ACCELERATE: EIT food Accelerator Network

Startups often lack the business skills, market access, financial means and experience to commercialise their ideas. EIT FAN equips entrepreneurs with all the skills they need to commercialize their products and technologies, attract investments, and grow not only their businesses but also their professional network.

The EIT Food Accelerator Network Programme (EIT FAN) is a four-month equity-free grant funded programme aiming to fast-track science and technology-based innovations that help solve global food system challenges.

The programme is managed by the leading EIT Food partner organisations operating from different regional hub locations across Europe

Approx. 60 agrifood startups will be accelerated this year across the 6 acceleration hubs (Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Spain, Finland and the UK), assuming 35 people per start-up, we expect to develop the capacity of 180-300 founders this year alone.

We expect to initiate several collaborations and partnerships between startups and our EIT FAN partners which may lead to pilot projects, research projects and investments by corporate venture divisions during or following the programme. Start-ups will also be able to keep leveraging the EIT Food ecosystem. The

EIT Food RisingFoodStars association will identify the best startups of the European agrifood sector and invite them to apply to the programme. Also there will be the possibility (e.g. for corporate funding partners) to send internal teams to the programme, accelerating internal business ventures and learning from the start-up ecosystem. Hereby upskilling their staff.