From left to right: Scale it Up! Challenge award ceremony. Bosco Emparanza, Founder of MOA Foodtech
Uzwil (Switzerland),
July 14, 2022 – The start-up MOA Foodtech is the winner of the European Scale It Up! Innovation Challenge 2022. Following the successful program in the US in
2021, Bühler, Givaudan, Cargill, Puris, and the new partner DIL (Deutsches Institut
für Lebensmitteltechnik) bring their combined innovation power to bear and help
plant-based protein start-ups scale up and commercialize in Europe and in the
Middle East.
From over 50 high quality start-ups who applied for the
challenge, a final cohort of five innovative companies made the final: Aliga
Microalgae from Denmark, YEAP from Israel, Plantway from Poland, Cultivated
Biosciences from Switzerland, and MOA Foodtech from Spain. Each received
initial support from the partners as
well as a week of development and scale up at the facilities of DIL in
Quakenbrück, Germany.
The winner and the runner-up will be supported during a 3-
and 6-month acceleration phase, respectively. They will have access to
mentorship and the extensive networks of the partners, and most importantly,
will be given R&D support with access to the pilot plants of the partners
to bring their ideas from prototypes to market ready. This support is
equivalent to more than EUR 100,000 in technical expertise and access to state-of-the-art
testing facilities.
The winners
The jury selected MOA Foodtech from Spain as the winner for
the Europe & Middle East challenge. MOA Foodtech combines biotechnology and
artificial intelligence to transform side streams and byproducts of the agri-food
industry into the “next generation protein” with high nutritional value that is
sustainable. With an objective of solving the world’s growing food demands
without the need for arable land, MOA Foodtech designs high-value, natural, and
nutritious food through innovation and upcycling. Find more here:
https://www.moafoodtech.com/
"This Scale It Up! Innovation challenge was a great
experience for us. We had some amazing results in just one week of trials, and
we are very excited about what we are going to do in the next few months with
these great partners. We are confident that we will take meat analogs to the
next level,” said Bosco Emparanza, Founder of MOA Foodtech.
The runner up, Cultivated Biosciences from Switzerland, is developing a clean label and sustainable fat ingredient from oleaginous yeast, which offers the creaminess needed for plant-based dairy. Their innovation promises to help make plant-based dairy products creamier and more indulgent.
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