WATCH: Thailand FoodInnopolis on how VC investment and Industry 4.0 are changing food innovation

FoodInnopolis signed a MoU with Disrupt Technology Venture (DTV) and 500 Tuktuks at the recent THAIFEX-World of Food Asia 2019 trade show.

Under the partnership, FoodInnopolis will scout for promising food tech start-ups such that they will be ready for the VC investment.

“500 Tuktuks will invest, while DTV will help to groom the start-ups to be stronger in every aspect and become ready for the VC to invest. But DTV doesn’t know where to shop for, so we at FoodInnopolis will scout for the technologies via our programs, such as the Food Innovation contest, PADTHAI, and IDE,”​ Dr Akeanong Jangbua, chief operating officer at FoodInnopolis said.

Under the partnership, DTV is looking to work with 10 to 20 start-ups, with about US$40m ultimately available for investment, according to founder Krating Poonpol.

According to Dr Akeanong, many of the Thai food tech firms are at the seed stage, and to feed the ecosystem, FoodInnopolis is helping more firms to progress from the pre-seed and ideation stage to the seed stage.

“About 15% of the companies are at the pre-seed, while 5% are at the ideation stage. From the pre-seed stage, it will progress to the seed stage, where there are about 45% of the companies at this stage.​

“There are about 25% of the firms at the series A stage and only 0.5% will progress to the exit stage. We as the government will try to scout and hatch the good companies in the very first portion of the chain.”​

Dr Akeanong also explained how Industry 4.0 has changed food innovation processes.

Watch the video to find out more.