This is your chance to pitch ideas to major global players in the Food, Drink and FMCG sectors.
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Description
Senior leaders from major Food, Drink and FMCG firms such as Cargill, Diageo, Kerry, Mars, Nomad, PepsiCo, Pladis, Suntory, Twinings, Yili and of course Müller are holding a pitching event for innovative companies, entrepreneurs, start-ups and university spin-offs. These companies, who are members of the University of Cambridge IfM’s Open Innovation (OI) Forum, are seeking new solutions to their business challenges, so you have the chance to pitch to them at an event on the afternoon of Wednesday 29 November 2023.
Forum members are looking for innovative solutions to help them achieve priority Sustainable Development Goals related to Carbon, Health, Hunger and Sustainable Resources and/or in delivering enhanced Consumer Benefit and Experiences. Here's the prioritised list of the OI Forum members' Innovation Needs :
- Ingredients (Clean / Natural / Low…)
- Packaging
- Recycling, Re-use & Circularity
- Sustainable Production - Energy & Water
- Automation & Industry 4.0
- Food Waste
- Health & Wellness
- New Protein Sources
- Safety
- AI & Big Data
- Bio-Processing
- Consumer Interaction & Understanding
- Inspection & Quality
- Consumption Experience
- Demographic Offerings (Age, Life-stage, Ethnicity…)
- Personalisation & Customisation
- Traceability & Provenance
The event will be hosted by Müller Group at the HQ in Freising, near Munich, Germany and ONLINE. Successful applicants will have the opportunity to pitch their innovations and explore in one-to-one speed-dates with External Innovation leaders from over 20 OI Forum member companies (see full list here). Preference will be given to pitchers who can participate in person, to take advantage of the opportunity to interact f2f, but there will also be an online stream for those who can't attend in Munich.
The event is open to all individuals, research organisations and companies of all sizes and levels of maturity. Up to 20 entrepreneurs, start-ups, researchers, innovators and technology developers will be picked to pitch their ideas to a panel of key decision-makers and ‘innovation scouts’ from important food, Drink and FMCG firms.
REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED
What past pitchers say:
"I still vividly remember the event in Belfast - the connection to interested partners/companies was really, really helpful for us!" 2018 Finalist
"Since winning the event in 2017, we have been working more and more in the Food & Beverage industry. Our relationship and the impact on our clients, including Forum member companies, only increased." Stefan Tan, CEO, Dashmote
"I just wanted to say how valuable I found this session. Great to have the opportunity to pitch to so many industry leaders in food, drink and fmcg. And fascinating to be able to listen in to the pitches from the other innovative small businesses from around the world." Neil Morris, co-founder & CEO, Kelpi
Previous events:
Read about the OI Forums previous pitching competitions in 2023 (Netherlands), 2021 (virtual event), 2020 (virtual event), 2019 (London) and 2018 (Belfast).
Find out more about the Open Innovation forum.
Ecosystem partners:
