Welcome to Our Community
EIT Food aims to make your startup journey an exciting one
In this community we support each other through the challenging times, and we celebrate each other’s ‘wins’ when all our hard work starts to pay off!
In addition to our programmes and EIT Food’s investment opportunities, here are the types of startup training and events you can expect to get involved in:
Interviews, panels and reviews
Hear what our industry experts have to say
Alumni spotlight
Stories, tips and advice from our startup alumni
Startup training challenges
A taster of what goes on at our bootcamps
Live pitch presentations
Prepare to pitch to real investors and potential clients
Community socials & awards
Meet like-minded entrepreneurs to enjoy the ride with
Tailored networking
Data driven matchmaking to build power teams
Business mindset mentorship
Develop a positive mindset for business growth
Leadership skills
Learn what makes an effective leader to pivot and scale
News & Events
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EIT Food host aquaculture webinar to inspire innovations to transform the sector
In light of the launch of EIT Food’s open innovation call in August 2022, EIT Food North-West will host an aquaculture-themed webinar, to encourage the submission of aquaculture project proposals.About EIT Food's aquaculture webinarEIT Food North-West presents a webinar to explore how to submit an aquaculture project ...
A new cohort of impactful startups join EIT Food entrepreneurship programmes and the EIT Food North-West community
EIT Food North-West is delighted to announce 15 innovative agrifood startups that have joined EIT Food’s 3 flagship entrepreneurship programmes to launch, accelerate and scale their businesses, and its regional community. EIT Food is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European ...
EWA I Empowering Women in Agrifood
APPLICATIONS CLOSED Training, mentoring, business coaching and networking opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the agrifood sectorApplication deadline extended until 19 June!110 talented female entrepreneurs from countries with modest to moderate innovation rates will enter a 6-months entrepreneurial ...
Tech commersialisation solutions to drive food system change
Last week the Seedbed team travelled to Lisbon, Portugal as the co-sponsor for the ASTP conference, that was attended by 345 people from 32 countries. We met with our TTO friends to find out how we can help encourage more scientists to commercialise innovations that can be applied to the agrifood sector.Why is this ...
EIT FAN Alumni Mycorena collaborates with Lantmännen 💫
This week we are sharing some fantastic news from EIT FAN 2021 alumni Mycorena, who recently announced their collaboration with Lantmännen! 👏Together, the organisations are working to develop a portfolio of food products based on sustainable produced Mvcoprotein."For Mycorena, transforming the way we produce and consume ...
Expand to new agrifood markets in Europe – apply for EIT Food Sales Booster!
APPLICATIONS CLOSED In 2022, EIT Food launched Sales Booster – a programme that helps innovative startups explore and enter new agrifood markets in EuropeThe programme supports startups with training, coaching, expert advice, and network to prepare for their development and growth in new markets. It offers highly customised ...
Alumni Spotlight
Alumni Spotlight – Hai
Hai have received a Star Alumni award for the amount of positive progress they made during the course of the Seedbed Incubator programme!Hai operates in Vertical Farming, CEA and Phenotyping. Vertical farming is one of the emerging technologies paving the way to solve our current food security challenges. However, as ...
Alumni Spotlight – Paltech Robotics
Paltech have received a Star Alumni award for the amount of positive progress they made during the course of the Seedbed Incubator programme!Paltech is a recently established AgTech startup based in Freising, Germany. They are 2021 Seedbed hub alumni and won the award for best pitch. The company was founded by the ...
Alumni Spotlight – FortiFruits
FortiFruits produces natural dry fruit extracts to improve the taste of natural food. The products are chemical and sugar free, with a 50 to 100% stronger taste profile than other standard fruits extracts. They also have a much longer shelf life, and they don’t contain any nasty 'e' numbers. Target clients include ...
Alumni Spotlight – PlattenBaum
PlattenBaum operates in the Urban Agriculture sector, to offer housing companies and municipalities healthy and well designed environments to grow and consume their own fresh fruit and vegetables.What is your innovation, and who does this help? We are creating synergy between commercial urban agriculture and ...
Alumni Spotlight – Carbon Harvesters
Carbon Harvesters focuses on climate mitigation in the Dairy, Beef, and Swine sectors, which account for 90% of EU agricultural emissions. It is a platform that helps farmers to monitor their farm emissions. On a fortnightly basis using this platform, farmers are able to identify ‘farm specific’ techno-economical climate mitigation ...
Alumni Spotlight – Aqua Lub
Team Aqua Lub is developing a superior lubrication technology with long-lasting hydration properties, to launch a new water based lubricant product. The current product line includes a range of clean formulations that have been developed, using environmentally friendly plant-based materials, which perform strikingly better than ...
Training
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Tips for creating the perfect pitch deck
A pitch deck is a brief presentation which showcases key aspects of your business plan and is used to pitch to investors (or other parties you may want something from like when you apply to our programmes, or certain customers, for example). Ensure your pitch deck is concise and clearYou won’t have much time to ...
A guide to startup funding
Raising money is a key part of being an entrepreneur. Agrifood has some specific challenges around finance given the typically slower growth rates, the seasonality of cash flow and time needed for a return on investment. Whilst some businesses can grow organically and don’t require any external funding, the majority need cash ...
Why market research is key to startup success
Problem - solution fit - tick. Now let’s find out if you have a viable startup business…You have a brilliant idea for changing the food system. But how do you go about proving to yourself and others that your idea is worthy of all the blood, sweat and tears that go into it for the months or years to come? Is there a ...
Do I go at it solo or should I have a co-founder?
If you are unsure whether you should manage a startup business alone or with (a) co-founder(s), first consider the benefits and disadvantages of both sides:SoloPotential for less startup costs (fewer salaries, fewer people to support)Allows you to set your vision by yourself, and you make all the decisionsLess potential ...
Best advice to avoid startup failure
1. LOVE is a MUST!Running your own business is not an easy ride. Chances are it will be a lot harder (and more rewarding) than you ever could have imagined so make sure you’re working on something you love and care about. Instead of going after any old market opportunity, try to solve a problem close to your heart. If you’re ...
Tips from Startups: What you need to know before starting an agrifood business
Nothing beats direct experience to tell you how it really is! Here's what startups tell us they wish they’d known before starting an agrifood business.Before starting an agrifood business, I wish I had known…“How to actually run a business! I wanted to solve a problem and running a business was the result. I had no ...
Education Courses
If you are just getting started, or maybe you aren’t quite ready to apply to a programme, why don’t you try one of our introductory food system courses
Regional Support
We also organise many different regional schemes to support local innovation and entrepreneurship activities. Find out what innovation is available in your location here
Collaborate with Us!
We invite everyone with an interest to support passionate agrifood startups to take part in our community activities
LIVE Q&A
Whilst our programme applications are open, we host online webinars to provide more guidance on the application process, and how you can stand out above the rest!