Nutreco announced that Aquarech is the winner of the 2022 Nutreco Feed & Food Tech Challenge (NFFTC).
Aquarech works on building Kenya's first fish farming supply chain platform. The startup will receive a validation trial supported by Nutreco experts to further develop its technology.
Jury member, Alex Obach, said that “through their Aquarech platform, fish farmers in Kenya and Africa can buy top-quality feed, sell fish, and learn about best fish farming practices to improve their incomes and, in general, to improve the entire supply chain of high-quality fish to feed to the local population. We look forward to supporting Aquarech in further developing their innovative concept.”
This year’s NFFTC received over 100 submissions from 48 countries. These were narrowed down to 15 finalists, who received support from Nutreco mentors to develop a pitch deck and business case that they defended at a virtual pitching event in June. A jury of industry experts selected five top candidates from these finalists. The top five attended an in-person finale this week in the Netherlands to pitch their ideas one last time and network with other startups, investors, and Nutreco experts in a program that included speakers and interactive discussions.
The 2022 NFFTC jury included: Laëtitia Gerbe, partner at Seventure Partners; Alexandre van der Wees, investment director at Creadev; Rosie Wardle, co-founder and partner at Synthesis Capital; Nis Bak, principal at Novo Holdings; Thomas Giehm, investment manager at AquaSpark; Silke Birlenbach, director of global innovation at Trouw Nutrition; Alex Obach, innovation director at Skretting; Erik Tveteraas, investment director at Nutreco NuFrontiers; and Susanne Wiegel, investment manager for Alternative Proteins at Nutreco NuFrontiers.
“This year’s entries showed a great deal of promise in helping our industry solve the challenges we face as we work to produce more protein more sustainably and achieve our purpose of Feeding the Future. We’d like to thank everyone who participated in this year’s Challenge,” said Nutreco’s director of venturing & business development, Joost Matthijssen.
Find more information on NFFTC here.
