Crowdfooding’s interactive map tracks food start-ups

Food and beverage innovator Crowdfooding has developed an interactive map that tracks up-and-coming food and agriculture businesses, allowing food industry leaders to follow the latest developments in global food production.

The map helps corporate manufacturers and food companies to locate and engage with food start-ups based on their area of operation and function, according to Crowdfooding’s UK branch. This is the first common database that would identify and promote emerging food businesses.

Crowdfooding developed the interactive map together with key industry players, such as Australian consulting firm AgThentic, Italy’s Andrea Tolu Content Marketing, Portugal’s Inovisa, and the UK’s Food Talk Show, sponsored by Breakthrough Funding. Crowdfooding aims to access data from nations such as Japan and South Korea, by partnering with Asian venture capital firm BitsXbites.

“By constantly enriching its content via users’ contributions and partners, we envision The Global Food Tech Map to be the most relevant mapping tool of the state of innovation in the food and ag-tech sector,” said Crowdfooding founder and CEO Alessio D’Antino.

​”We aim to raise awareness about their latest developments to help corporate investors understand the ecosystem and ultimately spark meaningful collaborations between the two.”​

Start-ups that appear on the map are generally selected by registered partners but there is an application process for outsider start-ups to join the database, according to D’Antino.

Crowdfooding identified 10 categories in which a food or agriculture start-up must fit. These include food processing, next-gen food and drinks, and food safety.

The company said it has amassed around 1,000 food start-ups around the world and aims to reach 3,000 by 2019, with the support of accelerators and incubators. These include entrepreneurial assistance offered to start-ups in the early stages of development to foster growth and help attract a venture capital investor.

The interactive database allows users to identify innovation hotspots, notably ag-tech start-ups in Australia and food-tech companies in Silicon Valley.

The company hopes to improve the map by permitting registered manufacturers and start-up companies to collaborate directly.

“People from all over the world are developing technologies to improve how food is produced, enhanced (in flavour), distributed, and stored,” D’Antino told Food Processing Technology.

“The work these pioneers are doing is crucial in shaping our future food system and solving the issues that future generations will have to confront. I believe food tech as a sector will play a crucial role in reshaping the dynamics of the food industry in the next few decades and with our Global Food Tech map we want to enable corporates, investors, and companies to interact with one another to collectively build a brighter future of food.”

You can view Crowdfooding’s interactive map here.