SWITZERLAND – Icos Capital and Swiss food technology group Bühler recently held a summit that brought together startups and corporate players to accelerate the adoption of sustainable food technologies.
The “Accelerating Sustainability Food Systems Summit” was held at Bühler’s CUBIC Innovation Campus and over 30 start-ups from across Europe, the UK, and Israel were in attendance.
The startups were from the areas of decarbonization, precision fermentation, cell culture, and side stream valorization & alternate sustainable resources.
They were connected with corporates to create win-win partnerships with corporates to accelerate the transition of sustainable food systems.
“Our goal at Icos Capital is to identify and invest in next-level innovations to accelerate sustainability,” says Nityen Lal, General Partner at ICOS Capital.
“Our model of collaborative venturing brings start-ups specialized in sustainable food, circular economy, sustainable industry, and decarbonization into win-win partnerships with corporates, supporting their growth.’
Bühler’s CTO, Ian Roberts noted that the partnerships could leverage the scale of corporates and the agility and innovativeness of startups to create sustainable impact at scale.
“With established supply chains and market access, we believe that corporates in the room can play a crucial role in the journey of start-ups and enable them to scale both their business and their sustainable impact significantly faster,” said Bühler’s CTO, Ian Roberts at the summit.
One of the startups at the summit was NapiFeryn, a Polish startup with a patented process to obtain rapeseed proteins from the sidestream of oil pressing and could benefit from partnerships formed at the summit.
Napin and cruciferin, the two main proteins in rapeseed, have a well-balanced amino acid composition and potential bioactivity, and can easily replace animal proteins in food formulations.
Startups like NapiFeryn are tackling a crucial issue in the food sector, and partnerships made from the summit can scale up their impact in significant ways.
“This event is a unique opportunity to connect with companies that can offer know-how and technology to scale up our production,” said Dr. Magdalena Kozlowska, CEO of NapiFeryn.
Holiferm, another startup backed by Icos Capital, manufacturers sustainable price-competitive bio-surfactants, key ingredients in cleaning and personal care products.
The startup aims to utilize bio-based resources such as oils and sugars as input for the fermentation process to be done at their new commercial plant and networked with companies with access to side streams that can be raw materials for Holiferm at the summit.
“The new connections we made here will help us accelerate our journey towards more sustainable and nature-friendly chemicals,” says Joana Pereira, Business Development Manager at Holiferm.
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