Today is the day: we’re over the moon to officially open the call for applications for the 2020’s edition of the FoodTech 500

So, join our global quest for the top innovators and disrupters in Food Tech and apply to 2020’s FoodTech 500 now! 

 

Want to know more about the FoodTech 500?
Watch this teaser video

The ‘Fortune 500’ list of Food Tech

Inspired by the Fortune 500, The FoodTech 500 lists and ranks the top movers and shakers in Food Tech.

Forward Fooding’s founder and CEO Alessio D’Antino shared:

“We’re thrilled to launch the FoodTech 500 today. Our mission is to use technology and data to map and support the growing FoodTech ecosystem. The FoodTech 500 provides an exciting new opportunity for top innovators and disrupters to showcase their work and elevate the profile of the entire FoodTech industry. We’re excited to uncover the top FoodTech startups and scale-ups globally, those who are transforming food as we know it. In this way, we are going to bring these companies the recognition that their pioneering work deserves.”

To learn more about the FoodTech 500 watch our founder’s interview with Food Matters Live.

How it works

The 2020’s edition of the FoodTech 500 counts three phases:

Phase 1:  we open the call for applications – all the companies that wish to apply will be asked to fill out this form.

Phase 2: after carefully reviewing each application based on a proprietary scoring system, we will announce the 500 shortlisted companies that will make up the official 2020 FoodTech 500 List. Please note that this list does not reflect the definitive ranking, and it only includes the 500 winners. 

Finally, in phase 3, we will announce the definitive, fully-ranked, 2020 FoodTech 500 list in early February 2021.

What are the scoring criteria?

Business size

The business size score is generated via a proprietary algorithm from The FoodTech Data Navigator that predicts the business growth based on financial performance indicators. We use data acquired from independent sources such as the company’s headcounts, funding activities, and the number of office locations they operate from.

Digital Footprint

The digital footprint score is also generated via a proprietary algorithm from The FoodTech Data Navigator as a prediction of business growth based upon each company’s digital presence, social media performance and visibility on the web. The algorithm takes into account over 25 elements such as website authority and search engines’ ranking, website traffic as well as social media followers, traffic & interactions over the main social media platforms.

Sustainability

In the absence of a global framework to measure a business’s sustainability impact, we have chosen to build a bespoke sustainability impact score based on a self-assessment survey derived from the Sustainable Development Goals. 

You can learn more about these scoring criteria by exploring the full methodology behind the 2020 FoodTech 500.

2019’s FoodTech 500 winners: where are they now?

What happened to last year’s winners? Where are they now? Download the report, 2019’s FoodTech 500 Winners: Where Are They Now – A 6-month Review. In this report, we take a look at last year’s winners’ accomplishments and failures. 

When crafting this report, we looked at impact metrics such as jobs creation, funding activities, and strategic partnerships established with industry players.

Reports’ key takeaways include:

To download the full report, click here or visit forwardfooding.com/reports. 

What’s the prize?

So what would applicants stand to gain from being included in the official 2020’s FoodTech 500 list? FoodTech 500 winners gain access to a global network of industry stakeholders including Fortune 500 Food & beverages companies, food tech investors, and other institutional investors. Moreover, the FoodTech 500 provides a platform for discussion, engagement, and networking with other food tech companies.

As a result, the FoodTech 500 is a great opportunity for startups to get the visibility they need. In addition to that, it’s a fantastic opportunity to become part of a diverse community of leading FoodTech industry stakeholders. 

What are you waiting for? 

So, if you are in Food and doing interesting things with tech (or vice versa), we want to know about your company.

We define Food Tech as: ‘how technology can be leveraged to create efficiency and sustainability in designing, producing, choosing, delivering and enjoying food’.

And the FoodTech 500 covers all the main areas of AgriFoodTech. Agtech, Food Delivery, Food Waste, Kitchen & Restaurant tech, Food Safety, Food Processing and Next-Gen Food & Drinks. Do you have what it takes to be among this year’s most inspirational AgriFoodTech companies?

Apply now!

This is our global rallying call for all Food Tech innovators and disrupters to put themselves on the map and apply for their place on the first definitive global list of the top 500 FoodTech companies shaping the future of food.

The genesis of the FoodTech 500

At Forward Fooding we power a network (run by entrepreneurs) of Food Tech startups that spans the globe, and a global map of Food Tech entrepreneurs, investors and accelerators, The FoodTech Data Navigator, as part of our data intelligence platform. With our FoodTech Data Intelligence and corporate-startup collaboration platform, we are passionate about awarding the best and brightest minds in Food Tech. And with the Food Tech industry predicted to hit $250 billion by 2022 (source: Forbes), over a lunch meeting we got curious and started asking ourselves some questions…

• Who are ALL these players who are pioneering the future of food?
  
  
• What categories of Food Tech are they operating in?
  
  
• How much money are they raising & who is backing them?
  
  
• Who are the ones to watch who will lead the market growth? Who will truly help power a food revolution?

With these questions in mind, in 2019, the idea of The FoodTech 500 was born and slowly shaped up within our team. Thus, in September 2019, we launched our global search to create the world’s first FoodTech 500; and in February 2020, we released the world’s first FoodTech 500 list.

For the 2019’s edition we collected over 1.200 applications from 54 different countries, across 8 different categories of AgriFoodTech; a truly global response!

Last year’s FoodTech 500 was a huge success

How did we do last year? Here are some highlights from last year’s edition:

• 1,200+ applications from international AgriFoodTech start-up and scale-up companies representing 54 countries worldwide;
• 2019’s FoodTech 500 was featured in 15+ exclusive press pieces from specialized publications (including Food Navigator, Sifted, AgFunder amongst others);
• The FoodTech 500 website received 203,000+ page views and 24,000 unique visitors from 85 countries.