Field narrows in Nutreco’s feed and food tech challenge: Livestock, aquaculture and alt protein startup finalists chosen

Those startups were selected for their “groundbreaking ideas​” in the field of alternative proteins, aquaculture and livestock production.

This year’s contest brought together 15 of the best and brightest startups selected out of 150 applicants from 48 countries for the pitch day on June 30, from which those five firms were chosen.

Public vote ​

In addition to the jury selection, a live audience was invited to cast its vote for the three most innovative ideas.

Nutreco said the audience awards do not influence the jury selection of finalists going through to the next round, but help the participating startups understand whether their products or services are likely to appeal to the mass market.

YieldX, BioBetter and Tepbac’s innovations won over the public vote.

The competition is looking to solve key challenges in feed and food production. “We've been very impressed by the quality, passion and effort of the 2022 applicants," ​said Nutreco's director of venturing and business development and NFFTC22 head juror, Joost Matthijssen.

Alternative protein finalists​

BioBetter says it has developed a “cost-effective”​ protein expression plant-based platform to produce complex growth factors for use in cultivated meat. Its purification process is designed to reduce production costs and simplify the process compared to other currently available purification platforms.

Multus is developing the key ingredient, the growth media, to make cultivated meat affordable and profitable, using animal-free serum replacements that promote cell growth.  

Aquaculture finalists​

Tepbac is a digital aquaculture farm management platform for fish and shrimp farms, set up to reduce risks and improve the yield through access to cost, inventory and remote management tools.

AquaRech is a platform designed to enable fish farmers to buy feed, access tools to operate their farm and sell their fish production efficiently, sustainably, and transparently. It wants to become the number one service platform for small and medium-sized fish farmers in Africa.

Livestock finalist​

Beakbook is a weight collection and prediction system for chickens, specializing in transparent, high-accuracy data gathering.

Next steps ​

The five startups must next pitch at a hybrid event with industry leaders, investors, jury members and both live and online audiences on October 10-11 The NFFTC22 winner will receive further mentoring and the opportunity to carry out a validation trial with Nutreco.