Startup Innovation Awards at the UN FAO World Food Forum 2024 Event Recap
Left to right
Beth Bechdol, FAO Deputy Director General
Detelina Vassileva, COO Altered Carbon
Victoria Slivkoff, XTC Executive Managing Director and Head of Ecosystem for Walden Catalyst Ventures
For the 4th year in a row, XTC was proud to have produced the WFF Startup Innovation Awards competition which attracted hundreds of applicant companies from every continent. We enjoyed a great collaboration with the FAO and with Awards sponsors ADM, Kilburn & Strode, Next Tech Food Factories, Smart Sensors 4 Agri Food, High Five consortium, Qing Engineering and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Innovation Lab.
The essential strength of XTC’s ecosystem is the top caliber of judges we convene to evaluate the applicants and raise the most exciting and investable to the live stage at FAO’s annual Forum in Rome, Italy.
XTC solicited and evaluated startups in four categories for 2024:
- Digital Innovation in Food Processing
- Empowering Women in Agrifood Systems
- Reducing Food Loss
- Good Food for All, for Today and Tomorrow
460 ventures from 53 countries applied and 2 startups per category advanced to the live event in the Sheikh Zayed Centre at FAO HQ in Rome on October 16. The event was co-hosted by Nancy Yuan, XTC Program Manager and Amanda Namayi of Kenya, UN Youth Action Network Advocate for Zero Hunger.
In her opening remarks, Victoria Slivkoff, XTC Executive Managing Director and Head of Ecosystem for Walden Catalyst Ventures said “Today is about the celebration of youth action, innovation and entrepreneurship as we support and accelerate and ignite innovations and youth’s passions in going forward to address our agri-food challenges. (Over our 4 years doing this) it’s been gratifying to see that the platform has grown to reach more innovators and entrepreneurs…where we can be the connective tissue to bring different stakeholders together.”
Our host FAO Deputy Director General Beth Bechdol said; “Innovation is no longer an option in anything that we do, it is a necessity whether technological, social, policy or financial innovation.” “This is some new territory for FAO, leaning in on private sector, leaning in on entrepreneurship, leaning in on innovation and XTC has been a great partner and friend throughout this journey. Each year they bring an incredible community of entrepreneurs, from so many different regions.” “These awards envision the future that we are all striving to achieve, for generations to come.”
The judges for the final round were:
- Garron Hansen – SVP of the West & Central Africa & Haiti BU of XTC Sponsor Chemonics International
- Beth Bechdol – UN FAO Deputy Director General
- David Laborde – UN FAO Agrifood Economics Division Director
- Gunther Beger – UNIDO Managing Director for SDG Innovation and Economic Transformation
During the judges deliberations, Victoria held a fireside chat with Nicolas Autret of Walden Catalyst Ventures along with the Better Environment Winner of the 2023 WFF Startup Challenge – Matthew Mitchell CTO and co-Founder of Organicin Scientific.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
From Nicolas
- Dont be overly secretive about your tech. It is better to get feedback from the market, iterate and know that your primary uniqueness is your own drive and initiative.
- When engaging corporates, if you really want business, “innovation centers” aren’t buyers, try to directly engage the Business Units (BUs) that can sign a contract.
- Do your homework on investors – they have very specific foci, by sector, by maturity, by geography, don’t bother with those that don’t fit, and reach out to senior Partners that have a track record of investing in similar firms, others will likely waste your time.
From Matthew
- Building long-term longitudinal relationships for mentorship and feedback is important for the maturing of your business.
- Founders have a wider array of responsibilities than you’ll anticipate, therefore also use your time wisely and do homework as Nicolas suggested.
After that, the winners were announced as follows:
Digital Innovation in Food Processing – Safi (Canada) – has patented the world’s first off-grid pasteurization control unit that allows any user to pasteurize milk without the use of on-the-grid electricity; focusing on a safe and transparent dairy supply chain in East Africa.
Empowering Women in Agrifood Systems – AgrowSure (India) – which designs and manufactures affordable, innovative farm machinery tailored for women.
Good Food for All, for Today and Tomorrow – BettaF!sh (Germany) – harnessing seaweed to create delicious, nutrient-rich, plant-based seafood alternative supporting ocean regeneration and sustainable livelihoods for coastal communities.
Food Loss Reduction category AND OVERALL STARTUP OF THE YEAR – Altered Carbon (UK) – A cost-effective smart scent detection for mobile devices enabling a wide array of precision freshness monitoring.
You can watch the complete UN session here:
The following day:
The following day, October 17, each of our Winners had the opportunity to pitch to a group of investors, along with startups from another FAO program as part of the World Food Forum.
And later that day, XTC was present at a session on Food Processing where our Runner-Up Poultry Sync’s CEO Dr. Neamat El-Tazi, presented her end-to-end poultry management SaaS solution that streamlines data across the whole poultry value chain, identifies inefficiencies and pinpoints areas for improvement.
As always, an impressive spectrum of innovation and innovation and a fine convergence of the great talent found in the ecosystem of Extreme Tech Challenge. We welcome all Top 8 Finalists into our Alumni community and encourage you to reach out and engage them for collaboration and investment.
