The foodtech sector has experienced remarkable growth in France in recent years. However, there is still progress to be made in structuring and developing support mechanisms for innovative startups in the agri-food sector. To address this challenge by pooling resources, several regional ecosystems have come together within the Foodtech® France network to unite, promote, and accelerate innovative food entrepreneurs, from farm to fork.
Interview with Anaïs Zanin, Foodtech® France representative.
What exactly is foodtech?
Anais Zanin : Foodtech is the sector of agrifood start-ups providers of solutions innovative ideasThese solutions cover the entire value chain, from agricultural production to consumer services. These may include innovative products, technologies, raw materials or ingredients, or solutions to facilitate delivery or access to information, or support services for consumers.
The network Foodtech®, which we launched at the end of last year, brings together all the players in this sector. We represent and lead the community of innovative entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in the ecosystem. This community is, of course, made up of: innovative start-ups working from farm to fork, but also from all stakeholders having a role to play in their development: investors, banks, mass distribution, lawyers, experts, etc.
Today the network has more than 300 start-up ! We are happy to contribute to the promotion of innovative solutions throughout the country.
How are you made up?
Anais Zanin : Five ecosystems are brought together by FoodTech® France: Grand-Est, Paris Ile-de-France, Grand Sud, Pays de la Loire and Dijon Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. These ecosystems are led respectively by the FoodTech Grand Est association, the Paris Ile-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Innov'Alliance competitiveness cluster, Technocampus and Vitagora. The network is coordinated by myself and by Elise Bourcier, herself president of a Foodtech start-up: C&DAC.
With this strategic alliance of five structures private et Publish, mainly associative, the national network encourages exchanges between young shoots, but also collectively drives the interactions and collaborations between start-ups, businesses, investors, public and academic actors.
What are your goals, your ambition?
Anais Zanin : Our leitmotif is the right contacts and the right tools, at the right time. We want to help the entrepreneurs sector to focus on their core business of entrepreneurship and innovation. We are their gateway, their point of contact to be able to best direct them towards the most relevant players according to their issues. At the same time, we are also working on their visibility and reputation through various actions.
What are your actions?
We have developed several tools et shares , which we continue to improve:
- We advise you how to use support services and associated tools enabling the acceleration and security of the development of start-ups of the food industry
- We give visibilite to start-ups and innovations of the ecosystem, in France and the international (example: facilitating access to major national and international trade fairs, such as NATEXPO or SIAL Paris) and helping them to export and establish themselves in new markets
- We bring somequality information on sector news and we provide the community with the expertise of members of the FoodTech® network (conferences, workshops, monitoring, etc.)
- We organize unifying events, across the entire country, covering all foodtech themes, from field to plate
- Join we represent the foodtech community and us let's raise awareness (public authorities, citizens, young people, etc.) to the challenges of entrepreneurship in the agri-food industry.
How to reach you?
For start-ups you need to have a innovative character (technologies across the entire value chain, product, process, service, etc.), in the service of a food tasty, healthy and sustainable. For other stakeholders, it is necessary to offer services useful for supporting and developing these entrepreneurs.
Then you just need to:
- Subscribe to our newsletter
- Or to participate in an event
- Or simply ask us: contact@foodtech.com
Why are you attending NATEXPO?
Start-ups are often driven by an ambition to create impact in the transition to a more sustainable agri-food sector. When we talk about innovation in sustainable and eco-responsible agri-food, Natexpo is an unmissable trade show! We allow our organic start-ups or solution providers to exhibit there under the Foodtech banner and thus be identified more easily as an innovative company. We also increase their visibility tenfold through the communication we do on our social networks.
It's also an opportunity for us to meet new startups in the sector and invite them to join our community!
INFORMATION AND CONTACT
Anaïs Zanin - anais.zanin@vitagora.com
Elise Bourcier - elise.bourcier@cetdac.com
FoodTech® Grand-Est Manager and co-coordinator of the national network and C&DAC president