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PowerAPI raises $5.5 million in seed funding round
Valley Partner PowerAPI, a tech-enabled hospitality startup, has raised $5.5 million (CHF 5.25 million) in a seed round led by Prediction Capital. The team is now building its most sought-after feature, ‘Intelligence’, which will push smart notifications &...
Mirai Foods collaborates with Rügenwalder Mühle to develop a hybrid product
Mirai Foods, the Swiss cultivated meat startup from Zurich, has partnered with Rügenwalder Mühle, the sustainability pioneer and meat alternatives market leader in Germany, to develop a hybrid product. Rügenwalder Mühle plans to build on their positioning as an...
Fruitful closes pre-seed round to develop software that helps vertical farms speak plant
Valley member Fruitful Farming AG, a Swiss startup developing optimization software for greenhouses and vertical farms, has secured CHF 500,000 in its pre-seed round. The team now plans to accelerate the development and distribution of its AI-based decision-making...
Givaudan teams up with Berkeley to publish new research on the future of alternative proteins
Givaudan has launched its latest white paper entitled ‘The Protein Horizon: the landscape of alternative protein technologies enabling future food experiences,’ its fourth collaboration with the University of Berkeley, California. This paper provides cutting-edge...
EHL President Carole Ackermann joins the SFNV Steering Committee
As President of the EHL Foundation and Holding and CEO & Co-Founder Diamondscull - a company that invests in tech startups - Carole will bring unique insight into the fields of innovation, investment and academia. We recently took the opportunity to sit down with...
Food waste in Switzerland: 5 questions for Claudio Beretta
Today, around one third of all food produced for human consumption is thrown away. That's about 2.8 million tons per year for the whole of Switzerland, and contributes to emissions and climate change. Claudio Beretta, scientific assistant for sustainability and food...
Why an ETHZ researcher founded a startup to tackle waste in the olive oil industry
Claudio Reinhard set out to write his Master’s Thesis on soil regeneration in Tunisia. But after discovering a huge untapped opportunity in the olive oil industry, Claudio has transformed his findings into an award-winning collaborative research project and founded a...
How this end-to-end innovation platform is helping to close the data gap on nutrition status in children and adolescents in Switzerland.
With Serge Rezzi at the helm, the former Swiss Vitamin Institute has transformed into the Swiss Nutrition and Health foundation - a foundation of public utility owning an end-to-end innovation platform in the field of nutrients and health. We sat down with Serge to...
Switzerland’s got talent: Meet Prof. Ardemis Boghossian from EPFL’s Nanobiotechnology lab
Nanobiotechnology and food science - what's the connection? Prof. Ardemis Boghossian and her team at EPFL have brought these two fields together to develop intelligent packaging technologies that tackle food waste while keeping consumers safe.How does your work shape...
How a climate-friendly sandwich is giving consumers a taste of our culinary future
Food2050’s Christian Kramer is using his unique sustainability system to raise awareness of the environmental impact of our meals. But he’s not stopping there. He’s also using what he’s learnt to develop 1.5 degree recipes. Shroomy is his first innovation - a...
Nestlé explores emerging technologies for animal-free dairy proteins
Nestlé has announced that it is exploring emerging technologies for the development of animal-free dairy protein-based products. Its novel product - developed by Nestlé R&D teams in Switzerland - will be piloted in the US market later this year as a...
Ice cream innovation from Geneva-based startup Konoï
Genevan company Konoï creates fresh frozen ice cream treats made from Cannabis sativa seeds. Their innovative process aims to reintroduce hemp - the "Royal Seed" - into Swiss diets. Konoi's products are more than "just" ice cream. In addition to their gourmet flavors,...
Cultivated Biosciences raises $1.5M pre-seed to tackle fats and mouthfeel
Cultivated Biosciences, an innovative ingredient company founded by Swiss entrepreneurs Tomas Turner and Dimitri Zogg, has just raised a $1.5M pre-seed round. The funding will enable the growing team to further optimize its production processes, research food...
Planted Closes Series B Financing Round of CHF 70 Million
Swiss Foodtech startup Planted, known for its clean-label biostructured meat, successfully closed its series B financing round of CHF 70 million. The round was led by L Catterton, the largest global consumer-focused private equity firm. Planted will use the funds to...
Unilever’s Swiss production site will become a new hub for scaling up nutrition innovation
The “Knorri” factory in Thayngen will be transformed into a unique innovation campus that will promote collaboration between startups and established companies, universities, investors, and innovation facilitators - helping new agrifood technologies to scale up and...
Nestlé launches new Youth Entrepreneurship Platform
As part of its Global Youth Initiative, Nestlé recently launched the Nestlé Youth Entrepreneurship Platform (YEP), a new digital platform for young innovators and entrepreneurs who want to learn new knowledge and skills, test an idea or grow their businesses, in areas...
Time to grow: YASAI’s crowd-invested funding round gets off to a strong start.
Growing up as a company is normally meant metaphorically, as startups move from young entrants to more mature businesses. But for YASAI, growing up also has a literal meaning. The Swiss agtech startup is redesigning the way food systems work by integrating vertical...
MIRAI FOODS and Shiok Meats enter into a strategic partnership agreement
MIRAI FOODS - a Swiss company at the forefront of cultivated meat production - has entered into a strategic partnership agreement to develop cultivated beef production in Singapore and accelerate regulatory approval. MIRAI FOODS has entered into a partnership...
ALDI SUISSE becomes the first Swiss retailer to join Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley
ALDI SUISSE is the first Swiss retailer to become a member of the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley. By taking this step, ALDI strengthens its commitment to innovating to drive a more sustainable food system.A new partnership for even more sustainable innovation ALDI...
This Swiss startup’s AI-powered solution is leveraging data to improve how we farm.
Patrick Albrecht will be the first to tell you that he doesn’t have green fingers. But his team’s AI-driven software uses thousands of data points to optimize growth conditions - saving time and reducing the energy and resources needed to produce great quality...
CleanGreens Solutions is gearing up to bring their mobile irrigation robot to new markets
Having grown up on a farm, Bernhard Baumgartner, Commercial Director at aeroponic growing system manufacturer CleanGreens Solutions, grew up surrounded by plants. Now he’s helping colleagues across the globe - from Europe to the Middle East - grow a feast of leafy...
Switzerland’s got talent: Meet Prof. Josie Hughes from CREATE Lab at EPFL
Robotics and AI offer huge potential to drive innovation, from agriculture to sustainable consumption. EPFL’s CREATE Lab is eager to collaborate with industry partners to change how we design and use robots. We caught up with Prof. Josie Hughes to find out more about...
Why SFNV’s President Martin Vetterli is quietly confident about the future of food
Martin Vetterli was unanimously voted in for another term as SFNV President at SFNV's General Assembly in May. We sat down with Martin to talk science, vegetables and why he is quietly confident about the future of food.What does sustainable food mean to you...
How two lifelong friends are redesigning the beekeeper economy
When Alex and Giangio started making honey in their spare time, they had no idea it would eventually lead to them founding a bee-focused startup. Inspired by nature, PrimalBee® is disrupting a product that has barely seen innovation in 170 years: the beehive. Now...
Potiio Launches Crowdselling Campaign for Revolutionary Soft Drink Experience
Potiio’s unique water bottle technology and flavor capsules use brain science to revolutionize soft drink consumption. They’re now welcoming investors in their mission to create a circular beverage economy focused on wellness, convenience, and plastic reduction.The...
Nexenic raises 1.8 million for series production and market entry of portable mini-steamer Steasy®
The Swiss company Nexenic has developed a portable mini-steamer the size of a standard lunch box, and they’ve called it Steasy®. The product is soon to start serial production and enter the market. With a successful funding round to the tune of 1.8 million Swiss...
How FOOD2050 is enabling food service partners to reshape our food system, one meal at a time.
Back in 2019 Christian Kramer spotted an opportunity. Restaurants wanted to create more sustainable menus. Consumers wanted to make greener choices. And both were looking for support to help them in this process. This is exactly the gap that Christian’s new venture,...
Luya Foods launches its first products in over 130 Coop outlets
Back in 2021, a foodie, a food scientist and a chef led a successful crowdfunding campaign - and Luya was born. The Swiss startup transforms Okara - or soy pulp - into juicy plant-based alternatives. As of May 30 their products are available in over 130 Coop outlets...
SFNV launches a new Impact Platform on Food Systems 4.0
On June 9, food innovators from around the globe came together to explore the opportunities and challenges around Food Systems 4.0. SFNV is now inviting members to submit collaborative project proposals to spearhead purpose-driven innovation in the smart food era.Food...
How iSense is mapping taste just like Google mapped the Earth
Up until now, flavors have been functional black boxes. But Mathieu Asté, Founder and CEO of iSense, is eager to disrupt this 120-year old, $14 billion industry. His solution standardizes flavor taste measurement to enable comparison and provides a software (SaaS) to...
SFNV takes a deep dive into the world of cultured meat
This week, as part of our Impact Platform on sustainable proteins, we brought together three expert speakers to take a closer look at the topic of cultured meat. Watch the replay or check out our 60-second takeaways below. New solutions to our protein problem We’ve...
Firmenich and DSM join forces to accelerate taste and nutrition innovation
SFNV member Firmenich and DSM will merge, leveraging their respective world-class science and complementary capabilities in taste, texture and nutrition. The merger would allow the new company to anticipate evolving consumer needs and boost innovation in high-growth...
Bühler opens Insect Technology Center to support customers in the feed and food industries
SFNV member, Bühler Group, has officially opened its world-class Insect Technology Center (ITC). The facility combines Bühler's expertise with cutting-edge infrastructure to drive the development of the insect industry.Accelerating insect plant projects The Insect...
Planted doubles production volume to fuel their European expansion
SFNV member Planted has invested to double its production capacity at its site in Kemptthal to meet growing international demand for its products. The Swiss scaleup now sells 4 meat alternative products in different varieties in 6 European markets.Boosting capacity to...
How PowerAPI is making life easier for thousands of European restaurants and F&B companies
Valley member PowerAPI lets F&B businesses manage their entire tech stack from a single OS and platform through a Unified API. After closing a $2 million seed funding round last year, the team has just been nominated for the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Awards.Hello....
Bossy Céréales SA opens new factory to meet growing demand for textured vegetable proteins
SFNV member, Bossy Céréales, has been innovating in the food and nutrition industry for over 170 years. This month they opened a brand new state-of-the-art site in Cousset to meet the growing demand for textured vegetable proteins (TVP).Ramping up production fourfold...
Embion is selected as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum
Valley member Embion has made it their mission to catalyze the world’s transition to zero wasted resources. To do this, they specialize in upcycling industrial food production by-products through their platform technology. This week they were selected to become a...
Valley members come together for SFNV’s third General Assembly
On Friday May 6, SFNV members came together at our third General Assembly to celebrate our joint achievements so far and explore the key opportunities for impact in the coming months. Here are a few of our highlights. A vibrant and diverse community Martin Vetterli,...
MagicTomato invites supporters to invest in its nationwide expansion
SFNV member MagicTomato has made it their mission to democratize access to local and sustainable food. Now they’re inviting both Swiss consumers and institutional investors to invest in their solution to strengthen food ecosystems across Switzerland.The story so far...
planetary raises CHF 7.5m to build microbial fermentation capacity globally and scale the new food evolution
Valley member, planetary, has closed one of Europe's largest early-stage investment rounds in the food industry. Their Swiss Manufacturing and Innovation Center will give fermentation front-runners the capacity to scale.Geneva-based food-tech company planetary has...
Swiss IoT-powered food safety platform EEat is looking for partners to develop new traceability solutions.
Growing a startup that serves the food service industry in the midst of pandemic-driven mass closures takes courage. But this is exactly what the EEat team did after spotting a gap in the market. Working alongside customers from day one, they’ve developed an...
Uplyfe: An AI-powered health coach helping 40k users to eat and live smarter
Valley member Uplyfe uses AI to power its precision nutrition app, which empowers individuals to take control of their health goals. We spoke with Dr Isabelle Rottman, founder and CEO, about onboarding 40k users and how actors across the food ecosystem can benefit...
AgroSustain kick off their commercial rollout
AgroSustain - a rapidly growing UNIL spin-off - recently secured CHF 4.8 Million in their Series A funding round, followed by a FIT Tech Growth loan to the tune of CHF 500’000. The team has now kicked off their commercial rollout and have big plans for 2022. We sat...
Allcook.kitchen: serving low-waste, chef-crafted meals to 1,000+ tables across Switzerland
Valley member Allcook.kitchen delivers low-waste, restaurant-quality meals to homes across Switzerland. A year after dispatching their first meals, the company is delivering to 1,000+ customers. We spoke with co-founder Sacha Thorey about the company’s commitment to...
SFNV launches its Impact Platform on Sustainable Protein
Last Friday, 100+ attendees from 12 countries came together at a roundtable event to mark the launch of the Valley's Impact Platform on sustainable protein. SFNV is now inviting members to submit projects to drive forward innovation in this space.Innovating for impact...
Swiss scaleup Ecorobotix gears up for further European expansion
After securing CHF 13.2 million in one of Vaud’s largest funding rounds last year and ranking in the FoodTech 500, Ecorobotix is preparing to ramp up its European expansion in 2022. But as their list of international distributors grows, this dedicated B Corp continues...
Swiss accelerators come together to strengthen Switzerland’s offer as a food innovation nation
At our second meeting with Swiss accelerators and innovation facilitators, we clarified the why, what and how of our collaboration and pinned down the priority work areas to maximize our joint impact in 2022.Earlier this month, the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley...
The FoodTech 500 2021: A jump in global funding and strong Swiss representation
The FoodTech 500, released this week, shows that 2021 was a record-breaking year for the global AgriFoodTech system. 18 Swiss companies made it into the ranking, including 6 Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley members.The FoodTech 500 The FoodTech 500 - the Fortune 500...
AgroSustain secures CHF 500’000 to prepare for commercial rollout
Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley member, AgroSustain, has secured a FIT Tech Growth loan, completing the startup’s CHF 4.8 Million Series A funding round and laying the foundations for imminent market launch.Food waste: a growing issue The Food and Agriculture...
Nestlé Strengthens Agricultural Science Expertise with New Research Institute
This week, Nestlé announced the creation of Nestlé Institute of Agricultural Sciences. Focusing on plant science, dairy livestock and agricultural systems, it will translate novel agricultural science into concrete applications and identify the most promising...