Extreme Tech Challenge & UN FAO World Food Forum Announce Startup Innovation Awards Finalists
The second United Nations World Food Forum (WFF) is a little over a month away, which means it’s not long until the finals of the WFF Startup Innovation Challenge Powered by Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC).
We’ve been overwhelmed to see so many startups from around the world sharing their innovations in Better Production, Better Environment, Better Nutrition, and Better Life. After great deliberation from our judges, we’re delighted to share our eight startups for the 2022 United Nations World Food Forum Startup Innovation Challenge Finals.
🚜 Better Production
- 🇺🇸 Boomitra offers an end-to-end solution where farmers can grow more with less, increase soil carbon, and get paid for reducing climate change
- 🇸🇬 Umami Meats create seafood that’s cultivated, not caught. Developing seafood that is better for nature and better for you
🌾 Better Nutrition
- 🇮🇳 FaunaTech develops a diagnostics platform for early detection of critical diseases, monitoring cattle health, screening milk quality, and reducing antibiotic usage.
- 🇮🇱 Kinoko-Tech has created a unique fermentation platform that elevates a healthy food to a superfood.
🏞️ Better Environment
- 🇺🇸 HabiTerre is revolutionizing the modeling and monitoring of agriculture in a changing climate.
- 🇺🇸 Mi Terro is redefining a circular economy in which plant-based and animal-based agricultural wastes are upcycled and engineered to replace microplastic.
☀️ Better Life
- 🇦🇺 AgUnity is a secure, accountable online platform to help reach remote users, establish reliable lines of trade, and resolve transparency and provenance in food chains.
- 🇸🇬 Dietrics is Southeast Asia’s first nano-ingredient food company, developing natural ingredients to create tasty, healthier, natural food.
Needless to say, we wouldn’t have a final without our judges’ incredible knowledge, expertise, and foresight. So, from everyone at Extreme Tech Challenge, we’d like to say a massive thank you to:
🚜 Better Production
- Jun Ho Bae, Venture Investor, Plug and Play Tech Center
- Shinya Kasuga, Partner, IT-Farm Corporation
- Kevin Lockett, Partner and CFO, Fulcrum Global Capital
- Melina Sánchez Montañés, Principal & VP Impact, AENU
- Lisa Paglietti, Economist, Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- Darius Teter, Executive Director of Stanford Seed, Stanford University Graduate School of Business
🌾 Better Nutrition
- Po Bronson, Managing Director, IndiBio/SOSV
- Barry Palte, Chairman, EQ Capital Partners
- Dr. Carina Tyrrell, Investor and Chief of Staff, Walden Catalyst Ventures
- Jean-Michel Voisard, Global Practice Lead – Agriculture and Food Security, Chemonics International
🏞️ Better Environment
- Daniel Sottosanti, Senior Associate, Xerox Ventures
- Nikola Trendov, Digital Agriculture and Innovation Specialist, Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- Rosie Wardle, Co-founder, and Partner, Synthesis Capital
- Alessandro Zago, Investment Officer, Chemonics International
☀️ Better Life
- Thomas Luk, Partner and Managing Director in Europe and China, A.T. Kearney
What’s Next?
The eight FINALIST startups across each category will then give their pitches to the panel of judges in a session during the World Food Forum flagship event in October. The final award for each of the categories of the “Four Betters” in relation to the 2022 theme: “Healthy Diets. Healthy Planet,” as well as one overall winner, the WFF Startup Award Innovator of the Year, will be delivered at the WFF Innovation Award Ceremony.