EIC ePitching on Food and Agritech: Connecting innovators with investors for a sustainable future

Seven innovative companies within the EIC food and agritech portfolio pitched their solutions to a distinguished panel of investors at the EIC ePitching held on 4 December. The session attracted more than 20 investors, resulting in more than 30 one-on-one meetings and follow-ups with the entrepreneurs. The pitching was an initiative of the EIC Investor Readiness and Outreach Programme, one of the EIC’s Business Acceleration Services (BAS).

Leveraging advanced technologies such as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), the companies presented their products and services in various sectors, including animal feed and aquaculture, as well as innovative and sustainable food. Additionally, one of the agriculture solutions presented during the session showcased potential applications in the space industry. The selected EIC Accelerator companies included:

• Aviwell, based in France, which has created a proprietary Discovery Platform that identifies native, natural and bacterial consortia that positively affect animal growth and performance. This hybrid platform combines AI with life sciences to revolutionise the EUR 450 billion animal feed industry. The team plans to commercialise specific feed additives that provide the agri-food industry higher performance at lower costs. These compelling benefits helped secure investor interest, with Aviwell’s pitch being voted by the investors as the best of the day.
• Blue Planet Ecosystems, an Austrian startup that turns sunlight into seafood with vertically integrated, solar-powered aquaculture systems for sustainable fish production. Their AI-powered, self-optimizing control system enables global seafood production without exploiting ocean resources.
• Computomics, from Germany, has developed proprietary ML technologies to predict the physical characteristics of plants. This helps plant breeding customers select the right varieties to grow in a changing climate, bringing superior prediction accuracy and integration of phenotyping, genotyping, and environmental data. Computomics has been awarded the second-best pitch of the session.
• DigiFarm, from Norway, has developed an AI model that automatically detects the world‘s most accurate field boundaries and planted area based on super-high resolution satellite imagery data at ~1% of the current cost of existing solutions.
• Lithos Crop Protect, from Austria, facilitates the registration, marketing and distribution of innovative sustainable plant protection and biostimulant products.
• Millow has developed a unique and patented fermentation technology combining mycelium with local plants, producing clean-label, protein-rich and highly nutritious food with great taste and texture and bioavailable vitamins. The Swedish sustainable and cost-efficient solution uses only 2.3% water and one third of the energy and capital expenditure, saving 95% of CO2 compared to other technologies.
• Smart Farm Robotix tackles one of agriculture‘s oldest challenges – weed control - by offering a fully automated, eco-friendly solution. The Bulgarian solar-powered robot eliminates the need for harmful herbicides, reduces CO2 emissions from traditional machinery, and avoids the labor-intensive process of manual weeding. Using AI and advanced navigation, it precisely identifies and removes weeds through mechanical and non-contact methods, supporting organic farming and benefiting climate-vulnerable farmers.

Aviwell’s gut microbiome – harnessing Mother Nature as the first and best biotech to impact the food supply

Aviwell operates at the intersection of life science and data science. Their groundbreaking discovery came seven years ago during research on type 2 diabetes in humans, when they found that they could influence the gut microbiome. This involves modifying the bacterial ecologies in an animal’s gut, positively impacting the host’s growth and health functions.

“This is a miraculous discovery and a miraculous ability. Our co-founder was one of the key people who led this research in 2017. So, our goal is to colonise the gut microbiome of animals with natural, safe native bacteria so that they grow healthier and they grow stronger. We do this by using our artificial intelligence and machine learning ability to figure out which bacteria and thereby creating a much safer and much more secure food supply for the entire world.” - Chandra Mouli Ramani, CEO of Aviwell.

The idea was born out of a lab with mice, but “applying it to animals rather than humans was a breakthrough that Aviwell pioneered”, noted the CEO. The French company then extended its approach to other animals, including chickens and fish.

For Chandra Mouli, the highlights of the session were the quality of the companies and investors who attended:

“My first takeaway: I said I was going to do all of these other things during the hour between my pitch and the meetings. But I did zero because I listened to all of the other pitches. Everyone was really good. You had some excellent, excellent companies and it's an honour to be among those companies. Take away number two: the VCs that you had pulled together. I was very impressed with the quality of the investors as well too, and the follow-up has been very good. We did three one-on-ones and I have another four lined up. It was very, very good. I was very happy to do it.” - Chandra Mouli Ramani, CEO of Aviwell.

Computomics: revolutionising plant breeding with machine learning and artificial intelligence

Computomics, a German-based company, provides predictions for plant breeders to create new varieties that are more resource-efficient and help save CO2 emissions along the food supply chain.

“We started the company in 2012, right after my PhD, looking for opportunities to find repeating applications. Plant breeding seemed like a very good fit, especially with the potential to improve the existing statistical methods by using ML. So, we identified this as an area where large amounts of biological data are being collected, where ML can help.” - Sebastian Schultheiss, CEO of Computomics.

Reflecting on the ePitching attendance and the EIC’s support, Sebastian points out the “past very good experiences” with the EIC pitching sessions.

“Expectations even exceeded, I would say, with the amount of interest that we received and the very high number of investors present that could potentially be relevant for our next steps. Besides, it's always good to get another review of the current pitch that we're using. So that was also very helpful upfront. There wasn't time even to fit in every request that came in during the event itself. So, especially next week, we have quite a few of these still scheduled. We are looking forward to speaking to those interested.”

The company is seeking strategic partners as part of its plan to become a global leader in plant breeding:

“It's our goal to be involved in essentially every plant breeding programme in the world. We think that everyone should be using our tools to help make their selections and predictions, to gain additional insight into the kinds of performance of the crosses that they're making that cannot be field tested yet because we don't have those climate conditions today, but it's important to be prepared for them and to make sure that we're selecting for these future conditions.” - Sebastian Schultheiss, CEO of Computomics.

Investors looking forward to future discussions and upcoming ePitchings

Wouter van de Putte, Investment Director at Capricorn, an independent European manager of venture capital and equity funds investing in innovative European companies with technology as a competitive advantage, confirms that “the expectations were certainly met.”

“For us, participating in this kind of events where the startups are showcased is always interesting because this is a high-quality deal flow. This session is very focused on a specific topic, and that, of course, makes it interesting for us as Capricorn, because we manage quite technology-specific funds focused on a few sectors, and that's an interesting approach for us: to get to know the startups and to have a quick overview of the batch of startups, but also to be able to have more deep dive discussions with them late in the afternoon.” - Wouter van de Putte, Investment Director at Capricorn.

Wouter also highlighted the innovative solution presented by Aviwell and the quality of companies:

“It’s the first time that I see a technology based on AI and microbiome characterization that has this kind of approach. So, that that was quite unique. Some of the other companies were working on technologies which we see more often in the sector. But they had a quite good approach. So, my expectations were certainly met.” - Wouter van de Putte, Investment Director at Capricorn.

As advice for companies, the Investment Director emphasises the importance of a strong management team and having a simple-to-scale technology that fits quite well in the value chain.

For Ute Theel, Investor at Matterwave Ventures, a VC firm investing in deep-tech innovations with industrial applications throughout Europe, the experience has also been very positive.

“It was a very well-organised event by the EIC. I very much appreciated the diversity of startups that pitched at the event, covering different aspects of the value chains in agritech and food related topics. Also, the different regional backgrounds of both the companies and the jury members is proof of a truly European ambition to support the European VC ecosystem and the future of founders in agritech and food.” - Ute Theel, Investor at Matterwave Ventures.

Over the last 20 years, Matterwave has invested in over 60 companies and typically participates in Seed and Series A financing rounds with initial investments of EUR 1-4 million.

The chosen EIC-backed companies pitched to a jury of investors from Astanor, Blue Dome Capital, Capricorn Partners, Creas, Demeter, Eurazeo, Givaudan International SA, Inclimo Climate Tech Fund, Indaco Venture Partners SGR, Matterwave Ventures, MVP Munich Venture Partners, Planet A, Progress Tech Transfer, Speedinvest, Telos Impact, G-Force, Voima Ventures Oy and World Fund.

The upcoming pitching sessions under the programme in 2025 will focus on energy transition, industrial biotech and new materials, agritech and food, green mobility and transportation, AI, connectivity and Internet of Things (IoT), quantum, photonics, semiconductors and industry 4.0, among other topics. Stay tuned for additional information!

About the EIC Investor Readiness and Outreach Programme

This opportunity is brought to you by the EIC Investor Readiness and Outreach Programme, part of the EIC Business Acceleration Services (BAS). The programme aims to enhance the investor readiness of EIC Accelerator innovators by providing them with the necessary tools and knowledge to attract investment and scale their ventures. Once ready, the programme also provides introductions to the best investors in their sector through ePitchings and Investor Days.

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