19 April 2023
The first edition of Plant FWD in Amsterdam was sold out and attended by some 700 visitors. Brave New Food is one of the founding partners and organized the Startup Program together with Impact Hub Netherlands. Ten ambitious and innovative startups from around the world pitched their plant-based products on the main stage. There were investor match making sessions, a supermarket of the future and much more on the action-packed program.
Epicenter of plant-based
For one day, the Netherlands was the epicenter of plant-based business. The attendants can be best described as the early adopters and frontrunners of the international plant-based business community. Giants like Oatly met on and off stage with upcoming brands like Crisp and Kipster, policy makers from national and local governments shook hands with transformative actors like The Protein Community and Foodvalley and dozens of innovative food startups presented themselves to investors and panel experts in search of new business opportunities.
Ten diverse finalists
From a pool of over 60 submissions, 10 finalists pitched their innovative food solutions on main stage. An expert panel was able to taste the products, ask questions and provide feedback on the presentations. Jesse ‘t Lam, co-founder of Brave New Food and panelist: “The range of next generation solutions that the startups pitched was diverse and I was happily surprised by the high quality of their products. These innovative food entrepreneurs deserve praise for their vision and determination to challenge the traditional food brands and I hope we will see many of their products in the supermarkets and on our plates soon.”
80+ matchmaking conversations
Twenty different investors lined up to talk to the startups present at the conference. In four rounds of ten minutes many new introductions were brokered, business cards exchanged, and handshakes made. Vincent van Gorkom, investor at Brave New Food Investments: “I was able to expand my network of promising new food entrepreneurs. Not just at the matchmaking sessions, but also throughout the day I was able to hook up with startups in the lobby. Although the 10-minute introductions are on the short side, it gave me a good idea of the potential of the businesses and I’m looking forward to some follow-ups soon.”
Expansion for Plant FWD 2024
The first edition of Plant FWD was a great success and ended too quickly for most of the attendants. As the visitors made their personal pledges for a plant forward future, the organizing team also made a great announcement: Plant FWD will come back in 2024 with not just 1, but 2 days of networking, workshopping, pitching, and tasting of the future of our food system. And Brave New Food will be there to give new innovative startups a stage to reach the right audiences and set up their own success!