The Thought For Food Challenge 2022 Demo Day Results Are In!

The TFF Challenge 2022 results are in! Read on to find out this year’s prize winners.

But first – some quick background. Out of 3000 entries from 139 countries, 10 Teams were selected as Global Finalists and were invited to spend the past 16 weeks working hand-in-hand with us in the TFF Academy, our impact-focused startup acceleration program.

Each of these teams are bringing forward cutting-edge, impactful projects that we are proud to have in our orbit. In our time working closely together, we connected each of them with world-class coaches, mentors, and speakers. They all walked away with strong connections, a polished pitch, a professionally-written blog, a captivating movie to explain their solution – and the tools and mindsets they need to drive transformative change in their respective markets.

At our TFF Challenge 2022 Demo Day & Startup Showcase Finale on on 8 December 2022, each of the teams gave a 5 minute pitch to to a diverse panel of expert judges. They selected our TFF Challenge winners as well as special prize winners in a variety of categories.

This year, sustainable fertilizers stole the show – with the winning teams offering local solutions to affordably nourish crops and boost productivity in the face of global energy and synthetic fertilizer shortages.

• TFF Grand Prize is awarded to Dooda Solutions, a Lebanese startup producing solid and liquid vermicompost at scale. 🇱🇧🪱

Check out their reaction at our Demo Day 👇

• TFF Runner-Up Prize goes to Carbominer, a Ukrainian startup offering a modular CO2 direct-air-capture system powered by renewable energy for carbon supplementation in greenhouses. 🇺🇦🍓

Check out their reaction at our Demo Day 👇

• Kirchner Impact Foundation’s “Most Investable” Prize goes to B’zeos – a Norwegian startup making fully-compostable bioplastics from regeneratively-grown seaweed 🇳🇴🌱

• CropLife International’s “Next-Gen Innovators: Climate-Smart Solutions for Farmers” Prize is awarded to Radical Growth Solutions, a startup in Pakistan offering an affordable smart farming system targeting smallholders. 🇵🇰 📲

• The “People’s Choice Award” goes to COMBio, a Malaysian startup with a phage-based discovery platform and microbial pesticide to combat soft-rot diseases in fruits and vegetables. 🇲🇾 🦠

• And, the just-announced “Circular Economy Prize” in partnership with the Social Gastronomy Movement is awarded to Elixir Foods from Brazil for their sweet food ingredient made from a liquid by-product from cocoa production 🇧🇷 🍫

We want to congratulate all of the incredible startups who made it to our top 10 this year, and are thrilled to continue to work with them by connecting them to our industry partners and investors, and continuing to offer coaching and mentoring opportunities to propel their success. Of note are these startups poised to make a big impact in their market and on the world:

• 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 dairy as easy as a click of a button 🇳🇱 ☕️
• Bridge Merchant Enterprises (Nigeria) connects growers of staple grains to agronomists, storage facilities, logistics, and buyers in order to reduce post-harvest losses and improve incomes 🇳🇬🚛
• 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 🇹🇭 🌽

The judging session was followed by a global gathering – the TFF Challenge 2022 Demo Day Startup Showcase – which gathered a global audience of 400+ to cheer on all of the Finalists and join in watching their short movies. You can watch the full stream and each team’s movie on this playlist below 👇

TFF Community leaders around the world organized watch parties in places like Bolivia, Nigeria, South Africa, Nepal, Hungary and the United States, uniting the change-makers for an energizing shared global experience as the awards were announced.

At the end of the day, TFF is about so much more than the competition – and the 2022 Demo Day experience really brings this home for all of us.

TFF is about community, collaboration, and a shared commitment to not give up and persist in making a difference in the world. Thank you once again for joining us this year. We are looking forward to continuing to ensure the success of these visionary startups and to opening up more opportunities to transform our food systems together with you.