The first FoodTech Accelerator is born in Milan
What an honor to be involved in this significant effort brought together by Deloitte Italy. I've translated a portion of the article here that ran in Corriere Della Sere post kick-off last week:
The first FoodTech Accelerator is born in Milan, a global hub from Palo Alto to Tel Aviv with destination Milan. Today the first 7 international startups have been chosen, chosen from over 300 candidates for the acceleration process coordinated by Officine Innovazione, the innovative startup of Deloitte, with the collaboration of three corporate partners - Amadori, Cereal Docks and Gruppo Finiper. For them the possibility of structuring concrete business models and, together with international mentors, prepare for the meeting with the investors during the 5th edition of Seeds & Chips - The Global Food Innovation Summit, scheduled at Fiera Milano (Rho) from 6 to 9 May 2019.
The FoodTech Accelerator aims to make Milan the hub of innovation for food and retail
The goal of the FoodTech Accelerator is to realize innovation in our country by making Milan the international hub of innovation in the food and retail sectors, which have always made the Made in Italy brand a recognized worldwide. The initiative is also supported by Innogest, Digital Magics, Italian Angels for Growth, Seeds and Chips and Federalimentare Giovani as a supporting partner, to which Campari Group is added in January. The winners, from Italy, Israel and the United States, were selected from over 300 candidates from 41 countries thanks to active scouting during a 4-month roadshow that touched 12 nations and identified 7 emerging trends in the Food sector: healthy lifestyle, agritech, quality and traceability, circular economy, new delivery models, new proteins and superfoods, and omnichannel.
Expected a 15-week acceleration program
The startups have access to a 15-week program during which they have the opportunity to consolidate their business model and are ready to face investors, market and their growth objectives supported by over 50 mentors specialized on innovation issues - such as identification the needs of the market, the definition of strategies for internationalization and customer acquisition and the validation of the scalability of the solution at an industrial level. Physical place of the acceleration program is the new "FoodTech Hub", a space designed and created for them within the "Piazza Portello" shopping center in Milan and made available by Finiper. The hub is a living place where startups will work together with the initiative's partners every day with the goal of co-developing their projects