Bühler and Big Idea Ventures are joining forces to accelerate the success journey of promising start-ups creating great tasting alternatives to animal derived protein products
This new partnership is expected to benefit from Bühler’s global network of food application centers across Europe, Asia and the US. (Image source: Bühler Group)
Big Idea Ventures, the global venture capital fund focused on solving the world’s greatest challenges by supporting the world’s best entrepreneurs, recently launched the New Protein Fund. The fund will invest in and accelerate up to 100 plant-based and cell-based companies globally. Big Idea Ventures runs four accelerator programmes annually in New York and Singapore.
The new Food Application Centre in Minneapolis provides a platform for developing new ways to transform peas, beans, corn, pulses, oats, ancient grains, and many other crops into new food solutions such as flours, snacks, pasta, cereals, and a myriad of extruded products, including plant-based meat analogs.
The joint Givaudan Bühler innovation facility in Singapore focuses on sustainable protein–based products. Combining the flavor and formulation know-how of Givaudan with the process know-how and technological capabilities of Bühler, it provides a one-stop shop for development and first scale up of new products for market test.
“We are glad to have Bühler join Tyson Ventures, Temasek and our other strategic investors in the Big Idea Venture’s New Protein Fund. Together we can support the growth of the new generation of leading plant-based companies in North America, Asia and ultimately, the Planet. Bühler and Big Idea Ventures will work together to build great companies responding to consumer demands for great tasting food that is good for them and good for the Planet,” said Andrew D. Ive, Founder of Big Idea Ventures.
Ian Roberts, chief technology officer of Bühler, commented, “There is an urgent need for wide scale collaboration if we are to make an impact on the climate and nutrition challenges within the next decade. Academics, start-ups, and established companies need to come together to innovate and find more sustainable ways to produce food. This is why we are partnering with Big Idea Ventures: to accelerate the journey for promising start-ups, to reinforce partnership and start-up ecosystems in Singapore and the USA, and to do this with a clear focus on creating a more sustainable food supply for the future.”
“This new partnership benefits from our global network of Food Application Centres across Europe, Asia and the USA”, said Johannes Wick, CEO of Bühler Grain and Foods. “However, it is particularly timely, given that we are opening our Food Application Centre in Minneapolis this week and introduce new technologies, such as the Filtrex solution, specifically for this sector and will open our joint innovation facility with Givaudan in Singapore later this year.”