An interview with Giorgio Bertolini, Lorenzo Di Brino and Tommaso Spreafico, founders of Emerge, one of Forward Fooding’s top 500 Food Tech startups.

Giorgio Bertolini, co-founder of Emerge

It’s time to put a face to the name…

We asked our FoodTech 500 top-runners to give us a bit of insight into how they started out as a company and their thoughts on the role of technology in Food innovation. Meet Giorgio, Lorenzo and Tommaso, the power-trio behind Emerge, an Italian food platform that allows medium Italian food producers to get in touch with national and international buyers. Let’s see what the founders had to say.

So tell us a little bit more about you! Where did the idea for your FoodTech company come from?

Giorgio, Lorenzo and Tommaso: The idea came out when a major American company asked for help in finding Italian food products. We, the three co-founding partners, Giorgio Bertolini, Lorenzo Di Brino and Tommaso Spreafico, were working on other startup projects when this request came precisely. We immediately worked to meet the specific need of this customer, but we didn’t quickly realise the opportunity and the fact that it could become our main activity. In 2018, Italy exported food products for 42 billion euros. A prominent figure, but one that loses weight if compared with the worldwide demand for Italian products of more than double. Emerge was born precisely to bridge this disparity and to ensure that all true Italian agri-food excellence manage to go beyond national borders.

How is tech central to your business?

Giorgio, Lorenzo and Tommaso: Many aspects put tech at the centre of our company. Ours is a digital platform entirely developed in-house. Through the search engine and the appropriate applicable filters, getting in touch with Italian food producers on Emerge becomes very easy. Furthermore, we’re working on a digital food passport, using NIR and blockchain technology, which aims to fight the counterfeiting in the food sector and will guarantee the real origin of products.

Why do you think it’s important to see the food industry embrace tech?

Giorgio, Lorenzo and Tommaso: In our opinion, the food sector should embrace technology for three main reasons. The first is environmental: technology allows us to safeguard the environment, for example, by reducing travel and therefore CO2 emissions. The second is economic: technology, also applied to the agri-food sector, allows to decrease expenses and time. The third is instead informative: thanks to technology, we have an infinite pool of information available that can help the final consumer in a more conscious choice.

Want to know more? Check out Emerge’s full profile here.

Congratulations again to Emerge for ranking 3rd in the “Consumer Apps & Services” category of the Foodtech 500 list.

To find out who else made it into the FoodTech 500; the top Food Tech companies in the world, click here.

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