Ten agrifood and food-tech start-ups have been selected to join the four-month accelerator programme established by VTT, Valio and the University of Helsinki.
Part of the EIT Food Accelerator Network (FAN), the Helsinki-based FAN Nordic Hub accelerator programme will support the development of innovative start-ups which aim to create a more sustainable food system.
Ten teams were selected to join FAN Nordic Hub from a total of 81 applicants. Six finalists are based in Finland and four are from Sweden.
The selected start-ups in full:
Paolo Borella, the programme manager of FAN Nordic Hub, said: “We were impressed by the high level of ideas and skills of the applicants, and we look forward to working with the selected teams.
“There is a good mix of different types of business ideas, which all correspond extremely well to the most interesting and sustainable trends in the food industry. Half of the startups work with alternative protein sources, each one of them from their own angle. The rest tackle challenges in farming, product development, retail and storage.”
Soila Kananen, innovation manager of Valio, added: “Research and product development have been important to us ever since the Noble prize winner A.I. Virtanen led the Valio laboratory.
“We want to share our experience with startups and learn new things ourselves at the same time. Some of the things we will work on with the teams are: corporate cooperation, food trends and sustainability of the food chain. We hope to see new European stars in food competence to take off from the programme.”
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