How PowerAPI is making life easier for thousands of European restaurants and F&B companies

May 18, 2022 | Ecosystem news, Headline, Member Highlight, Member news

How PowerAPI is making life easier for thousands of European restaurants and F&B companies

Valley member PowerAPI lets F&B businesses manage their entire tech stack from a single OS and platform through a Unified API. After closing a $2 million seed funding round last year, the team has just been nominated for the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Awards.

Hello. Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name’s Verónica Stacey and I’m the CMO at PowerAPI. I’m very passionate about all things hospitality. I joined PowerAPI two years ago now and I’ve seen the team grow from under 10 employees to over 20 today. I develop, manage and oversee all our marketing activities.

Can you pitch Foodetective in just 20 seconds?

Many F&B businesses use 12+ softwares to manage their day to day business activities – from delivery and stock management to HR, marketing and finance. But this means that data is often fragmented across these systems. PowerAPI powers restaurants’ digital transformation through a Unified API and enables them to bring together all the data they need on a single platform.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Personally, I love opening the window and letting the sun in..! But in all seriousness: our mission. We want to make restaurant owners’ and managers’ lives easier. As a startup we have to get up every morning and continually figure out the best way to do this.

Most of our team members have a background in hospitality, but we all consider ourselves epicureans. We’re all very passionate about building a technology that helps restaurant owners to work smarter, so that they can focus on what matters most: creating great food and an outstanding customer experience.

What does a typical day at work look like for you?

Every single day is different. We have offices in Geneva and Paris, but I work remotely from Spain. So most days will usually include at least a few calls. This might be reviewing our strategy with the executive team or chatting through ideas for business development with colleagues. In the afternoon I usually connect with the marketing and design team to oversee progress on priority projects for the month and take some time to tackle individual items on my to-do list.

What were your key achievements in 2021?

2021 was a very exciting year for us. In May, we closed a $2 million seed round. This allowed us to optimize our product and strengthen our universal API that enables our partners to integrate their solution into PowerAPI seamlessly. In September, we even bagged a place in TNW’s list of Europe’s hottest scaleups.

Throughout the year, we also started working with lots of great new partners, including Coca-Cola HBC and Nestlé Pro and successfully implemented over 65 integrations, working alongside many market leaders like Uber Eats and LightSpeed.

What projects are you and your team working on this year?

This year we’ll be focusing on opening our API and developing our intelligence feature. This will automate as many admin tasks as possible to save our clients time and money and maximize revenues and margins by using historical data and patterns. We hope that this feature will help us become the online smart manager of every business we serve. We’re also continuing to fundraise to accelerate our rollout. This year, we’ll be looking to raise $4 million.

Tell us about how you work with others in the ecosystem to innovate?

Given that we’re building a Unified API for the RestoTech industry, partnerships are at the heart of our work. All kinds of software solutions as well as wholesalers can integrate into our platform. We’ve recently started working with Reckitt. Opening up our API will make partnerships and integrations even easier. Our operating system spans the entire value chain from suppliers to end customers through integrations. So we can offer F&B businesses a holistic solution through partnerships.

How do you support the Swiss ecosystem beyond your core business offer?

We do quite a few things! We organize internships and training sessions with hospitality schools or the Global Food Venture program. We also partner with companies that don’t necessarily have a technology to integrate but provide services that contribute to the ecosystem such as Biohuile. We’re always happy to share our knowledge on what is happening in the industry.

logos of sustainable food partners
How can the SFNV community help you achieve your goals?

We’re always eager to connect with new partners. We work with a huge range of companies across the food ecosystem from wholesalers and delivery partners to companies offering food waste solutions. If you’d be interested in finding out more, please do reach out. 

SFNV will soon be launching its third Impact Platform on Food Systems 4.0. What’s your perspective on the role of digitalization in shaping the future of food? 

Today, digitalization is present from the ground or root, to suppliers, to software, to the end user. It’s clear that the entire supply chain is rapidly shifting from paper-based to digital solutions. I predict that the future of food will be based on data-driven insights – meaning less fragmentation and more more engaged and informed stakeholders. 

Tell us something we didn’t know about your company.

Our company has a B2C page: superapp which lists over 20,000 restaurants across Europe. Restaurants that have a profile on our software also have a consumer-facing page on our directory to boost their visibility through content and to showcase all their user-facing services. This page is automatically filled with information they’ve provided in the software, like their menu, opening hours and the delivery platforms they use and is enriched by our community of content creators who write reviews and guides.

Connect with Verónica on LinkedIn or visit the PowerAPI Business website to find out more.

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Bossy Céréales SA opens new factory to meet growing demand for textured vegetable proteins

May 16, 2022 | Ecosystem news, Headline, Member news, Press-releases

Bossy Céréales SA opens new factory to meet growing demand for textured vegetable proteins

SFNV member, Bossy Céréales, has been innovating in the food and nutrition industry for over 170 years. This month they opened a brand new state-of-the-art site in Cousset to meet the growing demand for textured vegetable proteins (TVP).

Ramping up production fourfold

Bossy Céréales, one of Switzerland’s market leaders in textured vegetable protein (TVP), has opened a cutting-edge 12,000m2 production facility dedicated to TVP dry extrusion technology. The project has been five years in the making and has attracted over CHF 35 million in investment.

By the end of 2022, the site will boast three Bühler extruders allowing Bossy to quadruple its overall production capacity from 5,000 tonnes per year to more than 20,000 tonnes per year.

With the factory set to meet the growing demands of the rapidly expanding TVP market, Bossy Céréales aims to position itself as a frontrunner in dry extrusion textured vegetable proteins by 2025, both nationally and at a European level. Four new production lines, planned to be operational by the end of 2022, will bring them a step closer to this goal. 

bossy cereales opens a new factory
Catering for the burgeoning meat substitutes market

The high protein and fibre content and unique texture makes Bossy’s products an attractive substitute for meat-based recipes. The company is therefore eager to partner with key players in the meat production industry.

Thanks to their competitive pricing compared to traditional meat and lower environmental footprint, these products also provide an opportunity for Bossy to increase their market share, while supporting the transition to a more sustainable food system.

“Our new factory will allow us to work with cutting-edge technology that is unique to Switzerland,” says Simon-Pierre Kerbage, CEO of Bossy Céréales. “The main product on our new production lines will be a 100% plant-based meat substitute made from TVP. I strongly believe that the future of food lies in these proteins and we look forward to being a part of it.” 

Rising from the ashes

Six years after a fire ravaged the site, Bossy has made a steady recovery, gradually rebuilding and expanding the facility, to bounce back with fully automated production lines that will soon be operating 24 hours a day.

In view of the high demand for their products, Bossy are planning to double staffing within the next two to three years, as well as finalize contracts for several thousands of tonnes per year from autumn 2022. They will also be looking to recruit 30 to 40 new team members to run the site and drive new product development.

Find out more on the Bossy website.

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Embion is selected as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum

May 12, 2022 | Ecosystem news, Headline, Member news

Embion is selected as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum

Valley member Embion has made it their mission to catalyze the world’s transition to zero wasted resources. To do this, they specialize in upcycling industrial food production by-products through their platform technology. This week they were selected to become a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer.

The story so far

Embion founders – Georgios Savoglidis, Sviatlana Siankevich and Georgios Fengos, share a common vision of using smart technology to catalyze the world’s transition to the sustainable use of food resources.

The company – an EPFL spin-off founded in 2016 – aims to harness the best of nature and accelerate next-generation nutrition innovation for all, empowered by its platform technology, while addressing sustainable development through cutting-edge innovation in plant-based technology. It enables the production of highly functional ingredients from biomass for animal nutrition, food and beverages, nutraceuticals and cosmetics.

After securing seed funding from strategic investors from Switzerland, United States and Asia in 2019, Embion registered its first product, PREMBION, in the EU market in 2020, designed to pave the way to antibiotic-free farming and increased feed efficiency. In 2021 the team went on to close a successful CHF 4.5 million Series A funding round, led by global brewing group ASAHI Group Holdings Ltd., allowing them to grow their team and scale their production capabilities.

Becoming a Technology Pioneer

The World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers are early to growth-stage companies from around the world that use new technologies and innovation to tackle the world’s most pressing issues – from sustainability and climate change to healthcare.

This year’s cohort includes start-ups from 30 countries, with Vietnam, Rwanda and Czech Republic represented for the first time. Embion was selected in recognition of its contribution to empowering access to next gen nutritional innovation.

Saemoon Yoon, Community Lead, Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum: “Embion and its fellow pioneers are at the forefront of industries that are critical to solving some of our world’s most complex issues today. We look forward to their contribution to the World Economic Forum in its commitment to improving the state of the world.”

CEO Georgios Savoglidis: “It’s a great honor to be acknowledged as a pioneering company by the World Economic Forum. It is confirmation that the speed of technology development, commercialization and consumer adoption are pushing the wheels of innovation and that our platform technology can offer a new production method that provides for pure and stable products from a renewable source. Products that represent a new frontier in nutrition and health. We look forward to contributing to the Forum dialogues on this challenge.”

What’s next?

As a Technology Pioneer, Embion’s CEO Georgios Savoglidis will be invited to participate at World Economic Forum activities, events, and discussions throughout the year. Embion will also contribute to Forum initiatives over the next two years, working with global leaders to help address key industry and societal issues.

In the coming months, Embion is now planning to build on their successes by connecting with like-minded investors who can help them further scale their work and collaborate with corporate partners to create joint product development projects in the food and feed industries.

Find out more on the Embion website.

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Valley members come together for SFNV’s third General Assembly

May 9, 2022 | Ecosystem news, Headline, SFNV updates

Valley members come together for SFNV’s third General Assembly

On Friday May 6, SFNV members came together at our third General Assembly to celebrate our joint achievements so far and explore the key opportunities for impact in the coming months. Here are a few of our highlights.

A vibrant and diverse community

Martin Vetterli, SFNV’s President, kicked off the General Assembly by sharing his thoughts on how the role of food in our lives has evolved. Once a sheer matter of survival, food has now become an integral part of our lifestyles. But at the same time, key events in 2021, like the blockage of the Suez Canal, the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have reminded us of the interdependence and fragility of global food systems – and the importance of constantly seeking new solutions to emerging challenges. 

Martin stressed that this is exactly why collaboration and innovation is so important. But he’s also been heartened to see such a huge appetite for change across the Swiss food ecosystem over the last two years. In April 2021, the Valley had 39 members. This year, SFNV has grown into a vibrant and diverse community of 93 companies and organizations, representing the full spectrum of Swiss knowledge and expertise – from global corporations and leading Swiss academic organisations to early-stage startups, scaleups and SMEs.

A speaker presenting at a conference
Choosing to be part of the solution

While presenting SFNV’s activity report, Christina reminded attendees that only sustainable food systems can deliver positive impact and a strong financial return. Ecosystem actors can choose to be part of the problem or part of the solution every day. She thanked all Valley members for becoming part of the community – and for choosing to become part of the solution. 

So far, SFNV has mapped the Swiss FoodTech ecosystem, launched Impact Platforms on precision nutrition and sustainable protein and become a recognized player in the Swiss food innovation landscape. Together with Martin – who was unanimously reelected for another term as SFNV President – Christina and the Valley community will now:

  • launch three more Impact Platforms on Food Systems 4.0, the Future of Farming and Sustainable Packaging
  • run a series of events to attract talent and facilitate networking and knowledge exchange
  • onboard 30+ members to strengthen the diversity of the Valley’s network
  • continue to grow SFNV’s online presence and global reach
Photo of people attending a meeting
The world’s pilot plant  

SFNV Executive Committee members were also invited to share their personal perspectives on the challenges and opportunities in the Swiss food innovation ecosystem. They noted that Switzerland has the potential to become the world’s pilot plant. SFNV has a key role to play in working alongside Government partners to create the conditions in which innovations can scale, and enabling food startups to drive economic development and job creation. They Valley should also function as a platform that shows budding innovators what is possible and inspires them to act. 

In response to these remarks, SFNV members agreed that Switzerland has all the key ingredients needed to become a leading player in the global food innovation scene but a clearer strategy is needed to articulate our USP. Members also noted that entrepreneurs who haven’t graduated from a Swiss university could benefit from more support.

Two ladies at a meeting
Building a unicorn nation

Finally, Martin invited Andri Silberschmidt, a Member of the National Council of Switzerland and fellow food entrepreneur, to share his thoughts on the strengths and limitations of entrepreneurship in Switzerland.

He acknowledged that, unlike recent developments in other leading food nations, the Swiss government is unlikely to invest directly in specific industries. Switzerland’s focus has always been on encouraging collaboration between academia, industry and startups. But he recognized that there was still a lot that government colleagues, alongside ecosystem actors, could do to make Switzerland a successful unicorn nation. 

Andri believes that it will be critical to teach children and young adults entrepreneurial skills from an earlier age, reduce the administrative barriers to creating a company and ensure there is financial support available for those who try and fail. He explained how he and his colleagues are working on making it easier for innovators and talented students from non-EU countries to settle and work in Switzerland. He also highlighted the importance of ensuring that promising startups have access to the Series B, C and D funding they need to scale and grow in Switzerland. 

He called on SFNV members to be specific about which legislative issues are creating barriers to growth and shared a few examples of how he’s already worked with members and sector leaders to achieve tangible changes.

Executive Committee members stressed that the Swiss policy framework needs to support the products that represent the future of food and allow R&D developments to rapidly progress to consumer testing. They noted that the US and UK also have a Small Business Act that is designed to make procurement more SME-friendly and would welcome a similar approach in Switzerland. Finally, they called on the Government to remember their commitment to the 2030 agenda and consider who is part of the problem today and who can be part of the solution tomorrow when defining national food and nutrition policies.

People attending a meeting
Celebrating successes 

The meeting drew to a close with a networking session that gave SFNV members a chance to connect in person after many months of virtual meetings. Discussions covered current challenges and recent successes – from product launches through funding rounds to new partnerships. 

The SFNV team heard loud and clear that there is appetite for more social events, so we’ll be developing a new event format to bring the Valley community together more regularly. In the meantime, we’d like to thank everyone who joined us in person and online and we look forward to connecting again soon.

Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley Team
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MagicTomato invites supporters to invest in its nationwide expansion

May 4, 2022 | Ecosystem news, Headline, Member news

MagicTomato invites supporters to invest in its nationwide expansion

SFNV member MagicTomato has made it their mission to democratize access to local and sustainable food. Now they’re inviting both Swiss consumers and institutional investors to invest in their solution to strengthen food ecosystems across Switzerland.

The story so far

Back in 2016, Paul Charmillot had a vision. He wanted to create a solution that made it quick and easy for busy consumers to enjoy top-quality, local and sustainably-produced food. And with just CHF 60k in the bank and the support of tech innovation incubator Fongit, he did just that.

Initially this meant a lot of long days doing anything and everything to get the business off the ground – from tracking down the best local producers to developing the website, preparing orders and dealing with client queries.

But this upfront investment certainly paid off. MagicTomato has grown rapidly. Today, Magic Tomato’s team of 40 provides local and sustainable food to over 5000 consumers across Vaud, Geneva, Fribourg, Thun, Bern, Yverdon, Biel and Neuchâtel and brought in over CHF 7 million of orders last year.

As a certified B-Corp, Paul and his team are also deeply committed to having a positive social and environmental impact. In 2021, their business activities averted 46 tonnes of food waste and made over 30,000 deliveries with a fleet of electric vehicles.

After a longstanding collaboration with Label Bleu, the two companies decided to join forces at the end of last year, strengthening the team’s network and laying the foundations for expansion across Switzerland.

Investing in local food ecosystems

MagicTomato is now looking to raise CHF 1 million by inviting customers, supporters and more institutional investors to invest in their solution. Through a partnership with Taurus, Swiss residents can buy participation certificates using blockchain technology.

For Paul, this funding solution felt like the most natural fit for the platform: “Our customers are already shaping their local food ecosystems through their purchasing decisions. Investing in our platform alongside more institutional investors like Fongit is another way that customers can actively drive positive change and enable more Swiss residents to benefit from local and sustainably-produced food.”

The campaign was launched on May 2 and potential investors can choose from three packages, starting from just CHF 150. 

Big plans for 2024

The MagicTomato team will use the funds raised to support the structural and digital development of the platform and to accelerate the creation of new ecosystems across Switzerland.

This year, the team plans to expand to German-speaking Switzerland, Chablais and Valais but has also set their sights on developing networks in Ticino in the near future. By 2024 they aim to pay out more than CHF 22 million to local artisans and producers. 

Paul is confident that this development will enable MagicTomato to make a bigger contribution to supporting local and sustainable food systems: “We believe that sharing our governance and capital with all our stakeholders will drive our mission-driven company forward and ultimately generate more impact.”

Follow MagicTomato on Linkedin or view their fundraising page to find out more.

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Swiss IoT-powered food safety platform EEat is looking for partners to develop new traceability solutions.

Apr 7, 2022 | Ecosystem news, Headline, Member Highlight

Swiss IoT-powered food safety platform EEat is looking for partners to develop new traceability solutions.

Growing a startup that serves the food service industry in the midst of pandemic-driven mass closures takes courage. But this is exactly what the EEat team did after spotting a gap in the market. Working alongside customers from day one, they’ve developed an IoT-driven platform that makes it simple to comply with food safety regulations. Now they want to connect with partners to scale up and develop new traceability solutions.

Hello. Tell us a bit about yourself. 
Hi, I’m Jean-Charles Fosse. I co-founded EEat with Johann Bigler and Gaëtan Valentin back in 2019, after a fruitful exchange with Eldora, one of Switzerland’s leading caterers, helped us spot a gap in the market. Today I’m in charge of the project development.

Describe your company in a single sentence. 
EEat is a platform that uses IoT sensors and a mobile app to help food processing companies comply with food safety regulations (HACCP). We do this in three ways: by digitizing daily checks, automating cold chain management with temperature sensors and simplifying industrial traceability through QR codes.

What gets you out of bed in the morning? 
The fact that our solution really makes a difference for our customers – over 300 food service and food processing partners in Switzerland, France, Belgium and Gabon. We’re making their lives easier while ensuring that their customers remain safe. 

I also love working in a startup. Building a project from the ground up is so exciting. The whole EEat team is so focused on solving new challenges and it’s really rewarding to constantly find new ways to add value for our customers. 

What does a typical day at work look like for you? 
Every day is different! In the morning, I usually check the key numbers, make sure that everything is working as it should be and respond to customer emails. Later in the day I often have meetings with potential customers or partners or take some time to assess and rethink our strategy. We’re also in the process of recruiting new team members so it can sometimes be a challenge to juggle my team management, sales and customer support tasks. But I love how varied my role is. I never get bored! 

What were your key achievements in 2021?
Given that our clients work in the food service sector, the pandemic obviously posed some unique challenges for us! But once we’d had a chance to regroup, it actually forced us to diversify our offer and helped us reach more customers. In addition to working with restaurants, we now also support butcheries, bakeries and food processing companies. Thanks to these developments, our platform was able to measure over 9,000,000 temperature data points and facilitated over 600,000 food safety checks in 2021. 

We were also able to grow our team by recruiting to some key roles, which was extremely valuable. We’re excited to see how things progress in 2022. We’re hoping that the reduction in Covid-19 restrictions will mean more stability and less anxiety for our customers.

What are you and your team working on this year?
We’re working alongside a number of companies to improve our industrial traceability system. We want to make it possible to track each step in the food transformation chain – including food batch number and processes – from receiving the goods to the final product. We recognized that medium-sized companies were looking for a solution here but there was a gap in the market. We’re also always working on improving our existing features and UX in collaboration with key partners like Eldora. 

Tell us about how you work with others in the ecosystem to innovate.
EEat was actually born out of a collaboration with Eldora. Eldora had always been interested in our technology and how it could help them improve their processes. After a few productive meetings, we decided to work alongside them to explore how our technology could help them tackle their issues.

From day one, Eldora acted as an expert partner and openly shared their food safety knowledge with us. They took the time to train our team and talk us through their biggest challenges. We’re really grateful that they were willing to put their faith in a young startup. It was a real game changer for us. This collaboration gave us the knowledge and resources to transform EEat into a solution that could offer real value to a broader range of customers.   

But that was just the start of our journey. Each company’s food safety processes can vary significantly, so we had to make sure that the system was responsive. Given our positive experience with Eldora, we now always work alongside partners to develop new products and features. They bring their topic knowledge and we bring our technology. Then we brainstorm and come up with a solution that we can test and improve together. We aim to create the first version as quickly as possible and then iterate as needed. This could be refining the user interface or adding new features. Ultimately, the customer knows what they need best. It just makes sense to work alongside them. 

How do you support the Swiss ecosystem beyond your core business offer?
One of our most important values is to be honest and transparent. We love to find opportunities to share our experiences wherever we can. We also recognize that we’re just a small part of a huge food innovation ecosystem. That’s why we’re big fans of collaboration. Some challenges just can’t be tackled in silos. Sometimes our customers need broader support and we always do our best to connect them with suitable partners. This is always a win-win situation. 

How can the SFNV community help you achieve your goals?
We’re looking forward to the launch of Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley’s Impact Platform on Food Systems 4.0 to connect with other Valley members that are interested in developing collaborative projects in this space. We’re particularly looking to connect with small and medium size food processing companies that want to digitalize or upgrade their traceability solution.

Tell us something we didn’t know about your company.
EEat is a Spin-off of ThinkEE, an IoT-based company specialized in helping companies deal with sensors and their associated data. So that’s where the EEs in EEat come from. ThinkEE stands for: Think Ecosystem Efficiency.

Connect with Jean-Charles Fosse on LinkedIn or visit the EEat website to find out more.  

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