According to Sejal Ravji, director of organizers Pascual Innoventures, "Mylkcubator launches its first edition with the aim of marking a dramatic before and after in food innovation. I think we are facing global challenges that can only be resolved thanks to bold bets like this; it’s a starting point for the development of the dairy products of the future. It’s a very ambitious project at many levels, including technological, but we’re partnering with leading experts, companies, and investors from all over the world who share our vision to make it happen".
The selected startups
Real Deal Milk (Spain) develops milk proteins through precision fermentation in order to make dairy products that are produced without animals but are nutritionally and gastronomically equivalent to traditional dairy products.
Zero Cow Factory (India) producing India's first milk & dairy products (a world's first in A2 milk protein) using microbial bioengineering & precision fermentation.
De Novo Dairy (South Africa) uses precision fermentation technology to produce animal-free dairy proteins that provide the same sensory experience and nutrition as their traditional dairy counterparts.
M2Factors (US) 108Labs' subsidiary M2Factors, Inc is accelerating cell-cultured dairy by crashing the cost of production.
Organizers said research hubs have already expressed their willingness to collaborate with some of the selected startups in the development of their research. The organizers said the partnerships will allow the teams to work in some of the most cutting-edge facilities of these research centers, ‘professionalizing’ and boosting the development process of the projects.
In addition, funds investing in startups working on technologies for developing protein alternatives in the agri-food sector, such as Blue Horizon, Lever VC, Unovis or Ninepointfive, a venture capital fund specializing in leveraging corporate acceleration, will also monitor Mylkcubator's technological developments to advise the startups and look for future collaboration opportunities to maximize the potential of their projects.
The incubation program will commence with the first sessions to determine the state of development of each project both at a business and technological level with guidance from Pascual Innoventures, Eatable Adventures and the investors and partners involved. In addition, the feasibility of the innovations and the possible development of pilot projects for future business opportunities in the dairy sector will be studied.