In these days the first Open Mouth Hamburg Food Festival takes place. In this context, the Hamburg Investors Network together with the Food Harbour organized a "Food Edition" of its popular event series StartAperitivo. Ten startups presented their products and ideas, with Plantlike winning the audience award with a project centered on mushrooms.
Food also involves a lot of tech
At Impact StartAperitivo "Food Edition", that’s the full name of the event, the founders of ten startups tried to make their business models palatable to investors. Being about food, there was of course plenty to taste, such as the baked fish from Bella's Catch. The first ready-made meals are to be available shortly. Already on the market are some of The Raging Pig Company's plant-based pork alternatives, such as vegan bacon. Into the "functional food" category fall the drinks and gums from COLLIDE, which contain collagen and are intended to slow down the aging process.
The topic of food not only offers culinary innovations, there is also a lot going on technologically. One example is the startup COLIPI, which produces oils with the help of microorganisms and CO2. However, it will be several years before they are ready for the market. The same applies to the cultivated meat that farms can produce in the compact production facilities of MEATOSYS. ReGood, which produces a type of liquid flour from spent grains, a waste product from beer brewing, is already further along. Committed to more sustainability in the catering industry is supply.one. It offers a digital tool for menu planning.
The audience award was won by the project of a female solo founder
As always at StartAperitivo, the audience had the opportunity to vote for their favorite startup. Third place went to Repaq and a plant-based plastic alternative that has already generated sales of 2 million euros in 2022. Vanozza received the second most votes for its vegan mozzarella alternative, which has recently been listed with a major supermarket chain. Plantlike is not that far yet; the university project of solo founder Mara Thiele is just taking its first steps toward becoming a company. Mara also uses spent grains and grows lion's mane mushrooms with them to create tasty meat alternatives. The public response shows that she is on the right track.
