On March 3rd 2022 we officially revealed the full-ranked list of this year’s FoodTech 500 in our newly born Milan FoodTech Innovation Hub – read the full recap of the event below.

Check out the pictures of the event here. Feel free to use them and tag us 

The 2021 FoodTech 500

When we first set out to create the FoodTech 500, we wanted to develop a definitive list of the top 500 companies shaping the future of food. Thanks to an overwhelming amount of support, the FoodTech 500 was born with its first edition in 2019. Showcasing innovations from AgriFoodTech companies across the globe, the past editions set the bar incredibly high for this year’s list. 

However, the 2021 FoodTech 500 has gone above and beyond what we had anticipated. With 2052 applicants from over 85 countries, this year has revealed the incredible diversity of those tackling the food crisis. It is our ambition that the FoodTech 500 becomes the Fortune 500 of AgriFoodTech, a list of top innovators and disruptors in the industry and also the go-to leaders of this emergent and ever-evolving sector. 

Get a snapshot of the event in this video

Want access to the full list?

Download ‘The Official 2021 FoodTech 500’, to see the full list, learn more about the FoodTech 500 methodology and get to know this year’s FoodTech heroes via exclusive interviews with the founders of some of the top-ranked companies: 

The Official Unveiling Event at Milan’s FoodTech Innovation Hub

On March 3rd, 2022, we held the Unveiling event of the FoodTech500 2021 list at our newly launched FoodTech Innovation Hub in Milan, hosting founders of some of the top-ranked companies in Italy. The speakers joined us to share their journey so far, their visions and objectives for the future as well as their insights on the AgriFoodTech landscape.
The event was opened by Max Leveau, Co-founder & COO of Forward Fooding, who introduced the FoodTech 500 & unveiled the official ranking of the 2021 edition, while announcing the launch of our new FoodTech Innovation Hub in Milan, in partnership with Talent Garden (more news to follow!). Alongside showcasing 2021’s definitive list of the most inspirational businesses in the world of AgriFoodTech, we deep-dived into the amazing entrepreneurial talent behind the Italian FoodTech ecosystem before introducing some of the top Italian companies in the ranking through the interventions of their very own founders.

The Italian Ecosystem of the 2021 FoodTech 500

The startups and scaleups of this year’s Italian ecosystem of the FoodTech 500 are highly promising and influential companies working across the Food Delivery, Agtech, Next-Gen Food & Drinks, Food Safety & Traceability and Kitchen & Restaurant Tech sectors. Scroll down below to learn more about these great entrepreneurs, whose excitement to be part of our food system revolution was highly contagious!

 

The Speakers 

Daniele Bruttini, Founder at Quomi (#117 of the 2021 FoodTech 500)

Daniele is an entrepreneur focused on innovation. He already successfully completed an exit with his first venture and has gained relevant international experience in e-commerce and startups. He has been working in Italy, Germany and The Netherlands for well-funded companies such as Wimdu (Country Manager Italy), Zalando (Commercial Director for the Italian market) and TravelBird (again as Country Manager Italy). Finally, in 2016 he co-founded Quomi in Milan.

Learn more about Quomi on this video

 

Andrea Lippolis, Founder & CEO at Feat Food (#149 of the 2021 FoodTech 500)

From a personal need, he developed a business idea which then became Feat Food. Always a sportsman, passionate about food, technology and numbers. He made a lifestyle of his passions and derived his approach to work, totally data-driven, innovative and focused on results. His goal has always been to try to have a positive impact on people’s lives and for this reason, he has enclosed all his values in the vision and mission of Feat Food. From the idea born at university for a personal need, he built, together with his team, the reality that today is Feat Food. Engineer, former professional basketball player and passionate about reading, travel and all technologies, he loves challenges and adventures. He is a very dynamic person who loves to surround himself with friends and loved ones with whom to share adventures and new experiences around the world. Happiness for Andrea is, seizing all the opportunities that life offers and living every moment to the fullest, so as not to waste even a day without smiling.

Learn more about Feat Food on this video 

Giuseppe Manzione, CFO at X-Farm (#158 of the 2021 FoodTech 500)

He was born in Salerno, on July 20, 1986. He moved to Milan to attend Bocconi University in 2005. After the Erasmus program in Madrid, in April 2010, and, still during the Bocconi graduate program, he joined Groupon, as an intern. After 3 months, he was hired and his experience at Groupon as Financial Analyst officially started. In April 2014, he was in charge of Internal Audit at Groupon Mexico in Mexico City. He was Business Controller for Italy, Spain and Greece from April 2013 to June 2016. From July 2016, he was the Sales Operations & Project Manager and responsible for all operational functions based in Milan (10 HC: 2 Sales Ops, 2 BI, 4 Lead, 1 Project and 1 Content) for Southern Europe areas (now Italy and Spain, previously also Greece, Portugal, Turkey and UAE). He was also in charge of all new sales projects to launch and of an outsourced sales team based in Reggio Calabria and made by 21 FTE, who generated 5M/€ bookings per year. In June 2019, he took the hard decision to leave Groupon (after more than 9 years) to start with a new experience, coming back to his first working love, “Finance”. He accepted to join Solera Italia with the goal to restructure a company that works in a mature market (insurance and automotive), but with very high opportunities of growth, thanks to digitalization. He then too a leap in the startup world by joining XFarm as Chief Financial Officer in 2021.

Learn more about XFarm on this video 

Ivan Aimo, CEO & Co-founder at Deliveristo (#246 of the 2021 FoodTech 500)

Former senior associate of Innogest VC, MSc in Electronic Engineering between Polytechnic of Turin, INPG Grenoble, EPFL Lausanne, final dissertation at UC Berkeley (California), MBA at the CDI in Paris.

Learn more about Deliveristo on this video

Giacomo Bedetti, Founder & CEO at Orapesce (#245 of the 2021 FoodTech 500)

Born in Rimini (Italy) in 1974, he graduated in 2000 in Economics and Commerce in Milan from the Luigi Bocconi University with a specialization in Labour Organisation and Human Resources. In 2018 he completed an Executive MBA from the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano (EMBA 2016-2018) with full marks and during the study program he designed and founded Orapesce, a fresh fish delivery solution in Italy, arriving in 2020 to obtain € 650K of turnover, 10,000 deliveries in Italy, involving almost 200 investors in the project, including an important Italian private equity fund (Azimut Libera Impresa), achieving fundraising of almost € 2 million. In July 2020 he left doValue from the position of head of the division with a focus on credit securitization services and dedicated full time to Orapesce, where he now leads a team of 8 people.

Learn more about Orapesce on this video

We can’t thank enough our FoodTech community

At Forward Fooding, we are incredibly proud to have hosted these inspiring founders at our Milan FoodTech Innovation Hub. 

A huge thanks to all our speakers for taking the time to share their insights and inspire other entrepreneurs. Also, a special thank you to all the participants who joined us to celebrate this amazing pack of entrepreneurs who work every day to better our Food System!

In case you want to know more about the Italian FoodTech Ecosystem, check out here our 2021 report!

If you missed the event, you can watch it on our Youtube Channel

Congratulations to all FoodTech 500 heroes

We want to thank all the innovators, inventors, founders and all the people that are working hard to tackle the current food crisis and the challenges of the modern world head-on. While sitting at the intersection of food, technology and sustainability, these entrepreneurs are powered by focusing their attention and efforts on a better future. All of the companies that have made it as 2021 FoodTech 500 finalists are, in our opinion, entrepreneurial success stories worth keeping an eye on. That is why we have made it our mission to share them with you.

Forward Fooding is the world’s first collaborative platform for FoodTech Data Intelligence and Corporate Startup Collaboration.