Sella Group launches global acceleration program for agritech startups

The international acceleration program "AG 4 Future Food", promoted by the Sella group and implemented by its Venture Incubator dpixel, starts today. It aims to identify and support startups capable of developing innovative, economically sustainable, accessible and efficient solutions and technologies within the agri-food chain.

Agriculture through its final product, food, is one of the fundamental activities with which man has always had to deal, paying particular attention to the conscious management of the planet's resources. The value of innovation applied to agriculture and food therefore invests numerous areas, ranging from the use of robots to the life cycle of packaged foods, from the optimization of logistics to the use of big data, from the design of new flavors to a sustainable use of water.

The "AG 4 Future Food" program aims to identify the best teams with innovations and technologies that are particularly attentive to environmental impact, which will provide the most appropriate tools to face the challenges that await us in the coming decades: population growth, climate change, diversification in food consumption per capita, food waste, ecological inefficiency, undernourishment and scarcity of natural resources. The main areas of intervention of the initiative are biotechnologies applied to agriculture, automation and robotics, data management and logistics, innovative foods. 

"AG 4 Future Food" is the third international acceleration program carried out by dpixel - after "Retail 4 the Future", dedicated to identifying and collaborating startups and corporates to innovate the retail sector, and the "Metaverse 4 Finance" accelerator aimed at the world of finance applied to the Web3 - and is part of the three-year venture incubator plan of Sella group characterized by a total endowment of 3 million euros to be invested in startups.
 
The Challenge
The aim of the program is to identify and support the growth of startups that offer disruptive solutions in agriculture and food that can, for example, reduce costs, minimize the impact and complexity of the industry and create new market and business practices. The initiative thus intervenes on the entire food chain of the future, making it more sustainable, accessible, efficient, resilient to change and, in particular, to climate change.

For Whom
"AG 4 Future Food" is aimed at national and international startups able to implement highly innovative solutions on the agri-food market. Startup requirements include a defined core team, a clear value proposition, a prototype ready to go to market within 6-10 months, and a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) greater than or equal to 6.

Steps and Investments
The initiative, divided into 4 phases, will take place over a period of 6 months: a first scouting phase during which a selection of the best startups will be made, followed by a second moment of business acceleration to support the business plan and identify the 10 best realities. Then there will be the technical validation phase of the products and solutions for the 5 finalist startups - which will receive an investment of 100,000 euros each - before moving on to the matchmaking which provides the possibility of integrating the innovations developed within the processes of consolidated companies operating in the sector.

Partners
dpixel, Venture Incubator of Sella group operating for over 10 years in the European market and with over 36 million euros of investments generated, is the Accelerator Partner of the initiative, with the task of managing all the design, implementation and investments of the initiative. The selected startups will benefit for over 16 weeks from the support of its mentors and that of an exclusive network of global partners, ecosystem partners, accelerator partners, scale-up partners and industry partners.