25-26 May we launched with four other partners F&A Next. F&A Next is the first European Platform for startups and investors active in Food and Agriculture, that aims to support startups with funding capital. In total over 150 startups, 100 investors and 200 other visitors joined the 2-day event.
The first day started with a pitching competition of 20 featured startups. N-Chroma, a Wageningen startup and Phenospex won the F&A Next competition.
N-CHROMA Wageningen startup
N-Chroma‘s Constantinos Patinios team won the early-stage startup pitching competition. His company uses biotechnological methods to develop and produce natural colors for usage in food, textile and cosmetics. N-Chroma participated in the competition to attract attention from food companies as they identified this sector as their main target market. Aside from this, an investment of 500.000€ is needed.
Contantinos Patinios, PhD student at Wageningen University: “We don’t have very specific plans yet, but we have spoken to 3 or 4 people and we are curious what these investors can do for us!”
Phenospex
Phenospex, represented by Gregoire Hummel, won the later-stage part of the competition. His startup develops and markets sensors and analysis software to assess and analyze plant performance for agriculture. They aim to be a world leader in plant analysis and automate processes related to plant screening and agriculture. They hope to close an investment deal within the next 4-6 months.
Gregoire Hummel: “We came to present our idea and to meet investors, but now that we won, we are surprised and super happy for the guys at home, they will be happy that people like our ideas and our products.”
Prize
N-Chroma and Phenospex will pitch again today, among several later stage scale-ups who will present their pitches. Additionally they will get a chance to pitch at FoodBytes! in Boulder, USA in October. Their trip is sponsored by Rabobank, co-organiser and sponsor of FoodBytes!
About the F&A Next pitching competition
20 promising, pre-selected F&A Startups took the stage to convince a jury of investors. Their innovative ideas in food and agriculture technology ranged from technology to isolate soluble leaf protein to vertical farms and tractor navigation apps. They had to make a strong first impression in only 1 minute, after which 8 of them were selected to extend their pitch to a 5-minute pitch and 5-minute Q&A with the Jury.
F&A next initiators
We initiated F&A Next together with Food Valley NL, Rabobank, Anterra Capital, StartLife and Wageningen UR.