The animal-free foodtech space has recently attracted much attention and funding from leading entrepreneurs and investors but also traditional food companies. The recent and successful IPO of Beyond Meat shows that this is no longer a niche phenomenon but a truly mainstream and global trend. However, demand continues to out-pace supply. Now is the right time to build the next sustainable food companies and we believe that science and deep technology have a key role to play for these companies to succeed. That is why we are launching the Entrepreneurial Scientist & Engineer Fellowship program to encourage more top-notch scientists and engineers to join this exciting movement.
The Purple Orange Ventures Entrepreneurial Scientist & Engineer Fellowship program provides grant money and mentorship for scientists and engineers to explore startup ideas leveraging science and deep tech to create or support the creation of products that mimic the sensory experience and functionality of animal-based food products. This blogpost maps some of the existing startups in the space and provides a better idea of the different scientific/tech approaches that have been explored so far. The program objective is to validate if a project is strong enough to start a company. This means further validating a scientific approach in the lab, testing your assumptions on what the market really needs by getting feedback from potential customers and other relevant stakeholders, iterating on their feedback and ultimately getting closer to a commercially viable concept. We encourage applicants to apply as soon as possible as we only select up to five fellows per year.
Purple Orange Ventures (POV) is an impact seed fund based in Berlin backing early-stage teams leveraging science and technology to remove animals from the global food system. The POV portfolio includes Mission Barns, Wild Earth and NovoNutrients. The fund was started by Gary Lin, an American entrepreneur who scaled his previous tech company (headquartered in Berlin) to 300 employees and $100M in revenue with no outside financing. He successfully sold his company and now exclusively focuses on supporting mission-driven founders devoted to building a sustainable food future.