Written by Bertha Jiminez, CEO & Co-Founder of RISE products
Every year Food+City, an international startup competition, brings together projects and people from all over the world to share their innovations across the urban food system. More than 200 people from 18 different countries applied to compete in the third annual Food+City Challenge Prize. After much consideration, 18 companies rose to the top and were named finalists.
This year’s finalists came from an exciting and diverse range of backgrounds and nine different countries. This includes our team, RISE!
Our Table at Food+City
During the 12-week before the competition, we were paired with a fantastic mentor, Ashley Shaffer from Preacher. She helped us prepare for our Demo day. She shared her expertise in branding, marketing, and product development in the food industry. Ashley gave us homework too, and was pretty strict about it! We’ve learnt a lot from her.
Finally, Demo Day weekend came, and we met the other teams. It was such a fantastic opportunity to learn and discover the work of others innovators in the fight of a sustainable future with better food and less waste. We met amazing teams that were working in incredible technologies such as an Indian foodtech company that works on solar powered food dehydrators with farmers, and an Israeli microbiological testing system for the fresh food industry.
Competition was very tough, yet we emerged as the Silver Prize winner!
We want to thank the Food+City Team for a wonderful experience and welcoming us to the Food+City family. Thanks to the Director Dr. Robyn Metcalfe and Program Director Jen Heitler whose support provided us the opportunity to connect with mentors, judges, investors, and the public. Special thanks to our fabulous mentor Ashley Shaffer, and to Dr. Molly Bray, Chair of Department of Nutritional Science at the University of Texas who extended RISE the Seal of Recognition for Sustainability.
Also, we like to congratulate all the finalists! Everyone did an amazing job. Evaptainers (Boston / Morocco) won the gold prize, Nuwiel took home the bronze award (Germany), and Origintrail (Slovenia) won People’s choice award.
RISE team with mentor Ashley
Team RISE is happy to report that the investor community in Texas is welcoming and interested in our work and potential synergies with Austin breweries and distilleries had been already spotted. We are grateful to welcome new allies and friends in this journey to innovate our food system.
