Your Gateway to the Global AGRIFOODTECH Ecosystem
Access the world’s largest network of AgriFoodTech innovators and accelerate your innovation strategy with direct connections and industry-leading insights.
Trusted by
The FuturePresent of food is collaborative
The food innovation landscape is transforming, and we believe entrepreneurship, technology, and collaboration are driving this revolution. We help you navigate the global FoodTech landscape by empowering you with the right data and insight, supporting you in redesigning the way you innovate, and providing access to our global network of FoodTech innovators. We believe our world needs food innovation that makes a difference, not only to consumers but to this planet. Join us in powering the FoodTech revolution.
Who we
work with
Food & Beverage Corporate Executives
Whether you’re leading innovation at a multinational corporation or a privately-owned food company, we adapt our services to organizations of all sizes.
AgriFoodTech Entrepreneurs
We support founders and startups building breakthrough solutions across the food value chain with network access, visibility, and strategic connections.
Accelerator and Investor Professionals
We help accelerators and investors identify high-potential ventures and strengthen their portfolio companies through ecosystem access and market intelligence.
Government Representatives
We assist government agencies and economic development organizations in mapping local ecosystems, attracting and localizing innovation, and supporting food system transformation.
Our Services
Future-proof your FoodTech strategy, identify high-potential partners, or amplify your initiatives—we provide the data-driven insights and network access to make it happen.
We help you future-proof your FoodTech strategy, connect with the right innovators, and amplify your impact through data-driven insights and direct access to our global AgriFoodTech network.
Strategic Consulting & Scouting
Our bespoke scouting services support leading F&B corporations and investors identifying and shortlisting relevant companies. By pinpointing best-fit innovators and acquisition targets based on selected business criteria, ultimately delivering breakthrough technology solutions.
Media Platform & Startup Network
Our collaborative platform hyper-connects the global AgriFoodTech ecosystem. We spotlight inspiring players through our FoodTech 500 ranking, our own FoodTech Innovation Hubs, and original publications. These elements facilitate strategic connections and enable meaningful business conversations.
Our Competitive Edge
World’s Largest FoodTech Database & Proprietary Taxonomy
Our platform tracks 30,000+ ecosystem actors including 11,300+ international AgriFoodTech startups, backed by a decade of investment transaction data. Our proprietary taxonomy tailors datasets precisely to your innovation strategy, surfacing the most relevant opportunities for your business objectives.
Deep Sector Expertise & Investment Acumen
A decade of partnerships with Fortune 500 F&B companies and their investment arms gives us unparalleled FoodTech sector expertise. We combine deep industry knowledge with proven investment experience to help refine and execute successful open innovation and investment strategies that keep you ahead in the competitive landscape.
Trusted Global Network & Entrepreneur Access
Our entrepreneur-first approach has built strong relationships across the global AgriFoodTech ecosystem. The annual FoodTech 500—which has attracted 11,700+ applications since 2019—provides unique early access to top innovators while our extensive network of industry experts enables strategic connections that drive meaningful partnerships.
stories and people that make us proud
‘We were impressed by The FoodTech Data Navigator’s ability to track and deliver up-to-the-minute insights on key players in the Food Tech industry. This is something that was proving very difficult to do manually for us. It has been a game-changer for us and our business, and we can’t recommend it enough.’
Dalal Alghawas
Dalal Alghawas, Director, Big Idea Ventures
“The FoodTech Data Navigator tracks and delivers up-to-the-minute insights on key players in the FoodTech industry, including leading startup companies, international accelerators, investors and even corporate venture arms, something that was proving very difficult for us to do manually as a business. By arming my team with Forward Fooding’s pioneering FoodTech data platform, we are now able to spot and monitor the evolution of industry-leading companies at the touch of a button and stay ahead of the game when it comes to FoodTech trends. It has been a game-changer for us and our business, and we can’t recommend it enough.”
Olaf Gruess
Olaf Gruess, Director of Partner Development, Cargill
“I had the privilege to collaborate with Forward Fooding as they organised a tailor-made Engagement program for my organization with the aim of discovering the food innovation landscape in the UK and connecting with relevant startups. I would like to highlight that the experience exceeded my expectations – Alessio and his team managed to provide a unique point of view on innovative business models and startup methodologies which made me challenge my understanding of the state of innovation in the food and drink industry. In the future, I would definitely go back to Forward Fooding to arrange similar activities in this field.”
Giancarlo Addario
Giancarlo Addario, Open Innovation Manager, Barilla
‘ForwardFooding has been a great partner in identifying exciting startups for the University of Cambridge IfM Open Innovation Forum Pitching Event in Belfast and many others. The FoodTech 500 is an excellent window on activity in this exciting space.’
Dominic Oughton
Principal Industrial Fellow, Cambridge University Institute of Manufacturing
‘I think The FoodTech Data Navigator has the potential to become a leading platform for the young and rapidly evolving Food and AgriTech ecosystem. It is a great source of market intelligence and useful to identify up-and-coming companies and trends.’
Jodie Tilley
Head of Investor Relations, Blue Tree Advisors
‘As an AgriFoodTech investor, I use the FoodTech Data Navigator as a one-stop-shop
to identify new investment opportunities, track the development of innovative new AgriFoodTech companies and even manage portfolios of the companies I have invested in to assess and monitor their performance.’
Severine Balick
AgriFoodTech Investor
“Partnering with Forward Fooding over the past years has been a real asset for MassChallenge Switzerland. Their network consistently finds high impact high potential startups that we can connect with our corporate partners, so that startups can disrupt and add massive value to the food value chain.”
Matthew Lashmar
Matthew Lashmar, MD, Mass Challenge
“For the second edition of our FoodTech Challenge, we engaged Forward Fooding to support the competition’s outreach. Their team devised an excellent outreach strategy – they leveraged bespoke tools like the FoodTech Data Navigator to target high-potential applicants that best matched the UAE’s strategic priorities in food security. Despite our admittedly narrow criteria, we received over 600 high-potential applications from 80 countries. In addition to competition outreach, Forward Fooding were a substantial help in categorizing and shortlisting submissions, all within a tight timeline. Above all, the team was lovely to work with – clearly passionate subject matter experts. We’d recommend them highly to anyone looking for more insight into the global FoodTech and Agtech ecosystems.”
Andy Lin
Andy Lin, Head Partnerships & Programs, Tamkeen
‘We worked with Forward Fooding to organize an engagement program for the Global M&A team of Nestlé as we were keen to get a better understanding of the latest Food and Foodtech developments from startups in Europe. Alessio and his team managed to provide us with a comprehensive overview of the Food innovation landscape and connected us with a handful of very relevant entrepreneurs who presented their companies and openly shared their journeys with us. The whole session was very well-organized and we would gladly re-engage with them in the future for further discovery activities.’
David Serre
David Serre, Acquisitions & Business Development Manager, Nestlé
“Forward Fooding’s team have helped us identify key innovation patterns in the AgriFoodtech ecosystem and connect us with leading international companies operating in this space. They provided introductions to selected FoodTech entrepreneurs who have now become some of Barilla’s Open Innovation partners.”
Michela Petronio
VP BluFuture, Barilla Group
Case Studies
FoodTech Trends Landscaping
Supported General Mills’ global Open Innovation team redefine their open innovation strategy by mapping the global FoodTech startup landscape, identifying the fastest-growing technology clusters, and providing in-depth case studies of the most relevant startup and scaleup companies.
Scouting & Matchmaking
Supported Pladis’ R&D team with bespoke scouting, startup curation and selection, program development, and a dedicated marketing campaign including sponsorship of the 2025 FoodTech 500 to strengthen pladis’ positioning as a strategic partner for scaling FoodTech innovation.
Scouting & Matchmaking
For five years in a row, Forward Fooding has been strategically supporting MassChallenge Switzerland’s acceleration programs through targeted scouting and promotional campaigns to our entrepreneur network. This program entails a bespoke recruiting campaign for the MassChallenge Acceleration Program.
Bespoke Industry Reports
In partnership with the Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB), Forward Fooding developed a bespoke report on the state-of-the-union of the APAC AgriFoodTech industry, highlighting key ecosystem players and pinpointing the key opportunities that can be harnessed to strengthen the Southeast Asian ecosystem.
Engagement Programs
Forward Fooding has been supporting Danone Global with refining their innovation and go-to-market strategy for their NPDs’ pipeline by learning from leading startups in selected verticals. By devising an entrepreneurship ‘crash-course’ for Danone’s Innovation team to learn directly from selected entrepreneurs, delivering a series of bespoke trainings including live Q&A sessions with selected founders of leading Food Tech companies. The program enabled Danone’s Innovation team to apply a more entrepreneurial approach to their NPD process.
FoodTech 500 Sponsorship
Dole Ventures, CVC of Dole Sunshine Company is among the official sponsors of the FoodTech 500. Through this initiative Dole Ventures was exposed to the most breakthrough innovators of the global AgriFoodTech sector. In additional, Forward Fooding provided a series of bespoke landscaping sessions to help their teams identify key innovation areas to watch, followed by tech scouting activities in order to help them find the most relevant Open Innovation partners to engage with.
Bespoke Scouting & Engagement
Supported Nestle Global with identifying leading food and FoodTech companies to engage with. Forward Fooding designed and delivered an engagement program that enabled their team to lear more about selected startup companies. This included visiting a leading startup incubator and a retail space to discover new brands, as well as experiencing London’s first zero-waste dining experience. Finally, a selection group of FoodTech founders was invited to pitch their business to the Nestle Global M&A team.
FoodTech Data Licensing
Since 2020, Forward Fooding has been licensing its FoodTech Data Navigator data to FoodValley Netherlands. Using the same interface, FoodValley has developed a ‘white-label’ version of the platform called ‘FoodLeap’, to be used as an internal tool by FoodValley and its partners. The goal of the platform is to provide a ‘directory’ of the Dutch AgriFoodTech Ecosystem, also aggregating data about food manufacturers, research centers & universities and other relevant ecosystem players, in order to generate connections among various stakeholders.
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