In the area of alternative foods, such as precision fermented products and cultured meat, new technologies are being developed on a smaller scale. This is great for innovation, but it will not achieve the ultimate goal of food: feeding people.
New food technologies can change the way we produce food, but they won't transform the industry. Startups can benefit greatly from industry partnerships.
Floor Buitelaar is the co-founder and managing partner of Bright Green Partners. We spoke to her about what business partners can do to help small food startups grow and how they can benefit from working with innovative and creative companies.
Start-ups can benefit from a partnership
Buitelaar said startups “can’t do it alone.” Partners can be a key resource.
First of all, money. First of all, money. investment in a start-upA larger company can provide them with the resources to develop their ideas beyond the small lab and into a commercially viable product.
Infrastructure is another important factor. Young start-ups often do not have the infrastructure to scale up their production to a commercially viable level. Large companies, on the contrary, do.
Large companies also provide strategic advice, supply chain integration and market access.
This process can take a long time if the startup is using new technologies that are not yet on the market.
First, distance startups from commercial partners. According to Buitelaar, the bureaucracy of large companies would kill a technology.
Is it easier for startups to scale up?
Buitelaar says that the alternative food industry has only really developed in the last five years. Previously, some companies were showing interest in alternative foods. However, the industry was not yet fully developed and there were not many research institutes.
We have now seen how the market has developed. There are many companies specializing in the market. Bright Green Partners is one of them. It helps food technology companies grow. Buitelaar said there are many other options than just turning to the big companies.
What technologies will the companies work on together?
Collaboration could be used to help companies adopt a variety of technologies and processes.
A plant-based startup, for example, might need help from someone with extrusion knowledge. They might also need help developing a breeding program for the plants they use to make plant-based products, so that the final product is more appealing.
Buitelaar suggests that mass production of cell culture media can help increase the efficiency of companies in producing their cultured meat.
Alternative meat producers could benefit from support from companies in other regions. You could, for example. in fermentationLarge biotech companies specializing in fermentation can help startups in areas such as strain development or scaling up biotech processes.
What are the main barriers to scaling?
Alternative food companies face various obstacles to modernizing. There is, for example, the need to modernize and build new infrastructure. Buitelaar says this is particularly true in precision fermentation, biomass fermentation and meat production.
Many of these companies may also be hampered by complex novel food regulations.
So here's what's happening Investments are hampered. Investors are less interested in investing money because novel food startups have to wait a long time to get their products to market due to regulations. Buitelaar said the “current financial and political environment” contributes to the problem. Venture capital funding is declining and there is resistance to environmental policies.
It is difficult to introduce new solutions into companies.
Businesses can benefit from corporate partnerships
Buitelaar explained that bringing innovative solutions to companies is a complex process. They are used to doing business in the same way. “That’s how they succeeded.”
Because of their size and less complex structure, start-ups have an agility and dynamism that is not present in large companies.
They often try to obtain new products, ingredients or technologies from scale-ups and start-ups that they can then integrate into their commercial entity.
They can still learn from a collaborative relationship, even if they don't directly use the startup's technology or processes. Startups, for example, are often aware of trends and other companies in the market.
It's a cheap way for them to get some information.
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