The global food revolution found its focal point in London on April 1 as the industry gathered to celebrate the visionaries of the 2025 FoodTech 500. Co-hosted by Forward Fooding, alongside ScaleSpace White City, and Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, the evening brought together the founders and investors who are actively rewriting the rules of AgriFoodTech. It was a night defined by tangible innovation, where guests could engage directly with the technologies and products that are moving the world forward.
This celebration followed the official ranking reveal just one day earlier at ExCeL London. During IFE Manufacturing 2026, Forward Fooding founders Alessio D’Antino and Max Leveau took the stage to announce the full 2025 FoodTech 500 ranking and share a deep dive into the data trends currently reshaping the sector.
Now in its seventh edition, the FoodTech 500 has become the leading benchmark for AgriFoodTech innovation, dubbed the ‘Fortune 500’ of the sector. Since 2019, it has received over 11,700 applications across 180+ countries, with winners representing 70+ nations. This isn’t a regional leaderboard. It’s a map of where the future of food is being built.
What Is the FoodTech 500?
The FoodTech 500 goes beyond a ranking. Each year, it surfaces the companies working at the intersection of food, technology, and sustainability, the ones tackling the hard problems in protein production, supply chain resilience, food waste, precision agriculture, and beyond.
What makes the list meaningful is the rigour behind it. Applications are assessed across innovation, impact, traction, and team, not just funding raised or press coverage generated. The result is a cohort that reflects where serious, mission-aligned capital and talent are actually concentrating in the global food system.
The 2025 edition arrived at a pivotal moment. 80% of this year’s finalists are already revenue-generating (up from 74% in 2024), and 96% have received investment. Female-founded companies account for 38% of the list, which is a record high for the FoodTech 500. The hype cycle is behind us. What’s left is a leaner, more serious ecosystem, and the 2025 FoodTech 500 reflects that.
An Evening of Innovation: The 2025 FoodTech 500 Reveal
On 1 April, the evening opened at 5 pm with networking and a live product showcase from UK FoodTech companies. Alessio D’Antino and Max Leveau, Founding Partners of Forward Fooding, took the stage alongside co-hosts ScaleSpace and the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Proteins to welcome the room and set the scene.
The official 2025 FoodTech 500 ranking was unveiled, accompanied by a ‘State of the Art’ read on the global FoodTech sector: where the growth is, where the contraction is, and what the data is really telling us.
pladis Returns as Official Sponsor of the FoodTech 500
Tim Ingmire, VP of Global Innovation & Technology at pladis, took the stage to mark pladis’s continued commitment to the FoodTech 500, returning as Official Sponsor for the second consecutive year. He also announced the launch of the second edition of their Accelerator Programme, powered by Yıldız Ventures.
About pladis
pladis is a global snacking company with a simple purpose: bringing happiness with every bite. We are home to many well‑loved brands including McVitie’s, GODIVA and Ülker, along with local favourites such as Jacob’s, Flipz, BN, Verkade and Turtles.
With baking heritage dating back to 1831, and a team of 16,000 colleagues across 27 factories in 11 countries, we stay close to the markets we serve – turning consumer insight into snacks people know, trust and enjoy.
The Accelerator Programme
Now in its second year, the pladis Accelerator Programme—powered by Yıldız Ventures—is designed to support early-stage companies advancing cleaner, healthier, or more sustainable snacking solutions.
Since forming in 2016, pladis has grown quickly by combining agility with the scale of a global business. The Programme draws on this experience, offering founders practical support to start and scale at pace. Selected start-ups will gain expert mentorship on global expansion, product design, and commercialisation while collaborating with pladis’ R&D, procurement and business teams.
pladis is looking for all types of innovations, but particularly things next-generation whole-food ingredients and processing, smart indulgence and sensory breakthroughs, as well as advances in metabolic health and functional nutrition.
Meet the Minds Redefining the Global Food System
Eight founders and senior leaders from FoodTech 500 companies presented their work to the room. These weren’t pitch competitions, but windows into what’s actually happening at the frontier of the food system; from novel fermentation to sustainable packaging to AI-driven plant signals. Here’s who spoke:
Carrol Plummer, Co-founder & CEO at Vivent Biosignals, leads a company that reads the electrical signals of plants to detect stress, disease, and environmental conditions in real time, giving growers an entirely new layer of crop intelligence. Watch their video demo
Thijs Bosch, CEO at The Protein Brewery, leads a company producing Fermotein®, a mycoprotein made through biomass fermentation. Watch their video demo
Zoe Yu Tung Law, Co-Founder & CEO at New Wave Biotech, is working on next-generation biotech solutions for the food and agriculture sector.
Johnny Drain, CEO at Hypesound, leads an Italian FoodTech company using sound technology to transform food production and fermentation processes.
Suzanne Robinson, Chief Commercial Officer at Kyomei, speaks for a UK-based company at the cutting edge of sustainable food solutions. Watch their video demo
Neil Foster, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Nuritas, represents a company using AI and genomics to discover and unlock bioactive peptides from food, with applications across health, nutrition, and food performance.
Pierre Coeurdeuil, Head of Commercial Partnerships at Savor, produces real fats without animals, farmland, antibiotics, or fertilisers.
Nick Hooton, Head of Finance at Notpla, represents one of the UK’s most recognised sustainable packaging companies, making seaweed-based alternatives to single-use plastic packaging.
The insights continued beyond the physical stage with Jon Sumroy, CMO at AKA Foods. While he wasn’t able to join the lineup in person, he shared their company’s work on novel ingredients and product development through a dedicated recording. Watch his presentation here.
The Live Showcase: Innovation You Can Actually Touch and Taste
Before and after the presentations, the room transformed into a live showcase of FoodTech 500 companies with products and technologies on display. This is where the evening got tangible. Companies exhibiting included:
Aquagrain – transforms organic waste into a biodegradable soil additive that stores water and nutrients to help crops grow in challenging conditions while reducing the need for irrigation and fertiliser. Watch their video demo
Phytoform Labs – uses AI and precision gene editing to redesign and develop novel, Nature Identical™ crop traits, building climate-resilient, future-secure crops without introducing foreign DNA
Square Mile Farm – installs and manages modular, plug-and-play vertical farms inside workplaces to grow edible, aromatic, and decorative plants year-round. Watch their video demo
Savor – produces real fats: butter, palm oil alternatives, and more, without animals, farmland, antibiotics, or fertilisers
Raw Edge – uses fermentation technology to turn vegetables into delicious, health-promoting products using patented and clinically tested lactic acid bacteria
Microlub – develops protein-based molecules that act as microscopic lubricants, allowing a significant proportion of fats and oils in food products to be replaced without losing the mouthfeel, texture, or taste consumers expect
N&E Innovations – upcycles food waste into ViKang, a patented antimicrobial agent that eliminates 99.9% of bacteria, viruses, and moulds to extend shelf life and improve food safety. Watch their video demo
Who Was Behind the Evening
The event was co-hosted by two organisations doing serious work in the food and innovation space.
The Bezos Centre for Sustainable Proteins, supported by the Bezos Earth Fund, advances microbial food innovation through cutting-edge science, fermentation technology, and strategic collaboration. Meanwhile, ScaleSpace is a launchpad for high-growth businesses born from a partnership between Blenheim Chalcot and Imperial College London, where industry and academia meet to support the businesses of tomorrow.
The event also ran in partnership with Global Tech Advocates, the international grassroots tech community uniting the private sector across cities and regions worldwide.
Drinks on the evening were sponsored by Lowrise Brewery, Good Koffee, Ice Nine, and FirstGlass.
If you missed the live action or just want to relive the highlights, look out for the full recording on our YouTube channel next week.
Access the 2025 FoodTech 500 Ranking
The full 2025 FoodTech 500 ranking is now live. Visit forwardfooding.com/foodtech500 to explore all 500 finalists, download the white paper, and find out where your company sits in the global AgriFoodTech ecosystem.
Download the FoodTech 500 White Paper Now
And thank you to our team for putting this event together!
Forward Fooding is the world’s first collaborative platform for the Food & Beverage industry via FoodTech Data Intelligence and Corporate-Startup Collaboration – Learn more about our Consultancy and Scouting Services and our Startup Network.
