Givaudan and FoodHack launch the FoodTech World Cup: winners to be crowned at HackSummit in Lausanne in June

As the climate crisis takes hold, the race is on to find new ways to feed growing populations sustainably with healthy, nutritious food around the world. Through investment and collaboration, bold founders are leveraging fresh technologies to transform the food system at scale and catalyze meaningful impact across borders. With that in mind, Givaudan and FoodHack are joining forces to host the FoodTech World Cup, a global tournament to uncover the industry’s most talented entrepreneurs (applications are now open until 11 April 2024).

By launching a worldwide tournament, the FoodTech World Cup will tap into local networks to spotlight breakthrough founders across six regions on a global stage to accelerate their growth. “By partnering with FoodHack and the HackSummit we hope to uncover never-before-seen solutions created by exceptional, entrepreneurial founders who are driving real-world impact for a healthier, more sustainable future for all,” said Alexandre Bastos, Head of Open Innovation & Ventures at Givaudan.

To uncover the next rising stars and superstars of food tech, Givaudan and FoodHack are inviting stealth to seed startups to pitch their solutions in areas such as: food circularity (side streams, upcycling and the circular economy); AI and Digital Tools (disrupting NPD and consumer understanding); sustainable proteins (alternatives to nurture and delight 10 billion people); personalized nutrition (to effectively address 'food for health'); food safety and traceability (technologies across the value chain); novel food product concepts (CPG ‘brands of the future’ to close the consumer gap); and new ingredients and technologies (improving sensory experiences, health, nutrition).

The FoodTech World Cup Qualifiers will run as six Demo Days, one for each region across Asia, Europe, Latin America, MENA, North America, and Sub Saharan Africa.

Sixty shortlisted founders will present their vision and demonstrate their startup’s impact potential to a line up of top tier judges including Steven Finn at Siddhi Capital, Stephanie Dorsey at E2JDJ, Sarah Al Sayadi at Givaudan, and Steve Molino at Clear Current Capital (North America). Sub-Saharan Africa adjudicators include Hakeem Jimo at Proveg, Abby Stern at Holocene, Romain Diaz at Satgana, Andrew Meredith at Givaudan, and Maxime Bayen at Catalyst Fund. The APAC region judges include Jolene Lum at Nurasa, Mark Khan at Omnivore, Ai Mey Chuah at Givaudan, and Michal Klar at Better Bite Ventures. European judges include Bodil Sidén at Kost Capital, Christian Guba at FoodLabs, Ryan Grant Little, Angel Investor, Susanne Steghoefer at Givaudan, and Susana Reber at Nestlé R+D Accelerator. For Latin America, Matias Peire at GRIDX, Flávia Angella at Givaudan, DJ Lampitt at Ideation Colab and Camila Petignat at The Yield Lab will be scrutinizing applications. And finally, in the MENA region, Nader Amiri at Homegrown, Amir Zaidman at The Kitchen, Gil Horsky at FLORA Ventures, Melody Violton at CPT Capital, and Olga Bezukladova at Givaudan will decide who goes through to the next round.

After an in-depth shortlisting process, the 12 most promising solutions (two per region) will be invited to pitch in the final at the HackSummit in Lausanne, Switzerland on 13-14 June, where the winners will be crowned. You can enter your startup to the FoodTech World Cup today here.