Forward Fooding, a consulting firm that specialises in food technology start-ups, has announced the list of finalists for its FoodTech 500 list that recognises companies working in the fields of food, technology, and sustainability. As per a blog on Forward Fooding’s website, FoodTech 500 aims to “develop a definitive list of the top 500 companies shaping the future of food.”
The list showcases innovations from AgriFoodTech companies across the globe, and this year the list is more comprehensive than what it was 2019. Forward Fooding received 2,052 applicants from over 60 countries, including India. Udaipur-based GoodDot has made it to the final list. GoodDot specialises in mock meat that is made using grains and plant proteins. Some of the other vegan and plant-based brands that have made it to the list include Remilk, The Live Green Co., Karana, Nova Meat, Earthly, etc.
The AgriFoodTech startup ecosystem has been growing consistently over the past few years, and seems to have picked up pace post-pandemic, driven mainly by the global concern towards controlling the spread of zoonotic diseases in the future. Forward Fooding stated on its website, “It is our ambition that the FoodTech 500 becomes the Fortune 500 of AgriFoodTech, a list of top innovators and disruptors in the industry and also the go-to leaders of this emergent and ever-evolving sector.”
“The methodology for the 2020 FoodTech 500 blends human vetting with tech-powered data crunching to deliver the FoodTech 500 list. To create the FoodTech 500 2020, each company must first be manually validated. From these 500 finalists, we then let technology take the lead; the data from each application is processed using the FoodTech Data Navigator’s unique algorithm, and then used to calculate a business size score as well as a digital footprint score. The sustainability score, on the other hand, has been derived from a bespoke model. This is based on a set of questions around the United Nations SDGs, and also a few other data points.”
