Recent progress you’ve made possible

ProVeg Czechia, Poland, and Germany have been making huge strides in advancing plant-based and cultured-food innovation, and connecting key players in the plant-based scene.

• ProVeg Czechia held its first ever New Food Forum in April, attended by delegates from the country’s largest retail chains and food producers. Partners included Tesco and the Confederation of Trade and Tourism of the Czech Republic, as well as leading plant-based brands Garden Gourmet and Alpro.
• In May, ProVeg Germany, together with IFFA and VEMAG, presented the New Food Insights event at IFFA, one of the world’s leading trade fairs for the meat industry. New Food Insights provided a fresh glimpse into developments in the alternative-protein sector, with the ProVeg team engaging with various stakeholders in the food industry and showcasing the many opportunities within the sector. This program, made more engaging by a booth shared with our partners, paved the way for ProVeg to expand its networks, meet potential sponsors, and create new partnerships to help accelerate the shift to a more sustainable food system.
• Following the success of Czechia and Germany, ProVeg Poland also recently concluded its New Food Forum, which was attended by more than 210 delegates. The forum provided an opportunity to form new networks and discuss the global food-price situation and the impact of the war in Ukraine on the plant-based sector.

Seven pioneering, impact-driven food-tech startups, hailing from India, to the US to Israel, have joined the eighth edition of the world-renowned ProVeg Incubator accelerator programme. This cohort has a strong focus on unique ingredients and revolutionary technologies, with the startups developing numerous innovative products, including mushroom-based ingredients grown on vegetable waste, cultured fat, and microalgae-based seafood.

Meanwhile, ProVeg Incubator’s alumni have been cooking up a storm in the investment world. Shanghai-based Haofood raised $3.5 million from investors for its plant-based chicken made from peanut protein. Libre Foods, whose founder and CEO was a former team member of the ProVeg Incubator, recently raised $2.5 million in a seed-funding round and was declared one of the winners of Carrefour’s Plant-Based Contest. The Barcelona biotech firm is harnessing fermentation technology to place fungi at the forefront of food innovation, starting with alt-bacon. Finally, the ProVeg Incubator hosted three record-breaking online events this quarter – two Future Foods Series events, presented together with partner Zintinus, and a new event series, presented in partnership with Edeka Food Tech Campus and KitchenTown, on the topic of impact and mission in the startup ecosystem.