak with Marc Oshima, Co-Founder and CMO. Together we take a behind-the-scenes look at the latest headlines regarding the company, discuss the impact of next-gen farming practices on communities, and exchange views on the opportunities lying ahead. About AeroFarms Since 2004, AeroFarms, through its holding company, Dream Holdings, Inc., has been leading the way for indoor vertical farming and championing transformational innovation for agriculture. On a mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity, AeroFarms is a Certified B Corporation with global headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, United States. Named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company two years in a row and one of TIME’s Best Inventions, AeroFarms’ patented, award-winning indoor vertical farming technology provides the perfect conditions for healthy plants to thrive, taking agriculture to a new level of precision, food safety and productivity while using up to 95% less water and no pesticides versus traditional field farming. AeroFarms enables local production to safely grow all year round for its commercial retail brand Dream Greens that has peak flavor always®. In addition, AeroFarms has developed multi-year strategic partnerships ranging from government to major Fortune 500 companies to help uniquely solve agriculture supply chain needs. For additional information, visit: https://aerofarms.com/. About Marc Oshima Marc is the Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of AeroFarms. An award-winning marketer with an extensive background in retail, branding, and media, Marc is also passionate about increasing access to healthy food and has led the marketing for major  food retailers. Marc has been recognized by Eating Well magazine as one of the 2018  American Food Heroes. With his B.A. from Columbia College and M.B.A. from Columbia  Business School, Marc is also Board Co-Chair of Chefs Collaborative, a 25 year old non-profit  improving our sustainable food systems, and a member of the United Fresh Produce  Marketing & Merchandising Council.

We've asked Andrew Ive, founder of Big Idea Ventures and pioneer investor, to share his thoughts on the continuous growth of interest towards alternative proteins, and the crossroads we might encounter on the way towards a sustainable protein future. About Andrew Ive Andrew D. Ive, Founder and Managing General Partner, created Big Idea Ventures to solve the world’s biggest challenges by supporting the world’s best entrepreneurs. He has invested in more early-stage / pre-seed companies than any other investor worldwide. Investors in New Protein Fund I include a variety of investors such as Tyson Foods & Temasek. Andrew serves on the Advisory Board for Tufts Nutrition Council, is a Friedman School Entrepreneurship Advisor, previously served on the Small Business Council Board of the Department of Trade and Industry advising the UK Government on entrepreneurship and high growth companies. A Harvard Business School graduate and Procter & Gamble brand management trained. About Big Idea Ventures Big Idea Ventures is a hybrid venture firm. Anchored by major institutional investors including Tyson Foods and Temasek, the New Protein Fund and accelerator, raised over USD$50M to invest in the best early-stage companies in the plant-based foods and alternative protein ecosystem. Generation Food Fund (USD$250M) aims to help later-stage startups tackle sustainability in the supply chain by reducing CO2, waste and plastics. The program runs in New York, Singapore and Paris and their website is www.bigideaventures.com