The Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator on Monday announced the 11 companies that will form the program's fourth class.
The three-month program provides the early-stage startups and entrepreneurs with mentorship from sponsors Ecolab Inc. and Cargill Inc. including access to over 100 mentors. The startups also receive seed funding.
After the program went completely virtual last year, Managing Director Brett Brohl is excited to welcome the participants back to the Twin Cities.
This year will be a hybrid, with all of the participants spending time in the Twin Cities. Everything will also be made available virtually, which will give entrepreneurs flexibility to travel for client meetings or anything else they need to attend to.
This year's class includes the program's first two teams from Africa. Meanwhile, two sets of founders are from Uruguay.
“Ecolab believes that innovative ideas can come from anyone and anywhere, and our involvement in the Techstars program is one way that we are helping to advance innovation to benefit the food industry and ultimately, society,” John Guttery, senior vice president of enterprise initiatives for Ecolab said in a statement. “We look forward to helping these impressive entrepreneurs advance their solutions and enable a more efficient and sustainable food system.”
The accelerator will end with a virtual pitch day on Oct. 15.
These are the 2020 Farm to Fork Accelerator companies:
- Cape Town, South Africa/San Francisco-based 3DIMO is an online marketplace for selling livestock and is vetted using AI and analytics.
- Montevideo, Uruguay-based BOxES is making sustainable retail by combining physical and digital technology.
- Toronto-based Caddy is building a program for food safety and traceability.
- Los Angeles-based Carbon Origins is providing free food delievery using robots monitored by remote virtual reality drivers.
- San Francisco-based Dispatch Goods is a reverse logistics company working on reusable packaging.
- Kampala, Uganda-based Hya Bioplastics is working on biodegradable food packaging using decentralized manufacturing technology.
- New York, N.Y.-based Parkday is building data-driven food programs for companies and employees.
- New York, N.Y.-based Quartolio is an automation platform that breaks down scientific insights.
- Chicago-based Science on Call is a 24/7 help desk for restaurants.
- Montreal-based UBI Meat Experts is using AI to grade and monitor the quality of cuts in the meat industry.
- Atlanta-based Ziscuit is a reverse auction platform that allows retailers to bid on fulfilling shopper's grocery lists.
