Incubators and Accelerators can be useful to entrepreneurs who are looking to move their start-ups forward. In addition to mentorship and training, many food startup accelerators will offer funding (often in exchange for a portion of equity), coworking space, and introductions to angels and venture capitalists that are looking to fund businesses like yours.
Note: Originally published on April 23, 2015. The current publication date reflects the last time the list was updated.
The List: Food Startup Accelerators & Incubators
Without further ado, here are some of the incubators and accelerators that have popped up across the globe that are focused on food, beverage, consumer goods and/or agriculture. Check ’em out.
| 33 Entrepreneurs | France | has a Food & Beverage cohort | |
| Accelerating Appalachia | Louisville | KY | food and ag, looks for “innovative triple bottom-line businesses” |
| Accelerise | France | Foodtech and agtech acceleration program | |
| AccelFoods | New York | NY | looking for innovative food products in markets of at least $100M |
| Agro Innovation Lab | Vienna | Austria | Agro Innovation Lab is the innovation platform of BayWa & RWA, two major players in the global agricultural industry |
| Bits x Bites | China | “Our mission is to shape the future of good food by investing in people and technology to create more sustainable food systems.” | |
| Branchfood | Boston | MA | focus on food innovation in New England |
| Canvas | global | Marriott’s concept lab for incubating entrepreneurial food and drink ideas. | |
| Chobani Food Incubator | global | 4-month program with 25k grant | |
| Cinnamon Bridge | United Kingdom | food and beverage companies with social impact | |
| Dairy Accelerator | Minneapolis | MN | “The entity must utilize dairy as a primary ingredient in its product idea. Any aspect of dairy including but not limited to: yogurt, cheese, whey or other milk-based proteins or ingredients can be used. However, the applicant’s idea cannot be focused on butter or butter-based spreads.” |
| Dig Eat All | Spain | foodtech | |
| Food Ecosystem Accelerator | Netherlands | themes: Food Tech & Data, Food Delivery & Commerce, and Sustainability & Social Responsibility | |
| Food Hatch | New York | NY | invests cash in a wide variety of early-stage food companies |
| Food System 6 | San Francisco | CA | Helps startups working to change our food system |
| Food-X | New York | NY | Works with startups across the food chain; boasts 300+ startup founders in their alumni network |
| FoodFutureCo | New York | NY | Targeted at startups with 1M+ in revenues with the idea of helping food businesses scale |
| Good Food Business Accelerator | Chicago | IL | Started by the folks at FamilyFarmed |
| Good Kitchen | London | United Kingdom | The Good Kitchen is a social enterprise accelerator for organisations working to tackle food poverty |
| H-Farm | Italy | 4-month program, food and ag | |
| IKEA Bootcamp | Älmhult | Sweden | start-up food companies can spend three months in one of the company’s labs in Sweden, receive more than $22,000 and free housing, and benefit from the expertise of scientists |
| Just Eat | London | United Kingdom | foodtech |
| Kendall College Incubator | Chicago | IL | part of a culinary school |
| NX-Food | Dusseldorf | Germany | foodtech |
| Plug and Play | Sunnyvale | CA | Food program partners with Molson Coors, Hershey’s, and PepsiCo |
| Prometheus | Barcelona | Spain | foodtech |
| RevTech Accelerator | Dallas | TX | restaurant, retail focus |
| Rutgers Food Innovation Center | Bridgeton | NJ | focused on developing, commercializing, marketing and selling food and beverage products |
| ShakeUpFactory | Paris | France | “farm to forrk” |
| SKU | Austin | TX | CPG |
| Social Enterprise Greenhouse (SEG) | Providence | RI | CPG, New England regional focus |
| Startup Next by Land O’Lakes | Minneapolis | MN | pre-accelerator for startups in the food and tech industry, Land O’Lakes and TechStars collaboration |
| Startupbootcamp FoodTech | global | Looks for high growth startups operating within all segments of the food chain | |
| Target Takeoff! | Minneapolis | MN | Target and Techstars collaboration for better-for-you brands |
| Terra | San Francisco | CA | affiliated with KitchenTown |
| The Kitchen | Israel | founded by the Strauss-Group |
Not dedicated to food stuffs, but the groups also accelerate/incubate food companies:
- Bioenterprise — Not-for-profit accelerator focused on Ag-Bio – Canada
- Indie Bio — focused on biotech, but accelerates synbio companies like Muufri – San Francisco & Cork, Ireland
- The NextFarm Accelerator — Martin, TN
- Thrive Accelerator — This is SVG Partner’s accelerator, dedicated to AgTech – Salinas Valley
- Village Capital — focused on agriculture startups – Louisville, KY
- The Yield Lab – AgTech – St. Louis, MO
With all this talk of accelerators and incubators, you might be wondering: What’s the difference? I’ve got you covered. Check out: What’s the difference between an accelerator and an incubator?
As someone who has been through an accelerator program and has helped a startup founding team operate while attending YC, I understand the importance of weighing the costs of attending an accelerator (i.e., equity) versus the benefits (cash, connections, prestige, etc).
Do Accelerator Programs Work?
Do accelerator programs work? These stats on accelerator success rates might be helpful. It seems that YC leads the pack. No surprise there, but the success and metrics of accelerator programs in general are all opaque.
Have questions? Want to chat? Think I missed a program worthy of being listed? Shoot me an e-mail. I’m happy to help.
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