Big Idea Ventures team
New Protein Fund to invest US$200K each in attendees
The story: Big Idea Ventures’s (BIV) New Protein Fund, dedicated to seed- and early-stage investments in plant-based and cell-based food, ingredient and technology companies, is accepting applications from startups for its fourth accelerator cohort.
BIV has accelerator offices in New York, Singapore and soon in Paris.
How it will help: In addition to providing US$200,000 investment (US$125,000 in cash and US$75,000 through in-kind benefits), Big Idea Ventures’s (BIV) programme may also choose to invest up to US$3.5 million in top companies.
Duration: Five months.
More about the story: This is part of the fund’s mission to invest in and accelerate up to 100 plant- and cell-based companies worldwide.
Companies that will join the accelerator will also have an opportunity to engage with BIV’s partners, which include AAK, a global provider of plant-based oils headquartered in Sweden; Bel Group, the French cheesemaker; and Bühler Group, the Swiss food equipment manufacturer.
These limited partners and others will help participating companies in partnership, scaling production, co-developing intellectual property, and product improvements.
The New Protein Fund is targeted to raise US$50 million since its launch in 2019.
Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: Singapore gets a new unicorn; Is Sea game for the next phase of growth?
FWD Insurance launches startup studio
The story: FWD Insurance has launched FWD Start-Up Studio to support insurtech and takafultech startups in Malaysia, with seed funding of RM1.2 million (US$391,000) over two years.
Who can apply: Malaysian startups operating in the isurtech or Islamic finance sectors.
More about the story: The studio has partnered with 1337 Ventures, a Malaysia-based business accelerator, to launch a four-week pre-accelerator programme. It will be open to 25 startups initially, which will then go on to build a minimum viable product (MVP) and commercially partner with FWD.
Compass India acquires majority stake in SmartQ
The story: Compass Group India, a provider of contract food and support services, has acquired a majority stake in SmartQ, a B2B foodtech
and aggregator platform.
The objective: To integrate and deploy Smart Q’s automated cafeteria management services for its clients.
About SmartQ: Launched in 2014, SmartQ provides services such as automated billing kiosks, centralised billing system, NFC prepaid cards, Point-of-Sale software to companies.
More about the story: Compass India will utilise SmartQ’s technology solutions such as a mobile app for food ordering at the workplace, self-ordering kiosks, cashier-less cafeteria, and PoS solutions, to transform the way people interact with on-site restaurants.
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Image Credit: Big Idea Ventures
The post In brief: BIV’s New Protein Fund invites applications for startup programme appeared first on e27.