Through the partnership, Givaudan and Bühler will host and mentor entrepreneurs at their respective, innovation centres in Switzerland, providing all the support a start-up needs to scale-up and commercialise disruptive technology and products.
MassChallenge
“We have been collaborating and coaching startups for several years with MassChallenge and more recently, through EIT Food Accelerator Network,” said Ian Roberts, chief technology officer, Bühler.
“We need to prepare to feed 10 billion people within the limits of the planet in 2050 and this will not be done without radical innovation. We need to harness the energy, passion and skills of the entire ecosystem and we believe that start-ups play a crucial part in this.”
Givaudan and Bühler are both founding members of MassChallenge Switzerland, the start-up accelerator in Renens, as well as partners in the EIT Food Accelerator Network and with EPFL, ETHZ and Nestlé, partners in the Future Food Initiative.
The start-ups the companies will be inviting are those developing technology in the fields of alternative proteins, sustainable animal feed, food safety, food fraud, authenticity, natural ingredients for food applications (colors, preservatives), flavors, nutrition (particularly fibre, sugar, fat and salt reduction), ingredients with proven health and nutrition benefits, and gentle processing.
Bühler’s expertise includes: food processing technologies, including milling, grain, quality, hop optical sorting, data services, value nutrition (extrusion, aqua feed, pet food); consumer foods: coffee, biscuits, wafers, chocolate, cocoa, nuts; and advanced materials: including optics, coatings, die casting, lithium battery, optics (sensors, camera coatings).
Givaudan, which manufactures flavours and fragrances, brings expertise in: alternative proteins; flavor creation and application; enabling sugar, salt and fat reduction and replacement, natural functional foods and H&W ingredients, regulatory and consumer insights and analytical and food science support.
CUBIC
Fabio Campanile, head of flavours science and technology, Givaudan, said the partnership is part of its strategy ‘of collaborative innovation’ and its Zurich Innovation Centre provides the perfect environment for outstanding start-ups to collaborate and access Givaudan’s technology, expertise and capabilities.
Bühler recently opened its innovation campus, CUBIC, with collaboration spaces, laboratories and technology and scale-up facilities that complement the Givaudan facility.
“With our global presence, sales networks, digital platforms and brand strength we are convinced that, together, we can offer an unrivalled scale up partnership for start-ups. We consider that Switzerland can be a global leader in the food and agricultural space and we see this latest collaboration as an example of how we can achieve this,” added Roberts.
