Global food and agriculture bank, Rabobank has announced the list of 15 food and agriculture startup finalists who will now make the pitch at the FoodBytes! Pitch 2020 virtual competition. Amongst the finalists is Mumbai-based startup Evo Foods, a clean protein company that’s recreating the most popular foods with plants, starting with Asia’s first plant-based liquid egg replica.
Started by Kartik Dixit and Shraddha Bhansali in 2019, Evo Foods aims to disrupt the Indian market with its plant-based liquid egg. The start up has used food technology to create a replica of eggs using lentils, sans cholesterol and cruelty. Ever since its launch, the company has been successful in raising capital from Wild Earth’s Ryan Bethencourt and VegInvest. If Evo Foods emerges as one of the winners in the pitch contest, it will receive $10,000 to support their business growth, as well as consulting services from FoodBytes! Pitch member companies.
Besides Evo Foods, other finalists are Agricycle Global, Planeteer, Pleese Foods, Wheyward Spirit, Alchemy Foodtech, Envara Health, Mi Terro, NanoGuard Technologies, NovoNutrients, BPS Agriculture, Farmforce, Mazen Animal Health, ProAgni, and SWAN Systems.
The finalists advancing to the final stage of the FoodBytes! Pitch program will participate in a one-day mentorship bootcamp, followed by the livestreamed public pitch competition. In addition, finalists will gain exposure to more than 300 of Rabobank’s corporate food and agribusiness clients who will attend the virtual competition as part of Rabobank’s annual Food & Agribusiness Summit. The competition will culminate in the naming of three FoodBytes! Pitch 2020 winners, who represent the most promising company in each sector: CPG, Food tech and Agtech.
The finalists were chosen as top innovators from the cohort of 45 startups participating in FoodBytes! Pitch 2020, Rabobank’s global food and ag startup discovery program. The startups represent five countries, including the United States, Australia, India, Norway and Singapore.
The 15 companies advancing to the final round have been selected from an original field of nearly 340 applications based on their innovative solutions to major food system challenges. The consumer food and beverage (CPG) finalists are pioneering sustainable innovations including edible cutlery, upcycled snacks and spirits, plant-based cheese for pizza, and India’s first plant-based liquid egg product. The food tech startups are bringing new solutions to food safety and wellness issues exacerbated by COVID-19, creating plastic-alternative packaging using upcycled milk, and developing new air protein technology that uses CO2 to produce animal feed. Agtech finalists are engineering products and technologies that improve soil health and reduce water usage, promote animal health without antibiotics, and support farmers in digitising their supply chains.
