UK start-up Erbology has received the final €100,000 grant in PepsiCo’s Nutrition Greenhouse incubator programme.
The company, which offers nutrient-rich, plant-based products, such as oils, shots, crackers and energy balls, achieved more than 400% growth during the six-month initiative.
Erbology was one of eight breakthrough nutrition food and drink companies chosen in June this year to participate in the Nutrition Greenhouse.
For the past six months the companies worked closely with PepsiCo employees to tackle the key business challenges they faced, such as distribution, marketing or supply chain.
Each company also received a €25,000 grant at the start of the programme to help them grow.
Since being selected, all eight companies have seen impressive strategic expansion, brand evolution and revenue growth, according to PepsiCo. Overall retail sales of the collective group grew by nearly €10.7 million.
The brand incubator finalists in full:
Following a review carried out by a nine-member selection committee, Erbology was chosen as the recipient of the final grant as the company demonstrated “stand-out sustainable and scalable growth”.
Announcing the winner, Juan Ignacio Amat, vice president of nutrition for PepsiCo Western Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, said: “We launched the Nutrition Greenhouse to partner with the best and the brightest entrepreneurs in the food and beverage nutrition space.
“Our goal was to work with breakthrough brands that share our vision to deliver more convenient great tasting everyday nutrition products and we’ve achieved just that with these eight stand-out companies.
“It was a very hard decision to choose only one to receive the final €100,000 grant but my sincere congratulations go to Irina and Victor Turcan of Erbology.
“Their enthusiasm, drive and collaboration during the Nutrition Greenhouse programme have been exceptional and that shows in the results they have achieved.”
Founded in London in 2015 by siblings Irina and Victor Turcan, Erbology aims to inspire people to embrace a balanced way of living and the company turns powerful plants that complement each other into wholesome foods, drinks, oils and recipe ingredients for everyday eating.
Erbology founder Irina Turcan said: “We’re honoured to receive the final €100,000 PepsiCo Nutrition Greenhouse grant. We’ve achieved a great deal in the last six months working with our PepsiCo mentor to best utlise our initial €25,000 grant and the injection of a further €100,000 into our business is going to make a huge difference as we focus on accelerated growth in retail and e-commerce.
“Thanks to everyone involved in this programme – it’s been a fantastic experience that’s really helped us understand how to focus hard on what is right for our brand and then to execute that activity flawlessly.”
Erbology used the initial €25,000 grant and access to PepsiCo’s experts to help realise its vision of making plant ingredients more accessible. It also worked to create a new range of products, including energy balls and crackers, introducing 11 new launches, some of which have been listed on Ocado.
PepsiCo said the initiative is part of the company’s commitment to innovation and to collaborate with the entrepreneurs and innovators who are helping to shape the food and beverage industry.
In September, Chobani announced the second round of start-ups to take part in its incubator programme, which was unveiled last year as a means of encouraging new brands to “challenge big food companies”.
Earlier in the year Fonterra unveiled a new online platform which encourages people to submit ideas for innovative ideas and new ways of doing business.
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