Biological approaches to treat aquatic pests and diseases or an aerial scout in the greenhouse: just two examples of the eight food & agtech startups selected to participate in the fall edition of StartLife Accelerate.
From the fifty early-stage food and agtech startups who showed interest in the program, the review committee had the challenging task to select the most promising. Loet Rammelsberg, Program Director at StartLife, says: “It was a very intensive selection. The next step is to help these passionate entrepreneurs validate their solution in the market and get them ready to raise funding from investors.”
Participants of the accelerate program are evaluated on their product and technology, market potential and their team. The program is only open for innovative food & agtech startups. For the fall cohort, fifteen startups were invited to the selection day and eight startups finally made it into the program.
The fall 2019 cohort
- Corvus Drones: The aerial scout in greenhouse horticulture.
- CubeX: Modular easy to ship organic waste treatment solutions.
- Evja: Micro-climate monitoring supporting open-field farmers.
- Next Generation Sensors: Brings the lab to the farm via a portable mass spectrometer.
- Parsec Robotics: Biological control of weeds through autonomous robots.
- Sundew: Biological approaches to treating aquatic pests and diseases.
- Zymoptiq: Adding AI-based intelligence to increase the flexibility of robotics.
- Viroteq: AI-based solution to increase the flexibility of robots.
The close connection with WUR remains one of the most important reasons for startups to apply for the program, according to Rammelsberg. “We connect startups to leading researchers in their field, link them to ambitious student teams and enable them to make use of advanced research equipment through Shared Resource Facilities. This really helps startups to get the necessary scientific validation for the further development of their company.”
Successful alumni from earlier editions include Sponsh, Zero Foodwaste and Fumi Ingredients. These organizations were also selected for the Rabobank Sustainable Innovation Prize.
Source: Wageningen University & Research