The 3rd edition of the BFFood acceleration and consolidation program is open

Galicia’s food sector accelerator, promoted by the Xunta de Galicia and driven by the Galician Food Cluster (Clusaga), Business Factory Food (BFFood) presented its third edition on Tuesday, October 20, in an online session attended by Fernando Guldrís, director of Igape. The objective of this new edition is to identify and promote up to 16 innovative entrepreneurial projects, both national and international, that address the challenges of the food industry.

Startups, entities, and companies with an innovative idea can submit their applications, for both the acceleration and consolidation programs, via the website bffood.gal until January 11, 2021, at 2 PM.

Throughout its two editions, BFFood has supported a total of 20 projects from the 121 applications received, from both Spain and the rest of the continent. In this new edition, it will select up to ten initiatives for its 9-month acceleration program and up to six for its 12-month consolidation program.

Proposed Challenges

Business Factory Food seeks to promote and consolidate innovative projects that respond to the main challenges posed by companies in the food sector, which are: digitalization and automation; traceability, quality, and food safety; logistics; sustainability and packaging; new product development; and process and commercialization innovation. An open challenge is also proposed for any project applicable to the industry that involves the introduction of some type of innovation or improvement.

Additionally, due to the situation generated by COVID-19, BFFood has incorporated a special challenge seeking projects aimed at strengthening the food industry’s resilience to emergency situations arising from pandemics.

Mentoring and Financial Support

Projects selected in the third edition of BFFood will receive financial support from the Xunta de Galicia. Specifically, they will access non-repayable funding from Gain of €25,000 in the acceleration program, for product or service development, and a participatory loan, which could entail a capitalization option, of up to a maximum of €50,000, through XesGalicia. In the case of consolidation projects, they may access a participatory loan that could entail a capitalization option of up to a maximum of €250,000 from XesGalicia.

Each selected project will have a specific mentor from one of BFFood’s driving companies, who will be responsible for guiding its evolution and development, facilitating the alignment of the value proposition with the challenge resolution. In this third edition, the companies responsible for this mentoring process are Bodegas Martín Códax, Cafés Candelas, Calvo, Clavo Food Factory, Congalsa, Cooperativas Lácteas Unidas (CLUN), Gadis, Galacteum, Kiwi Atlántico, CAPSA FOOD (Larsa), Nueva Pescanova, Quescrem, Torre de Núñez, and Viña Costeira.

BFFood, which is part of the StartIN Galicia platform supported by the regional public administration, also has the support of the three Galician universities, the Galician Association of Agrarian Cooperatives (AGACA), ANFACO CECOPESCA, the Technological Institute of Galicia (ITG), and the Galician Business-University Foundation (FEUGA) on its technical committee.