BFFood, the accelerator for the Galician food sector, celebrates the demo day of its third edition

During the event, the opening of the call for projects to participate in the 4th edition of BFFood was announced, which will remain open until 2022-04-30

Business Factory Food (BFFood), the vertical accelerator for the Galician food sector promoted by the Xunta de Galicia and managed by the Galician Food Cluster (Clusaga) and leading companies in the Galician food industry, has just celebrated the demo day of the III Edition of this program.

During the meeting, which took place in the Xosé Neira Vilas Auditorium of the City of Culture (Santiago de Compostela), 10 of the 14 projects that were part of this third edition delivered a presentation explaining how their innovative initiative has offered a response to the main challenges posed by companies in the Galician food sector.

Projects from the third edition of BFFood

Aotech, Asuque, Eliter, Ethical Farm Box, Galinsect, Ghop, Hk:Coffee, Ingal, Kiwanda Food, Mindsaic, Mobitec, ODS Protein, TotalGAC Food and Wapping have provided solutions in the thematic areas of traceability, food quality and safety; development of new products; process and marketing innovation; digitalization and automation; and logistics.

During their time in the BFFood entrepreneurship program, these projects have received comprehensive and specialized support from the Galician food sector based on their stage of development. The projects in the acceleration program, Aotech, Asuque, Eliter, Ghop, Ingal, Mindsaic, ODS Protein and TotalGAC Food, developed their minimum viable product or service over 9 months, while those in the consolidation program, Ethical Farm Box, Galinsect, Hk:Coffee, Kiwanda Food, Mobitec and Wapping, strengthened their first sales over 12 months.

Furthermore, these startups have had the main leading companies in the sector as mentors, guiding and facilitating their development in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and have had access to specific financing, in the form of non-repayable grants and participative loans.

In this regard, the CEO of Torre de Núñez, Jose Manuel Núñez Torre, highlighted during his closing speech at the event that, “in total, in the third edition, more than 350 hours of mentoring and coaching have been carried out and the projects have received 64 hours of training.” These figures “are the result of the joint work of Clusaga with the Xunta de Galicia, through Gain, Igape and XesGalicia, the driving companies CONGALSA, LENCE (Leche Río Group), DS-SMITH, GALACTEUM, Corporación Laber, Capsa Vida (Larsa), Vegalsa-Eroski, Clun, Gadisa, Kiwi Atlántico, Cafés Candelas, Nueva Pescanova and Viña Costeira, the three Galician public universities and the network of collaborators.”

For his part, the second vice-president and regional minister of Economy, Business and Innovation, Francisco Conde, highlighted the work of BFFood in strengthening the competitiveness and digital transformation of the Galician food sector.

Call for participation in the IV edition of BFFood now open

During the event, Javier Osuna, head of BFFood, announced the opening of the call to submit projects and apply to be part of the IV edition of BFFood, which will remain open until April 30. From the applications submitted, up to six initiatives will be selected for the acceleration program and up to six for the consolidation program, with the aim of offering disruptive solutions to face the new challenges of the food and beverage sector.

This new edition will also have the support of two new driving companies for the mentoring program: Casa Grande de Xanceda and Hijos de Rivera, which join the rest of the entities that have been supporting BFFood since its inception.