Vienna, Austria · Accelerator Created 2016 by Raiffeisen Ware Austria and BayWa. Agritech accelerator offering mentoring, pilot opportunities on farms, industry networking, and hackathons; pilots can lead to strategic cooperation or investment with BayWa/RWA. Scope: International (Europe).
Kyiv, Ukraine · Startup Overview: Allset is a food-tech startup that provides a platform for online restaurant ordering and pickup. Originally launched as a dine-in pre-ordering app, Allset allows customers to pre-order meals at restaurants so that the food is ready at a scheduled time and they can "skip the line". Over time, Allset expanded to enable standard takeout orders, curbside pickups, and even contactless dine-in where you arrive and your meal is served immediately. The convenience factor is central: Allset's app lets users browse menus of partner restaurants, pay in advance (including tip), and streamline the eating experience without waiting. For restaurants, Allset offers a marketplace to attract busy professionals and on-the-go diners, while avoiding the high fees of delivery services. By focusing on pickup and in-restaurant efficiency, Allset positioned itself as a lower-cost alternative to delivery apps for eateries, promising no couriers or delivery logistics - just seamless pickup transactions. As of 2021, Allset had thousands of restaurant partners, particularly in major U.S. cities, and had broadened its use-case to also support contactless dining during the COVID-19 pandemic. Founding Story (2015): Allset was founded in 2015 by two Ukrainians, Stas Matviyenko (Stan) and Anna Polishchuk, who moved to California to grow the business. The founders previously built a mobile payments startup in Ukraine (Settle), which gave them insight into restaurant payment pain points. They noticed that busy professionals often have limited lunch break time and that waiting for service at restaurants ate up much of it. Thus, Allset was conceived to let users pre-order and pre-pay for meals so they could "set" everything in advance and have all set when they arrive (hence the name). The concept started with a few restaurants in San Francisco and New York participating. Early growth was modest as it required signing up restaurants one-by-one and changing consumer habits. However, by offering a win-win - restaurants get more turnover at lunch with guaranteed orders, customers get time savings - Allset steadily gained traction. Matviyenko and Polishchuk leveraged their Ukrainian tech team to build the app cost-effectively. In 2016, they got into the 500 Startups accelerator, which provided seed funding and mentorship in Silicon Valley. By 2017-2018, Allset expanded to multiple U.S. cities and refined its model to also include standard takeout ordering. Product and Market: Allset's target users were urban professionals and corporate employees looking for efficient lunch options. It integrated with over 7,000 restaurants in the U.S. and also some in Ukraine by 2023. Cuisine-wise it was diverse - from fast-casual chains to local eateries. The platform's business model charges restaurants a commission per order, but it touted itself as having significantly lower fees than delivery apps like UberEats or DoorDash. This is because pickup orders do not involve logistics costs. Allset also at times charged consumers small convenience fees or offered a subscription for zero fees. Its competition includes not just the big delivery apps, but also restaurant reservation systems and point-of-sale providers who have added mobile ordering. However, Allset carved a niche in "order ahead for dine-in/pickup." During COVID-19, Allset quickly shifted focus to contactless pickup and curbside service, which aligned with public health needs. The app usage grew as more consumers opted for takeout and avoiding crowds. Post-pandemic, Allset continued to be relevant as many users, accustomed to mobile ordering, kept using it for efficiency. Traction: By the early 2020s, Allset had facilitated tens of millions of orders. It was particularly popular in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. The app had over 2 million users and a strong repeat usage among its core demographic (e.g., office workers who would use it daily for lunch). Allset's restaurant network grew to include national chains as well as local favorites. A reported figure from around 2021 indicated nearly 7,000 restaurant partners across the US and Ukraine, illustrating its significant network. Partnerships with large chains (for example, they onboarded Panera Bread in some regions) helped validate the concept. In terms of scale, Allset's gross merchandise volume (the total value of orders through the platform) reached eight figures in USD annually. Press coverage often highlighted Allset as a rising star in the on-demand dining space, and it received awards like being listed in Forbes' 30 Under 30 (Matviyenko was honored in 2018). Funding and Investors: Allset attracted a mix of Silicon Valley and Ukrainian investors through its journey. Early on, it raised a $3.35M combined seed (including a $1M pre-seed from SMRK, a Ukrainian VC). In 2018, Allset secured an $8.25M Series A, with investors like Greycroft, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), VK (Digital Garage), and SMRK participating. This round helped fuel its expansion to new cities. By 2020, Allset had raised a total of about $16.6M in funding. A notable investor, Andreessen Horowitz, gave credibility given their prominence. Additionally, the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) co-invested in Allset, a nod to its Ukrainian roots and growth potential. The company was relatively capital-efficient, using a distributed team in Kyiv for development while its sales team signed restaurants in the U.S. According to PitchBook, Allset's valuation was healthy, though it never reached unicorn status. Acquisition by SoundHound (2024): A major milestone came in June 2024, when SoundHound AI, a Nasdaq-listed voice AI company, announced it had acquired Allset. The deal amount was undisclosed, but it marked a successful exit for the founders and investors. SoundHound's interest was in combining Allset's marketplace and restaurant partnerships with SoundHound's voice assistant tech for ordering (they have a voice ordering system used by restaurants). Through this acquisition, Allset's team (Matviyenko and Polishchuk) and technology joined SoundHound, aiming to power voice-enabled food ordering across SoundHound's large client network. The acquisition can be seen as a strategic fit: Allset brings the restaurant relationships and order workflow, while SoundHound brings cutting-edge voice AI. Allset's co-founders took on roles within SoundHound's leadership to continue growing this combined vision. For the Ukrainian startup scene, Allset's acquisition was a proud moment - a startup founded by Ukrainians achieved a notable exit on the global stage. Achievements and Impact: Allset's journey demonstrated the strength of Ukrainian entrepreneurs in the global arena of food tech. The company managed to enter the ultra-competitive U.S. food app market and carve a space for itself. It was recognized as one of Ukraine's top startups in multiple rankings. The company's growth also had a direct impact: it provided business to restaurants (especially small ones) by bringing them customers who might not have come in otherwise. Its focus on reducing wait times resonated with modern consumers' demand for convenience. Notably, Allset survived and adapted through the pandemic - offering features like dine-in ordering via QR code to minimize contact. This nimbleness likely made it an attractive acquisition target. Allset also set an example of transatlantic collaboration: R&D in Ukraine, business development in the U.S., which is a model other Ukrainian startups have since followed. Post-acquisition, the Allset app and brand continue to operate, now with the backing of SoundHound. With voice technology integration, a future use case might be ordering meals by simply speaking to your car or smart device, which could be the next level of convenience Allset helps enable. For Anna Polishchuk and Stas Matviyenko, their success with Allset has cemented them as influential figures in Ukraine's startup community, often mentoring younger founders and investing in new startups. Sources: vestbee.com, kyivpost.com, vcnewsdaily.com.
Volos, Greece · Startup Develops Internet-of-Crops IoT sensors and AI analytics for post-harvest crop quality monitoring, pest management and food-safety compliance across the agricultural supply chain. Founded 2016.
Zurich, Switzerland · Person Co-founder and CEO of Planted, the Zurich-based food technology company he co-founded in 2019 as an ETH Zurich spin-out. Jenny led Planted through a CHF 70 million Series B in 2021 and expanded the company's plant-based meat products across Swiss supermarkets, Germany, and European food service channels. Planted's wet extrusion technology, developed from ETH Zurich research, produces fibrous plant-based textures that closely mimic animal protein.
Milan, Italy · Startup Cortilia is Italy's leading farm-to-home e-grocery platform, connecting consumers directly with small and medium Italian producers — sourcing fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, and artisan products from vetted farms and delivering across Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont, and six other regions covering 800+ municipalities. Founded in Milan in 2011 by Marco Porcaro, Cortilia has raised €53 million and became a certified B-Corp in 2022 following construction of a LEED Gold-certified green headquarters. Targeting EBITDA breakeven in 2026 and full-year profitability by 2027, the company carries a 2,500-product catalog with a strong focus on sustainability and local supply-chain traceability.
Berlin, Germany · Person Daniel Khachab is Co-founder & CEO of the AI food-supply-chain platform Choco. A founder in the German startup ecosystem, Daniel leads the AI food-supply-chain platform Choco.
Ghent, Belgium · Startup Deliverect provides omnichannel digital ordering infrastructure for restaurants and food retail, integrating 1,000+ third-party platforms — Uber Eats, DoorDash, Deliveroo — directly into point-of-sale systems, with tools for menu management, fleet dispatch, loyalty and in-store kiosks. Founded in 2018 in Ghent by Zhong Xu, Jan Hollez, Jelte Vrijhoef and Jerome Laredo, the company reached unicorn status in January 2022 after a $208 M Series D at a $1.4 B valuation. Total funding exceeds $332 M from Coatue, DST Global and Redpoint. Deliverect now serves 96,000+ locations across 52 countries including KFC, Burger King and Chipotle.
Lausanne, Switzerland · Event A two-day summit at EHL's Lausanne campus with 600 participants, themed on human-centric leadership and innovation; the second day is an open-innovation and investor track run by the EHL Innovation Hub. Useful for founders in hospitality, food, and experience tech seeking corporate pilot partners in the Romandie.
Zurich, Switzerland · Person Co-founder of Planted, the Zurich-based food technology company he co-founded in 2019 from ETH Zurich research. Stirnemann's background in food engineering contributed to the development of Planted's proprietary wet extrusion platform for plant-based meat. The company raised CHF 70 million in 2021 and distributes products across Switzerland, Germany, and broader European markets.
Milan, Italy · Startup Everli is Italy's leading online grocery delivery marketplace, connecting shoppers with over 100 supermarket chains — including Lidl, Esselunga, and Carrefour — across 60+ Italian provinces. Founded in 2014, personal shoppers physically select products at partner stores and deliver to customers' homes within two hours. With 237 employees and a 23% take rate, Everli signed a $180 million business combination with Nasdaq-listed SPAC Melar Acquisition Corp in mid-2025, targeting a Nasdaq listing in early 2026. The company secured an additional $10 million in bridge financing ahead of the expected public debut.
Warsaw, Poland · Accelerator Six-month EIT Food program run by Startup Hub Poland for female agrifood entrepreneurs. Provides EUR 1,000 stipend, training, 1:1 mentorship, and a chance to win up to EUR 10,000 grants. Scope: National with EU-wide network.
Birmingham, United Kingdom · Event UK's largest food trade show with healthy and plant-based zones. Price: free trade registration. Strong for foodtech and CPG startups seeking retail listings.
Cork, Ireland · Accelerator Specialized accelerator (since 2018) for aquaculture and alternative seafood startups with ~USD 100K investment, mentorship, and pilot opportunities in global aquaculture facilities. Programs run in Ireland, Norway, and Hawaii. Scope: International.
Barcelona, Spain · Startup Heura Foods is a Barcelona-based plant-based protein company that creates Mediterranean-inspired meat alternatives — chicken, burgers, sausages — using its proprietary Good Rebel Tech platform. Founded in 2017 by food activists Marc Coloma and Bernat Añaños, it reached €38M in sales in 2024 on 35% Southern European growth and became EBITDA-positive for the first time in Q1 2026. Backed by a €20M EIB financing package, the company is expanding into B2B white-label production and diversifying into plant-based cheese, cold cuts, and protein pasta across Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France.
Reykjavik, Iceland · Event City-wide innovation festival across Reykjavik with 1,500+ attendees, 100+ speakers, and a strong climate focus spanning energy transition, ocean tech, foodtech, and geothermal. Main passes typically EUR 300-600 with free satellite events. Includes climate-pitch formats like Ok, Bye, ideal for impact founders seeking Nordic investors and pilot sites.
Reykjavik, Iceland · Event City-wide innovation festival returning to Reykjavik for its next edition, bringing together founders, investors, creatives and policymakers from across the Nordics and beyond. The week spans climate and energy transition, ocean tech, foodtech and deep tech, pairing a main-stage program with dozens of satellite events, startup pitch formats and investor matchmaking. Ideal for impact founders seeking Nordic investors, pilot sites and partners.
Reykjavik, Iceland · Innovation Hub The Iceland Ocean Cluster (Íslenska sjávarklasinn) is a marine-industry innovation hub founded in 2012 and located at Grandagarði 16 in Reykjavik's old harbour. It brings together over 70 companies spanning the full ocean value chain — from fisheries and aquaculture to seafood biotech and ocean technology — with the goal of maximising sustainable value from marine resources. The hub runs the 100% Fish programme and hosts events and cross-company collaboration projects.
Paris, France · Startup Produces sustainable insect-based ingredients from the Black Soldier Fly for aquaculture, pet food and plant nutrition. Founded in 2016, it has produced over 15,000 tonnes of protein and oil and secured €51M to scale commercial growth.
Paris, France · Startup Profitable French scale-up providing an AI-first digital operating platform for restaurants and contract catering: POS, self-ordering kiosks, kitchen display systems and an Atlas AI agent for back-office automation. Active in France, Spain, Italy and Morocco with ~800 clients including Elior and Sodexo.
Stuttgart, Germany · Event Hospitality and gastronomy trade fair with an innovation area for food tech and digital operations. Price: about EUR 35-50 for trade visitors. Strong for POS, kitchen robotics, and novel food ingredients.
Hamburg, Germany · Event Foodservice and hospitality trade fair with a Newcomers Area for gastro startups. Price: about EUR 40-50. Strong for restaurant tech and beverage brands.
Ljubljana, Slovenia · Startup Juicy Marbles was founded in 2019 by Maj Hrovat, Luka Sinček, and Tilen Travnik and produces whole-cut, plant-based meat products including a flagship vegan filet mignon and marbled steaks made primarily from soy protein. The company raised $4.5 million in a seed round in 2021 backed by investors including Y Combinator. Its products are sold in approximately 3,500 stores across Europe and North America through retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Whole Foods, Migros, and Lidl. Production is carried out by BEVO d.o.o. in Slovenia.
Barcelona, Spain · Person Co-founder and CEO of Heura Foods, the Barcelona plant-based food company. An activist-entrepreneur, he co-founded Heura in 2017 to build one of Europe's fastest-growing plant-based meat brands.
Brno, Czech Republic · Startup Mewery is a food-tech and biotech startup cultivating pork meat using microalgae-based processes. The hybrid approach reduces the cost and complexity of lab-grown meat by combining cell cultivation with plant inputs. This positions the company to deliver cultured meat products faster and at lower price points than traditional cellular agriculture methods. By 2026, Mewery is a notable Central European pioneer in sustainable protein.
Hamburg, Germany · Startup MicroHarvest produces microbial protein using agricultural side streams and a rapid fermentation process designed to deliver sustainable protein ingredients in around 24 hours. The company reported over USD 10.2M in venture funding from investors such as Astanor, Happiness Capital, Simon Capital, and FoodLabs, and received a EUR 5.5M German government grant in February 2026 for an industrial-scale Leuna plant expected to produce about 15,000 tonnes of protein annually.
Maastricht, Netherlands · Startup Mosa Meat is a Maastricht-based food-technology company founded in 2016 by the team behind the world's first cultured hamburger, presented in 2013. It develops cultivated (lab-grown) beef produced from animal cells rather than slaughtered livestock, aiming to make real meat with a far smaller environmental footprint as it works toward regulatory approval and scale-up.
Warsaw, Poland · Startup Nice To Fit You is a Warsaw-based foodtech company offering premium boxed diet catering subscriptions with personalized meal plans. Founded in 2014, the company delivers nutritionally balanced, chef-prepared meals daily to health-conscious consumers across Poland. NTFY offers multiple diet programs including low-calorie, keto, vegan, and sports-oriented plans, all designed by dietitians. The company has grown to become one of Poland's leading diet catering brands in a competitive market with dozens of local players, capitalizing on the strong Polish consumer trend toward convenient healthy eating.
Stockholm, Sweden · Accelerator Nicoya is a Stockholm-based venture capital firm investing at the frontier of food innovation as a dedicated 'future foods' investor. It partners with entrepreneurs transforming how food is produced and consumed, backing companies working on healthier, smarter and more resilient food systems with a long-term perspective on value creation.
Paris, France · Incubator Established 1996. Paris economic development agency running 20+ thematic incubators (sports, foodtech, smart cities, etc.) with coaching, offices, and corporate partners; supports hundreds of startups annually and hosts ecosystem events. Scope: Regional (Paris).
Zurich, Switzerland · Person Co-founder of Planted, the Zurich-based alternative protein company he co-founded in 2019 as an ETH Zurich spin-out. Bieri contributed the food science foundation that underpins Planted's wet extrusion platform. Planted's products — planted.chicken, planted.pulled, planted.kebab — are sold in leading Swiss and German retailers and food service chains.
Warsaw, Poland · Angel Investor Former CEO of BRE Ubezpieczenia (mBank Insurance), Paweł is one of Poland’s most recognized impact-oriented angels and was named Business Angel of the Year 2020. He invests in companies solving social or environmental problems and contributes hands-on strategic support from his corporate leadership background. Notable investments include Noctiluca (successful IPO exit), Simpl.rent, Fresh Inset, Sales Intelligence, TakeDrop, and IMKER.
Zurich, Switzerland · Startup Planted is a Zurich-based food technology company founded in 2019 by Christoph Jenny, Pascal Bieri, Eric Stirnemann, and Judith Wemmer as a spin-out from ETH Zurich. The company produces plant-based meat alternatives using a wet extrusion technology that creates fibrous textures closely mimicking animal proteins. Planted's products — planted.chicken, planted.pulled, and planted.kebab — are sold in supermarkets, restaurants, and food service channels across Switzerland, Germany, and neighbouring European markets. The company raised CHF 70 million in a Series B round in 2021 from investors including Vorwerk Ventures and Movendo Capital. Planted is part of the broader ETH Zurich food-tech cluster and is considered one of Europe's most technically sophisticated alternative protein companies, combining deep food science with aggressive consumer distribution.
Dusseldorf, Germany · Event World's largest wine and spirits trade fair in Dusseldorf, attracting 40,000+ trade visitors and 5,000+ exhibitors from 60+ countries. Growing focus on WineTech, sustainable packaging, and non-alcoholic innovation. Day tickets cost about EUR 50-80. Relevant for food-tech startups in beverage innovation, packaging, and supply-chain optimization.
Warsaw, Poland · Startup SERio is a Warsaw-based foodtech startup producing plant-based cheese alternatives made from Polish lupin beans, a locally abundant and sustainable protein source. The products are engineered for high protein content and strong melt performance, targeting mainstream consumers seeking dairy-free options that do not compromise on taste or cooking functionality. SERio differentiates from soy and cashew-based competitors by using a regionally sourced ingredient with a lower environmental footprint. The company is part of Poland's growing alternative protein ecosystem and sells through retail and food-service channels.
Helsinki, Finland · Startup Solar Foods produces Solein, a single-cell protein made via gas fermentation using CO2, hydrogen and electricity — entirely decoupled from agriculture. Founded in 2017 as a VTT and LUT University spin-off, the company opened the world's first commercial-scale air-protein facility in Vantaa in 2024. In 2026 it is advancing its EFSA novel food approval and finalising the investment decision for Factory 02 in Lappeenranta, which will scale annual capacity from 160 to 6,400 tonnes. Fortum is a key investor and strategic partner for district heating integration.
Paris, France · Startup Spore.Bio is a Paris-based biotech developing AI-driven microbiology testing for the food, beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Its technology uses spectroscopic analysis combined with machine learning to detect, quantify and identify micro-organisms directly from a sample without traditional culturing, enrichment or staining, reducing testing time from days to minutes. The approach is intended to let manufacturers identify contamination risks quickly on or near the production line. The company raised a $23M Series A in February 2025 led by Singular, building on an earlier pre-seed round, and in January 2026 announced multi-million funding from the Google.org Fund for AI in Science.
Wageningen, Netherlands · Accelerator StartLife is a Wageningen-based incubator and accelerator specialising in agri-food-tech, located on the Wageningen University campus, a leading centre for food and agriculture research. It supports startups working on food, agriculture and biotechnology with programmes, access to funding and connections to the region's science and corporate ecosystem.
London, United Kingdom · Event Organisator Organizer of the Sustainable Foods London conference and expo. Sustainable Foods London is an event organiser based in London, United Kingdom. Organising events in the Events, FoodTech, Climate Tech space.
London, United Kingdom · Event Conference and expo in London focused on sustainability challenges in the food and drink industry, covering supply-chain transparency, alternative proteins, and circular packaging. Brings together food manufacturers, retailers, and impact investors. Strong for food-tech and climate-tech startups targeting the UK consumer market.
Stockholm, Sweden · Event Organisator Swedish foodtech innovation company and organizer of the annual Big Meet Summit, an 'un-conference' gathering the world's leading foodtech companies, entrepreneurs, scientists, and investors to debate the future of the global food system. Sweden Foodtech runs accelerator and matchmaking activities and partners with EIT Food on cross-European innovation programmes.
Stockholm, Sweden · Event Annual foodtech 'un-conference' organized by Sweden Foodtech at Rosendals Tradgard in Stockholm, where leading foodtech companies, entrepreneurs, scientists, and investors gather to debate the future of the global food system. The 2026 programme features an EIT Food entrepreneur parade and a high-energy pitch session spotlighting top European foodtech startups.
Copenhagen, Denmark · Event The startup event of the Nordics: the 14th edition of TechBBQ moves to Bella Center Copenhagen on 26-27 August 2026, gathering 10,000+ founders, investors and builders from 50+ countries across two days. Programming spans AI, life sciences and deep tech, a startup pitch competition and AI-powered matchmaking. Backed by the Danish Industry Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation and Realdania.
Dublin, Ireland · Accelerator The Pearse Lyons Accelerator, now run as the Pearse Lyons Cultivator, is an agri-food-tech accelerator backed by Alltech and Dogpatch Labs in Dublin. It connects ag-tech startups with the global food and agriculture supply chain, using Alltech's presence in more than 120 countries to help founders run commercial pilots with Alltech and its partner companies.