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Story 24 February 2022
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EIC Coffee Break with Avi Schwartzer: Applying innovative solutions to things that matter

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Oriana Baptista

Every month, during a Coffee Break, we dive into the stories of EIC innovators and get a glimpse of the people behind the start-ups. Today’s guest is Avi Schwartzer – co-Founder and COO of Clarifruit. Avi had an eureka moment when he realised fresh produce needed a quality control (QC) tool to better determine their quality. Since then, the company has developed a software platform that digitalises and automates fresh fruit & vegetables QC processes. Keep reading to find out more about it in this month’s EIC Coffee Break. 

  

Tell us how the idea for your innovation started. Was it something that was bouncing in the back of your head for a long time? 

It all started about five years ago. At the time, I was working for the company Mercury for almost ten years – that was later purchased by HP – and was the R&D manager of a QC product whose aim was QA for the software industry. So, I had quite a lot of experience with testing software. In parallel, I have a background in farming, and, for instance, am used to growing clementines and mangos in my backyard. 

 

Given I was receiving some complaints about the quality of the clementines I was producing – and please note that I was just an amateur in that area –, I had an eureka moment and realised I had to learn more about this topic. I took it upon myself to search the internet to understand better how everything works and became amazed by all the existing techniques to successfully grow fresh produce. Then soon understood, there was no QC tool to detect the quality of fresh produce and immediately started working towards that. 

  

How did your family respond to your ideas/innovation? 

There was a lot of understanding and enthusiasm from my family and friends when I shared this innovative idea with them. It’s a straightforward one to empathise with because everyone can be emotionally attached to how pivotal it is to have fresh fruits and vegetables. As it’s such an important commodity. 

 

When you add software that’s able to tell you how good or ripe a tomato is to that equation, and showcase the need for that technology, people receive well your idea too. There were some fears, especially for me because I had to leave such a big company and important job, start a new company. – that’s always challenging and risky. However, generally speaking, it was worth it and I was very lucky to be supported in such a good way by my loved ones. 

  

Who or what has shaped where you are? 

During my childhood, I was brought up to be an independent individual. This has thought me to believe in myself and my capabilities. That has helped me, aligned with a great team, to do and achieve the impossible at Clarifruit. Of course, it’s not an impossible thing to establish a successful company, but it’s something that takes time, hard work, and is difficult. 

  

Can you tell us about a tough moment you had at your company and how you pushed through? 

During the early stages of Clarifruit, we went through a tough moment. We were dependent on a type of hardware device that was used to measure some things. This was one of the initial concepts of our company – doing computer vision side by side with a hardware device that measures internal characteristics. Initially, we had some trouble with the device because it wasn’t working well from the customer’s side. So, we tried to solve this and worked hard, and after two years we realised this approach wasn’t working. 

 

Having one of the key things of the product not working well was tough for us and it took us some time to find an alternative to this crucial part of our product. But in the end, we found a better way to improve it and make it work for all parts involved. So, always try to challenge yourself and your basic concepts of a potentially innovative idea and ensure if that’s still valid or not. 

  

What advice can you give people who are currently playing with the idea of starting a company? 

Always look for the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Often when entrepreneurs try to create new projects or start a company, they think big – and that’s important, of course. While doing so, keep in mind that starting a big project is very expensive and time-consuming, plus might take years to kick off the way you want to. In my opinion, the best approach is to start small, with a simple idea that’s easy to build and adds added value to your potential customers/users. 

 

What are you currently reading and what book inspired you the most? 

Firstly, the book that inspired me the most is called ‘Sapiens – A brief history of humankind’ by Yuval Noah Harari. The way he took many different parts of our history and built an entire theory about how humans have reached the place we are at throughout many thousands of years is amazing. Secondly, I am currently reading another book by Yuval Noah Harari that’s called ‘Homo Deus – A brief history of tomorrow’. 

  

If you could talk business over lunch with a large corporate CEO or global leader, which one would you choose and why? 

I would choose Bill Gates for this. The fact that he changed his life focus from building a huge company like Microsoft to trying to help humanity become better and give huge amounts of money, not only to charity but also to improve important areas in the world, shows he’s an impressive and inspiring person/individual.

DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.

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