NEW YORK, NY - FoodFutureCo’s third cohort of innovative, mission-driven food companies celebrated their completion of the accelerator program at a capstone reception, where they pitched their ideas to an audience of investors and industry experts. Though FoodFutureCo’s portfolio companies span across all areas of the food industry, the cohort 3 companies are all focused on plant based alternatives, with products including mushroom jerky, plant based frozen meals, and a “consciously caffeinated” paleo and vegan friendly coffee beverage.
Managing Partner & Founder, Shen Tong, is an accelerator veteran having founded Food-X, named one of 2015’s most innovative companies in food by Fast Company. From his experience at Food-X, Tong realized the need to serve companies at the scale-up stage — what Geoffrey Moore coined as the “scary chasm.”
The six-month long accelerator program prepares companies to move from the start up stage into the mainstream, and includes curated speakers and content, virtual and in-person workshops, and individualized advising from FoodFutureCo’s close network of mentors and investors. Future cohort companies will also have the opportunity to receive follow-on investing from FFC’s new fund, which will target impact-driven portfolio companies with the potential to be massively scalable.
The Cohort 3 capstone reception took place at Project Farmhouse NYC, featuring presentations and samples from all three of the cohort companies in addition to samples from UK-based beer brand Toast Ale.
Here’s a look at the graduating companies:
Jewels Of The Forest’s mission is to feed the world one mushroom at a time. They currently produce the first vegan mushroom jerky to hit the shelves, which in turn is creating a whole new market industry in the vegan jerky sector.
Metabrew's Coffee and Tea beverages are the first ready-to-drink nut-buttered drinks to market. Metabrew combines cold-brewed coffee/tea with MCT oil and superfoods, providing longer-lasting energy without negative side effects either now or down the line.
Zoni Foods is reinventing cooking to make it easy for everyone to eat healthy, plant-based food. Zoni does this by making frozen plant-based stovetop meal kits that go from freezer to plate in 10 minutes. Each of their kits contains one serving of minimally-processed plant proteins, starches and a unique sauce that cook on the stove in one pan.
The conclusion of this cohort brings FFC to a total of 11 graduated companies, all of which have continued to grow substantially. Applications for Cohort 4 are now open and are due by August 29th. For more information and to apply click here.
About FoodFutureCo:
FoodFutureCo is the first scale-up accelerator focused on mission-driven companies in food, agriculture, and social entrepreneurship. We help businesses with some proof of concept and established market traction “scale up” to the next stage. Our uniquely innovative program blends a customized consultative approach, an extensive network of mentors, advisors and investors, and a curated speaker and content series to deliver high-impact value creation in a short amount of time.