Biological approaches to treat aquatic pests and diseases or an aerial scout in the greenhouse: just two examples of the seven promising food & agtech startups selected to participate in the StartLife Accelerate Fall 2019 Program.

From the fifty early-stage food and agtech startups who showed interest in the program, the review committee had the challenging task to select the most promising. Loet Rammelsberg, Program Director at StartLife, says: “It was a very intensive selection, the next step is to help these passionate entrepreneurs validate their solution in the market and get them ready to raise funding from investors.” See video below to get an impression.

Participants of the accelerate program are evaluated on their product and technology, market potential and their team. The program is only open for innovative food & agtech startups. For the fall cohort, fifteen startups were invited to the selection day and seven startups finally made it into the program.

International cohort of startups

The following seven Food & Agtech startups were selected for the StartLife Accelerate Fall 2019 program.

  • Corvus Drones: The aerial scout in greenhouse horticulture.
  • CubeX: Modular easy to ship organic waste treatment solutions.
  • Evja: Micro-climate monitoring supporting open-field farmers.
  • Sundew: Biological approaches to treating aquatic pests and diseases.
  • Zymoptiq: Simplifying enzymatic activity measurements.
  • Viroteq: Adding AI-based intelligence to increase the flexibility of robotics.
  • Next Generation Sensors: Brings the lab to the farm via a portable mass spectrometer.

This third edition of the StartLife Accelerate program  entails the most international cohort thus far. Aside from Dutch startups, the cohort includes startups from France, Denmark, Italy and Lebanon.

Wageningen University & Research (WUR)

The close connection with WUR remains one of the most important reasons for startups to apply for the program, according to Rammelsberg. “We connect startups to leading researchers in their field, link them to ambitious student teams and enable them to make use of advanced research equipment through Shared Resource Facilities. This really helps startups to get the necessary scientific validation for the further development of their company.”

Successful alumni from earlier editions include Sponsh, Zero Foodwaste and Fumi Ingredients. These organizations were also selected for the Rabobank Sustainable Innovation Prize.