13 projects present solutions to the challenges of the food sector after taking part in BFFood

• Driven by the Xunta de Galicia and coordinated by Clusaga, Business Factory Food is the vertical accelerator for the Galician food sector

• The projects participating in the 4th Edition presented their solutions to the challenges set by leading companies in the sector at an event organised by Clusaga and FEUGA

• The event also served to address all the details of the call to apply to be part of the 6th Edition of the accelerator, which remains open from 2 October to 15 November

Business Factory Food (BFFood), the vertical accelerator for the Galician food sector driven by the Xunta de Galicia and coordinated by the Galician Food Cluster (Clusaga) and leading companies in the Galician food industry, has just held the Demo Day of its 4th Edition, an event in which the projects supported by the accelerator present their solutions to the challenges set by the food sector after taking part in BFFood. At the same time, the event hosted the presentation of the 6th Edition of the accelerator, whose call is open.

Thus, the Auditorium of the FEUGA Building (Santiago de Compostela) hosted this morning the presentation of the innovative entrepreneurial solutions from the projects that were part of this fourth edition. Likewise, the event, organised by Clusaga and the Galician University-Business Foundation (FEUGA), served to present all aspects related to the call for the 6th Edition, whose project submission period will remain open until 15 November.

The day, opened by Norberto Penedo, Director of the Competitiveness Area of the Galician Institute for Economic Promotion (Igape) of the Xunta de Galicia, and Roberto Alonso, Director of Clusaga, also included a talk on the opportunities offered by the new startups law, delivered by Vento Abogados & Asesores; and served to review the opportunities offered by different investment funds supporting entrepreneurs, with XesGalicia, Unirisco, Noso Capital, CaixaBank DayOne and Banco Sabadell.

At the end, a round table took place on the experience and value of entrepreneurship programmes for the food industry which, moderated by AGACA, included the participation of representatives from BFFood’s anchor companies Casa Grande de Xanceda, GADISA and Congalsa. The institutional closing was led by Patricia Fernández Liz, Director of the Services Area of the Galician Innovation Agency of the Xunta de Galicia, who highlighted “BFFood’s work in strengthening the competitiveness and digital transformation of the Galician food sector”.

Projects from the fourth edition of BFFood

Lean 4.0, Néboda Smart Factory 4.0, Bluemarine Oil, Enzicas, Code Contract, Proplantae, ODS Protein, Las Jellys, Nano Cell Farms, Entrii, Keyfruit, AONIR and TOTALGAC FOOD provided solutions in the thematic areas of traceability, food quality and safety; sustainability; new product development; process and marketing innovation; and digitalisation and automation.

During their time in BFFood’s entrepreneurship programme, these projects received comprehensive and specialised support from the Galician food sector according to their level of development. The projects in the acceleration programme—Lean 4.0, Néboda Smart Factory 4.0, Bluemarine Oil, Enzicas, Code Contract, Nano Cell Farms and Proplantae—developed their minimum viable product or service over 9 months, while those in the consolidation programme—ODS Protein, Las Jellys, Entrii, Keyfruit, AONIR and TOTALGAC FOOD—strengthened their first sales over 12 months.

During their time at BFFood, all these startups had the main leading companies in the Galician food sector as mentors, guiding and facilitating their development in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and had access to specific financing in the form of non-repayable grants and participating loans.

This 4th Edition of BFFood closes having carried out tailored mentoring and coaching programmes for each project throughout the duration of each programme, as well as 85 hours of training coordinated by the USC and delivered by the three Galician public universities.

These figures are the result of the joint work of Clusaga with the Xunta de Galicia, through the Galician Innovation Agency, Igape and XesGalicia; of the anchor companies ALS Laber, CAPSA, Casa Grande de Xanceda, CEAMSA, GADISA, GALACTEUM, Grupo Lence, Grupo Nueva Pescanova, Hijos de Rivera, Innolact, Kiwi Atlántico, Torre de Núñez and Viña Costeira; of the three Galician public universities; and of the member entities of the accelerator’s Technical Committee: AGACA, ANFACO-CECOPESCA, FEUGA and Unirisco.

Call open to take part in the 6th edition of BFFood

During the event, Xosé Ramón Vázquez, head of BFFood, recalled that the call to submit projects and apply to be part of the 6th edition of the accelerator will remain open until 15 November. From among the applications submitted, up to ten initiatives will be selected for the acceleration programme and up to six for the consolidation programme, with the aim of offering disruptive solutions to address the new challenges of the food and beverage sector.

Over its five previous editions, BFFood has supported 61 projects from the 288 applications received, both from Spain and from outside the European continent.