Mondelēz International Inc. announced the nine companies chosen to participate in CoLab Tech, an accelerator program led by the company’s research and development team to collaborate with startups in addressing technology-driven food production and sustainability challenges.
CoLab Tech sought early-stage businesses with disruptive solutions that can help accelerate growth and innovation in chocolate, biscuit and baked snacks, while enhancing the global snacking leader’s technological priorities, including reducing carbon footprints, enhancing sensory experiences, improving nutrition profiles and modernizing production processes.
The program selected entrepreneurs in North America and Europe and received applications from all over the world.
“One of the most exciting parts of this process was learning about the creative and clever solutions being developed across the globe to solve the food industry’s most pressing ingredient, process and sustainability challenges,” Ian Noble, vice president for Global Ingredient Research & Development at Mondelēz International, said in the announcement. “We are eager to start learning from and collaborating with these cutting-edge entrepreneurs who will introduce us to new capabilities and also learn from our expertise.”
The cohort will participate in a 12-week curriculum that includes hands-on experiences, virtual sessions, 1:1 mentorship and access to Mondelēz International’s global network of partners and experts.
The nine companies are:
Captic: The Belgium-based startup delivers secure and reliable AI-vision solutions that can integrate into a company’s current production processes to provide actionable insights to optimize production efficiency.
Computomics: The Germany-based company’s platform uses machine learning and metagenomics analysis to monitor different types of pathogens in real time, from the early soil stages to manufacturing facilities.
Cultivated Biosciences: The Switzerland-based start-up uses fermentation technology to create a sustainable dairy-free, creamy fat ingredient that can substitute for animal-based ingredients in multiple functions and formulas.
Eggmented Reality: The Israel-based company uses material sciences and precision fermentation to develop customized ingredient functionality solutions.
Epogee: The U.S.-based ingredient business produces a modified plant-based oil that cuts up to 92 percent of calories, total fat and saturated fat compared to traditional fats and oils, while maintaining mouthfeel, satiety and texture.
Prote-in: The Italy-based company produces carbon negative, farm-free proteins using a proprietary continuous CO2 fermentation technology that offsets 1.8kg of captured CO2 for every 1kg of single cell protein.
SoilTech Wireless: The U.S.-based company develops wireless sensing technology and data analytics platforms to help drive optimization, sustainability and traceability throughout the global agriculture supply chain.
Stephane Thermal Runs: The French-based start-up created unique sensors and software to optimize thermal profiling in baked snacks.
WNWN Food Labs: The U.K.-based company uses fermentation to create alternative cocoa ingredients.
