Announcing the Results of the TFF Challenge 2022

Thought For Food Announces the TFF Challenge® 2022 Finalists and Topical Prize Winners

Innovative ventures from 16 countries offer cutting-edge solutions to our world’s urgent food and energy crises; building resiliency into food systems

Basel, Switzerland 6 September 2022 – Thought For Food (TFF), the world’s non-profit leader in next-generation innovation for impact in food and agriculture, is thrilled to announce the 10 Finalist Teams and Topical Prize Winners from the global TFF Challenge 2022.

Of the more than 3000 participants from 139 countries working to solve the global challenges facing our food systems, these ventures from 16 countries have been selected to receive world-class acceleration and mentorship from leading companies. The TFF Challenge Finalists stand the chance to win cash prizes from TFF and partners. 

Answering the prevailing question: “how do we feed 10 billion people on a hotter planet?”, each venture showed exceptional creativity and drive in leveraging advanced technologies and inclusive business models to develop unique solutions to on-the-ground challenges that will pave the way for large-scale food systems transformation.  

From supporting farmers in Pakistan at the frontlines of the climate emergency, to forging new economic opportunities for Ukraine’s agricultural sector; from increasing healthy food and energy production on Native American lands to ensuring fair wages and better labor practices along the supply chain; from enabling green finance to facilitating the transition to plant-based proteins and sustainable biomaterials; from reducing food loss to decentralizing fertilizer and electricity production, the TFF Challenge 2022 teams are changing how and where game-changing innovation happens – and are showing that local solutions can be scaled globally for massive impact. 

The TFF Challenge is more relevant than ever.

Our food systems are responsible for feeding 10 billion people by 2050, yet they face unprecedented challenges from the triple threats of covid, conflict and climate change. Food, fertilizer and energy prices have hit record levels, with devastating impacts on farmers and vulnerable communities that are rippling throughout the supply chain and affecting consumers in all markets. 

The good news is that visionary and purpose-driven innovators are stepping up to change this unworkable status quo. They are developing and deploying exciting entrepreneurial solutions that bring hope – moving us towards a paradigm where we can feed, nourish, and clothe everyone, while also regenerating ecosystems, societies, and economies.

“TFF’s decentralized innovation engine is perfectly set up to discover and support innovative ventures in all markets, and we connect them to a global support system. This is how we build the resiliency we need to weather today’s shocks, and new ones that will inevitably come our way.” 

“I want to sincerely congratulate these teams and every single person who took the time to join the TFF Challenge 2022. The best outcome is that we are gathering people all over the world and inviting them into our TFF Community – people who possess the vision, ambition, and approaches needed to solve our planet’s biggest and most urgent challenges in brave new ways. Together, we are shaping a new narrative about what’s possible.”

🤩 Meet the 10 TFF Challenge 2022 Finalist Teams (in alphabetical order).

These 10 startups are named as TFF Challenge Finalists and will now take part in the TFF Academy, a 16 week personalized acceleration program that supports them in areas like pitching, storytelling, business model development, building partnerships, and how to make a positive systemic impact at scale. 

🌿 B’zeos (Norway 🇳🇴) – uses regeneratively-grown seaweed as a feedstock to make a bio-based, fully home-compostable single-use plastic alternative.

🌾 Bridge Merchant Enterprise (Nigeria 🇳🇬) – connects growers of staple grains to agronomists, storage facilities, logistics, and buyers in order to reduce post-harvest losses and improve incomes.

🍅 Carbominer (Ukraine 🇺🇦) – is developing a CO₂ direct air capture technology to fuel a transformation towards a more sustainable indoor agriculture ecosystem.

🦠 ComBio (Malaysia 🇲🇾) – combats soft-rot diseases in crops by targeting the bacteria that causes them with their natural predators: phages.

🔥 DeFire (Thailand 🇹🇭) – provides an innovative green finance platform to incentivize farmers to stop crop residue burning and adopt other sustainable post-harvest crop management practices.

🪱 Dooda Solutions (Lebanon 🇱🇧) – converts organic waste into nutrient-rich vermicompost that restores soil fertility and delivers locally-produced fertilizers at competitive prices.

🍫 Elixir Foods (Brazil 🇧🇷) – creates a nutritious sweetener from liquid organic cocoa waste that can directly replace refined sugar and add a new revenue stream for regenerative farmers.

⚡ Farm to Flame Energy (USA 🇺🇸) – generates clean, reliable and affordable electricity via a smokeless, odorless biomass generator that operates at half the cost of diesel.

🥛 Natulatte (The Netherlands 🇳🇱) – offers a convenient way for powder-formed plant-milk to be used in all types of coffee vending machines, making widespread adoption of alternative proteins as easy as a click of a button.

💧 Radical Growth Solutions (Pakistan 🇵🇰) – provides climate-affected farmers with a simple, affordable smart irrigation system that improves productivity and reduces water wastage.

🤩 Meet the Topical Prize Winners (as selected by TFF Partner Organizations):

These startups were selected by TFF’s industry partners for mentorship and introductions to their internal teams, ensuring that their one-of-a-kind solutions have the visibility and support systems they need.  

TFF x Cargill Topical Prize on Web3 in Food in Agriculture

🥇 Winner: Sinisana (Malaysia 🇲🇾): ensures fair wages are paid in the agriculture sector with smart contracts validated by employers, payment providers and workers.

🥈 Runner-Up: Decapolis (Jordan 🇯🇴): safeguards food safety and quality standards using blockchain.

TFF x Danone Topical Prize on Regeneration

🥇 Winner: Konbit (USA 🇺🇸): a Climate Action public benefit corporation catalyzing food and energy across rural Native American lands and urban BIPOC communities.

🥈 Runner-Up: PURA – Regenerative cultures & Nature based Solutions (Brazil 🇧🇷): designs and implements nature-based solutions and agroforestry programs for lands that have been degraded by mining.

TFF x DSM Topical Prize on Nutrition in Africa – Focus on Feed

🥇 Winner: Dream Doers Investments (Kenya 🇰🇪): Produces nutritious and sustainable livestock feeds from locally-sourced aquatic fern, azolla.

TFF x Hello Nature Topical Prize on Sustainable Crop Inputs

🥇 Winner: Rural Farmers Hub (Nigeria 🇳🇬): provides data-driven actionable insights in local languages via SMS, mobile app, or in-person to millions of farmers across Africa

🥈 Runner-Up: Agriicola (Mexico 🇲🇽): increases productivity and sustainability of agriculture with an affordable modular remote sensing system that improves decisions and reduces input use.

TFF x NEOM Topical Prize on The Blue Food Revolution

🥇 Winner: Rhodomaxx (Malaysia 🇲🇾): seaweed solutions provider, producing bio-based plastics, textiles, and agricultural inputs.

🥈 Runner-up: EntomalBiotech (Malaysia 🇲🇾): Black Soldier Fly technology converts food waste into aquaculture feed and sustainable bio-fertilizers.

TFF x World Food Forum Prize on Food Security & Resilience

🥇 Co-Winner: Goldenpot (Tanzania 🇹🇿): trains and invests in women farmers who produce nutritious, affordable, accessible food products.

🥇 Co-Winner: Food Bank of Bolivia (Bolivia 🇧🇴): recovers safe and edible food that would be discarded for commercial reasons and redistributes it to vulnerable populations such as foster homes, community kitchens, low income neighborhoods and animal shelters.