Meet the 10 TFF Challenge Finalists of 2018!
We are proudly introducing the 10 TFF Challenge Finalists, who have been selected out of 800 teams from 160 countries.
During the coming 9 weeks, they will take part in the TFF Startup Bootcamp, an intensive accelerator program, where they will receive mentorship and training to further develop their concepts by gathering customer feedback, building their organizational structures and sharpening their business models.
This will be followed by the opportunity to pitch and win up to $25,000 in grant funding at the TFF Summit, taking place in the Museum of Tomorrow on July 27, bringing together the world’s food and agriculture innovators, industry leaders, investors, policy makers and media.
Hailing from Australia, Brazil, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the 2018 Finalist teams are as diverse as their solutions – read on to get to know the bright young innovators, their purpose and impact, and how they’re closing a market gap in a revolutionary way.
AEROPOWDER (pluumo)
Country: United Kingdom
Team: Ryan Robinson, Elena Dieckmann, Albertine Serfaty, Jeevan Sagoo
Target: Food Delivery Companies
Stage: Final product, First client, Entering market of food delivery
Purpose & Impact
Reducing the environmental impact of thermal packaging used in food deliveries.
- Create a new value for poultry feather waste
- Enable sustainable deliveries of food, and preventing food waste through renewable resources
- Inspiring others to innovate with hidden waste streams in the spirit of the circular economy.
Product Market Fit
- Rising number of food deliveries requiring thermal protection to keep contents fresh
- Increasing consumer awareness of the impact of synthetic packaging materials
- Millions of tons of surplus feathers products each year, therefore an abundant source material is available for localised production
- pluumo could replace 3.1 billion standard sized delivery boxes in the EU/year, replacing 1 million tonnes of polystyrene
Coating+
Country: Nigeria
Team: Albert Kure, Basheer Balogu, Lukman Abdulwahab, Nsikak Nsima, Suleiman Alakanse
Target: Farmers, Retailers, Consumers
Stage: Refining business model
Purpose & Impact
Reducing food waste due to spoilage and post-harvest loss, micronutrient deficiency and protein energy malnutrition.
- Extend shelf life and ensure nutrition
- Enable stabilization of food imbalance as a solution for post-harvest loss, storage and improving nutrient quality
Product Market Fit
- 45% fruits and vegetables, 20% meat and 35% fish and seafood get wasted annually (FAO)
- Nutritional deficiencies with children under the age of 5: 35% stunted, 24% underweight (UNICEF)
Group Nutricandies
Country: Brazil
Team: Gustavo H.Rocha, Joyce Silva, Radharani Claro, Gustavo Alves de Souza, Ana Caroline Teixeira dos Santos
Target: Children, (Young) Adults
Lactose intolerant/vegan/sporty
Stage: Final product
Refining business model
Purpose & Impact
Change people’s eating habits by providing a healthy, nutritious and plant-based alternative.
- Foster collaborative economy by sourcing from local smallholder farmers and providing back a natural fertilizer
- Combat obesity, especially within children
Product Market Fit
- More than 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, were overweight and 41 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese (2016, WHO)
- Alternative to sugar-based nutrition: Worldwide population increased yearly sugar intake by almost 20 million tons since 2009.
- Expand potential target groups to fitness-conscious people, infant feeding, and diabetes patients
IoT Water Management System (WCM)
Countries: Brazil, Jordan, USA
Team: Claudio Freitas, Samuel Filgueira, William Freitas, Hatem Albalkhi, Obai Alkilani
Target: Refugee camps, poor regions
Stage: Final product,Business feasibility
Purpose & Impact
Enable poor regions to become self-sufficient through smart water access and management.
- Provide modular, smart, mobile water access and quality monitoring system based on real-time information for improved, more efficient water consumption
- Provide low-cost solution for monitoring water quality and controlling water distribution
- Provide flexible, adaptive water system for customizable farming purposes.
Product Market Fit
- Adoption potential for refugee camps like Azraq camp hosting 53,782 refugees and Kakuma, hosting 185,449 refugees.
- 270 million rural dwellers and smallholder farmers in Africa: only 47% of the rural population has access to improved drinking water access.
Laticin
Country: Brazil
Team: Ana Raquel Calhau Pereira, Cristiano Costa, Gabriel Roriz, Rosana Calhau Silva, Florisvaldo Pereira
Target: Small/Medium Dairy industries
Stage: First clients, Refining business model
Purpose & Impact
Provide business insights to help dairy industries make data-driven decisions for increased productivity and competitiveness.
- Optimization of production process in efficiency and effectiveness through prediction algorithms and data
- Reduce up to 20% of costs through smart performance management
- Enable and educate industries with emerging technology in an intuitive, purposeful way
Product Market Fit
- 87,6% of Brazilian dairy industries within target audience
- Estimated revenue of US$650.000/year considering 10% market adoption
- Potential to expand throughout Latin American markets of US$63.6bn in revenues
Likabs Foods
Country: Ghana
Team: John Baptist Kabo-Bah, Dwamena Ghanson, Kenneth Ofosu
Target: Vegetable Farmers, Household Communities in Ghana
Stage: Refining Business model
Purpose & Impact
Introduce sustainable organic snail farming as a nutritious alternative to solving malnutrition and health issues in rural communities.
- Increase consumption of snail meat as alternative source of protein, low fat and cholesterol level.
- Create new economic development opportunities by introducing a new market to farmers, through job creation.
Product Market Fit
- Most diets, in sub-Saharan Africa consist mainly of cereal or root staple crops, and very little in the way of animal source proteins. (UNDP)
- Establish Likabs hubs for snail production and packaging through mobile app-based supply chain
- Raise international awareness of snails as a new ‘superfood’, as it’s a common delicacy in Africa already and an increasing demand in Europe
RiseHarvest
Countries: Australia, Myanmar
Team: Joseph Shen, Chandan Kumar, Sam Coggins
Target: Smallholder Farmers in SEA
Stage: Developing product
Testing product
Refining business model
Purpose & Impact
Improve the livelihoods of rice farmers in Myanmar by improving yields and optimizing their fertilizer application processes.
- Environmental improvement through adequate fertilizer usage and more sustainable farming practices
- Ensuring food security by increasing rice yields
Product Market Fit
- The incorrect use of fertilizer may result in declining efficiency. A falling efficiency heralds greater loss of fertilizer nutrients. Typically, small and marginal farmers are hit hard.
- Moreover, inefficient use of fertilizers is liable to produce adverse effects on the environment, since lost nutrients either pollute the hydrosphere or the biosphere. (EOLSS)
- Competitive advantage compared with similar products such as ‘BaiKhaoNK’, due to ROI prediction and customizable language
- Future plans: GPS map for nitrogen deficiency detection, and ability to test other nutrients and crops
Safi Sarvi
Countries: Kenya, USA
Team: Samuel Rigu, Riley Rodgers, Kevin Kung
Target: Smallholder farmers
Stage: Refining product market fit
Purpose & Impact
Provide access to high-quality fertilizer to smallholder farmers to sustain soil health and give sufficient income.
- Overcome the barrier of long-distance fertilizer logistics and importation
- Increase post-harvest yields by up to 30% and income by up to 50%
- Create jobs in rural areas as part of economic development through village-level fertilizer production facilities
Product Market Fit
- Franchising model with local agricultural organizations or micro entrepreneurs for village-based fertilizer production
- Providing training, equipment and ongoing technical support in exchange for a 10% fee
- Goal: Set up 3 village-based pilot
production facilities by mid-2019 that achieve 2 tons/day production with a 40% profit margin
SunRice
Countries: UK, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Laos, Czech Republic
Team: Ho Fung Kisum Chan, Klara Hollge, Rachel LohSan, Wen Ngei, Julia Vannaxay, Lincoln Lee, Koay Qin Yan
Target: Smallholder farmers
Stage: Final product testing
Purpose & Impact
Empowering self-sufficiency of rice smallholder farmers by leveraging an existing solar tech-based drying process.
- Reduce rice production loss to meet increasing demands through improved availability of food
- Increase income of farmers up to 50% alongside technological adoption
Product Market Fit
- 30% of the world’s rice is wasted through the drying process, because farmers are stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty, lack of access to agtech, low yields and less product sold.
- SunRice takes an existing technology make it accessible to break the cycle, increase their income by 300USD/annually, reduce loss by 30% and make sustainable profits to expand.
- 50% upfront purchase covers cost, and profit stems from 25% margin between our purchase of the rice from farmers at market price and the sale of rice to the millers.
- Goal: Empower 7.6K farmers, save 60M tonnes of rice while feeding 12.3M people annually by 2024
Sweetpot Yoghurt
Country: Ghana
Team: Manful Maame Ekua, Ewura- Esi Manful, Raphael Aidoo
Target: Children, Students and Young Adults
Stage: Final product, Refining distribution strategy
Purpose & Impact
Improving nutrition and positively changing eating habits by providing a healthy snack fortified with Vitamin A.
- Reduce post harvest losses and increase the market potential for sweet potato farmers.
- Job creation throughout the food production value chain by providing access to a new market segment.
Product Market Fit
- Yoghurt, a multinational delicacy is projected globally to grow to $107 billion market by 2023. Yoghurt is the 2nd most popularly consumed dairy product after evaporated milk in Ghana.
- The solution is scalable to other Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) prone areas in Sub Saharan Africa, Asia and beyond for a food-based approach against the VAD syndrome.
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Curious to get to know the Finalists personally?
All teams will be pitching at the annual TFF Summit, taking place on July 27 in the iconic Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Join us!
For Press enquiries, please get in touch with Monika.