LIVE: Simplot startups seek out investment

Graduates of Australia's first corporate-backed food-tech accelerator, Simplot Ignite, recently took to the stage to pitch their businesses to potential investors.

Simplot Australia is the force behind Simplot Ignite, a digital innovation accelerator program aimed at food tech startups which is being run in partnership with startup accelerator Slingshot.

It's the first time the eight Simplot Ignite startups and scaleups have presented their innovative food-tech businesses to investors and shared their journey from idea to investor-ready companies.

“All eight of these businesses have demonstrated a level of innovation and disruptive thinking that has the potential to shake-up Australia’s food industry as we know it,” Graham Dugdale, executive director – commercial at Simplot Australia said.

“Already, a number have attracted interest from potential investors who have identified the market potential of these businesses.”

The co-founder of Slingshot and head of Simplot Ignite Craig Lambert will be speaking more about the initiative at the Breaking Boundaries LIVE forum, along with Angela Edwards, who is COO of Chewsr, one of the startups, and is also an account executive at Simplot.

Chewsr describes itself as "tinder for food", allowing people to order and eat with their eyes first, and it delivers this by using software that allows customers to see and order food at any restaurant using images instead of a menu.

Chewsr, and the other successful startups, have completed a 12 week program run by Slingshot where they learned to build globally scalable businesses coupled with mentoring, marketing
support and financial backing.

The other startups in the program are personalised nutrition company, GeneSpark, a business that arranges short term workspace for chefs called Sprout, and social dining platform Yummed.

The scaleups are Hum, a digital pantry service, The Protein Bread Company, Yello, a food delivery service, and international meal service Dish'd.