On Wednesday 27th January 2016 a new player, the Future Food Accelerator, arrives on the scene of the future food ecosystem. This vertical accelerator is dedicated to start-ups that are developing services, products and solutions in the food realm. Founders include Andrea Magelli and Sara Roversi (founders of You Can Group and the Future Food Institute), Antonio Perdichizzi (founder of Tree), Matteo Vignoli (Academic Director of the Food Innovation Program), and Alessandro Pirani(Trustee of the Future Food Institute).
The international presentation of the project – whose debut was on December 14th in Milan, Italy during Start Up Open Summit – is scheduled for Wednesday, January 27th at the headquarters of the Emilia Romagna Region in Brussels, in the presence of major international enterprises from the world of food and digital innovation (1).
Institutional event speakers include: Paolo De Castro (President of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament), Giovanni La Via (President of Public Health and Food Safety), Simona Caselli (Agriculture, Hunting and Fishing Councillor from Emilia Romagna) and Lorenza Badiello (Head of EU Office, Emilia Romagna). Digital Innovation speakers include:Marco Gay (President of Confindustria’s Young Entrepreneurship Program), Riccardo Luna (Italian Digital Champion), Rebecca Chesney (Institute for the Future and Food Futures Lab) and Tim West(Future Food Hack in San Francisco).
Future Food Accelerator (FFA) was founded with the intention to capitalize upon the experiences generated from the Future Food Institute and the Food Innovation Program, initiatives designed to support the development of innovative business ideas and train young entrepreneurs in the food sector. Both projects aim to generate positive economic, social, cultural and environmental impact on a local and global scale.
Among the projects launched during Expo 2015 that also captures the aforementioned objectives wasWikiExpo (wikiexpo.org), a crowdsourced platform that has mapped and catalogued thematic content over the duration of the Universal Exhibition. WikiExpo tracked over 7,000 events across 29 themes, and was presented during an official press conference in Expo on June 23rd in the presence of Maurizio Martina, Italian Minister for Agriculture and Forestry. Academic Director of FIP Matteo Vignoli presented the platform and the results live on Rai during the “Expo dopo Expo: the legacy of Milan 2015” conference at the Auditorium of Milan Expo on October 10th 2015.
The Food Innovation Program was founded by the Future Food Institute of Bologna (FFI), the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Unimore), and the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California (IFTF). After a successful first edition, which ended in November 2015, the second edition, Food Innovation Program 2.0, will launch in September 2016. In the meantime, the Future Food Institute Fellowship Program has commenced, involving select students who participated in the Masters including: Kelly Angela Lee, Tarek Soliman, Elisa Bedin, Chiara Cecchini, Antonio Gagliardi, as well as Beatriz Jacoste Lozano from Spain.
The mission of the Future Food Accelerator is to support start-ups that have distinct projects and the potential to scale. FFA facilitates open innovation between start-ups, business, and the global food ecosystem. The agenda for 2016 will see the launch of two vertical acceleration calls, one for Food Retail enterprises from April to June, with an entire month dedicated to testing market prototypes, and another call for Future Food Projects, from September to December. An entrepreneurship summer school will take place in Sicily in July.
FFA came into fruition thanks to the commitment, work and shared vision of You Can Group and Tree, Italian companies that have been creating businesses, developing projects and supporting innovative ideas to promote and expand the culture of entrepreneurship for many years.
FOUNDERS
You Can Group
You Can Group was founded by serial entrepreneurs Andrea Magelli and Sara Roversi, who are both passionate about food, digital, social innovation and creative learning. In 2003 they founded Lifeinaclick, You Can’s first company. Since then they have built an entrepreneurial ecosystem that continually strives to promote the growth of new businesses and the creation of new companies primarily in the food and digital realm. They are constantly working both at a national and international level and are involved in unique projects like the Globaltrep Training Program, an entrepreneurial and cultural exchange with Korea. In 2014 they founded the Future Food Institute (FFI), which aims to promote the growth of young entrepreneurs and food innovators capable of generating positive impact on the future of food. FFI also aims to disseminate knowledge through hackathons, workshops and labs via the Food Innovation Program, a secondary level Masters degree that explores the convergence of food and technology.
Andrea Magelli @amagelli
CEO of You Can Group and the company’s entire business portfolio, as well as the Future Food Accelerator.
Sara Roversi @saroversi
Chief Of Social Mission of You Can Group, Executive Director of the Food Innovation Program, BOD member of CAAB Centro Agro Alimentare Bologna, BOD member of Future Food Accelerator, Vice President of Terziario Innovativo di Unindustria Bologna and from 2013 member of the G20 YEA SUMMIT Italian delegation.
Tree
Tree is a company specialized in offering innovative solutions to large enterprises, SME’s, start-ups and institutions, through a series of integrated services such as acceleration, business content training, tutoring and mentorship. They also assist with the facilitation of open innovation events between companies and SME’s on a national and international level.
Antonio Perdichizzi @aperdichizzi
CEO of Tree, Vice President of Italia Startup, Vice President of Future Food Accelerator, Innovation Ecosystem Managing Partner of TIM #WCAP and angel investor. Alumni of the USA State Department International Visitor Leadership Program.
Matteo Vignoli @vignolimatteo
Future Food Institute Trustee and Academic Director of the Food Innovation Program. Industrial Engineering Professor at The University of Modena and Reggio Emilia specialised in Organizational Engineering Processes. Manager of the Design Thinking Program, he was a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, and Research Fellow at CERN where he contributed to the development of new integrated innovation and technology transfer models.
Alessandro Pirani @alepirani
Future Food Institute Trustee and expert in innovation with a PhD in Urban Policies. He works across the service design sector, and helps fashion innovative policies in justice, local government, new technologies and food. He is a partner of c.o. Group Consulting and a policy analyst for the Milan Center for Food Law and Policy, an initiative between EXPO2015, Milan Chamber of Commerce and the Lombardy Region.
NOTES
1. Wednesday 27th January 2016, from 14:30pm until 18:00pmBrussels, Emilia Romagna Region Headquarters, Rue Montoyer 21
futurefoodaccelerator.com – #FFoodAx – @FutureFoodAx
FUTURE FOOD ACCELERATOR | COMMUNICATION & PRESS OFFICE
Giulia Rossi – Mob: +39.3382166003 – info@giuliarossi.it
Sami-Jo Adelman [international press office] – Mob: +39.3288314989 – sami-jo.adelman@youcangroup.it
Laura Girolami – Mob +39.3473842102 – press@youcangroup.it
Michele Spalletta – Mob: + 39.3387947282 – michele@tree.it
