This year we decided to join forces with Forward Fooding, and included them as one of our strategic partners during the Food 4 Future ExpoFoodTech 2023.
This partnership is an exciting development for the AgriFoodTech industry and underscores the importance of collaboration and partnerships in driving innovation and tech adoption in the AgriFood sector.
Forward Fooding launches each year the FoodTech 500, an annual list of the most innovative and pioneering startups in the AgriFoodTech sector. Inspired by Fortune magazine’s Fortune 500, the FoodTech 500 list features companies that are working towards creating a more sustainable and equitable food system.
The FoodTech 500 received a total of 7,500 applications over the 4 editions, with companies applying from all over the world.
To rank the top 500 companies, Forward Fooding uses its proprietary data intelligence platform called FoodTech Data Navigator. The platform uses algorithms to evaluate each company’s digital footprint, sustainability practices, and business size before aggregating the data to provide the final ranking.
2022 FoodTech 500 Top 10 startups
The finalists on the 2022 FoodTech 500 list have received over €10.7 billion in funding, seven companies are publicly traded, and eight have been valued at $1 billion or more.
The top 10 startups featured on the 2022 FoodTech 500 list include Bowery Farming, which is the largest vertical farming company in the US and builds indoor farms near cities; Ÿnsect, a French startup that is a world leader in insect protein production; and Plenty, an indoor vertical farm based in San Francisco that can grow fresh produce anywhere, all year round.
Other top startups on the list include Infarm, a Berlin-based startup that builds a network of climate-resilient vertical farms; ProducePay, a startup that provides financial solutions for farmers and connects buyers with growers; Nature’s Fynd, a Chicago-based startup that uses fermentation to grow a fungi protein named Fy, which is then used in a variety of healthy vegan foods; Protix, a Dutch startup that turns food waste into sustainable insect ingredients to be used as an alternative to soy or fish meal; and JUST, a US company that is well-known for its plant-based JUST Egg product. Choco, a Berlin-based startup that has created a platform to connect restaurants with suppliers to save money, time, and simplify the ordering process, and Heura, a Barcelona-based company that makes delicious and healthy plant-based meat products, also made the list.