Mentorships awarded to Aussie startups on the path to halve food waste by 2030
Fifteen startups will receive support and mentorship as they explore innovative ways to fight the war on waste as part of Rocket Seeder’s Food Waste + Loss program.
The Rocket Seeder accelerator program, a Recycling Victoria Business Support Fund recipient, selected the startups at the end of 2021 and is supporting them to build new business models to solve food waste and food loss.
Participants receive mentorship from business leaders and entrepreneurs as well as a grant of $2000 upon successful completion of the program. They also have the chance to compete for a further $20,000 prize at a showcase event to take place in April 2022.
Choosing the right startups
Rocket Seeder Managing Director, Emma Coath says she was “blown away by the quality of the entries.”
“It’s great to see that despite the challenges of the last couple of years people are still striving to find solutions to food waste issues.”
Rocket Seeder, which offers support to startups in the Australian food and agriculture sector, developed the Food Waste + Loss program to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals relating to food consumption and production.
Food waste accounts for more than 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions – more than the entire aviation sector – and over half of Australia's value chain food and waste losses come from family households.
“There is a huge opportunity here for ag tech and emerging entrepreneurs,” says Emma.
“Each of the participants has an exciting idea that will go a long way to promoting sustainable consumption.”
Getting to know the participants
Fifteen participants are receiving mentorship from the program, including:
WoWder
WoWder is a healthy, sustainably sourced and produced drink snack for kids, fussy eaters, and families on the go. It is made from natural ingredients, using produce from Australian farmers that may otherwise go to waste.
In Season Juices
In Season Juices was inspired by a farmers market manager who saw a gap in the market for more products highlighting the produce available at the market. They offer healthy, tasty and fun fruit and veg juice blends using farmers market produce.
Ripen Baby Food
Ripen is a family owned and operated baby food company with a focus on nutritious whole Australian ingredients that aims to provide a chilled fresh product to families in place of shelf stable, extended life products that proliferate the market.
Seaweedery Pty Ltd
Seaweedery transform seafood processing waste into delicious culinary sauces and ingredients.
Soyful
Soyful is using food to its fullest and creating new options through upcycling okara (soybean pulp). They offer okara flour, okara cookie mix, okara baking blend, okara miso paste, okara tamari, and okara furikake.
ConnectOne Club
ConnectOne Club builds collaboration platforms for farmer groups who face challenges in planning their harvest and aggregating their produce.
Sensibility Ltd
An AI-powered Phone Microscopy platform that enables farmers to assess pests, plant disease and assess quality along the food production value chain.
Forkful Pty Ltd
Forkful connects consumers to surplus unsold food from local restaurants, cafes and bakeries at a discounted price. They help businesses identify where they have a problem by educating them that surplus food isn't necessarily wasted food.
Honest Feeds
Honest Feeds is an Australian social enterprise providing livestock farmers with nutritious and affordable feed supplement crafted from citrus and other commonly occurring organic food waste.
Whole
Whole is disrupting the food production industry by bringing to market a proprietary technology that enables cost effective and large-scale production of plant-based ingredients and flavours that are 100% free from chemical processing.
Grow Ample
Ample is about providing the tools and resources to grow plants indoors without a single ray of sun.
Zerosphere
Zerosphere wants to revolutionise refrigeration for the first time since 1830. Their new (patent pending) magnet and radiation-free, supercooling food preservation technology can significantly extend the shelf life of fresh produce, proteins and seafood.
Mindful Milk
Mindful Milk is a startup devoted to decoupling plastic consumption from milk consumption in Australia by using reusable kegs.
Food Remedy Co
Food Remedy Co is a digital startup on a mission to revolutionise the way people think about, make decisions around and consume food.
Foodcircle
FoodCircle is the innovation company that is catalysing FoodVillages and developing the FoodCircle digital platform for families, local communities and food businesses to reclaim food, revive community and regenerate nature.