Press Release

Arena42 reaches out to Agtech & Foodtech

Stuttgart, 20 January 2017 The Business Creation Programme Arena42 goes for its third round which is jointly facilitated by bwcon and the European Accelerator KATANA. Opportunity is offered to motivated entrepreneurs that are willing to set the stage for the future of agrifood. For the first time, successful applicants receive up to 100k euros financial support. Application is open until 28 February 2017.

With a third call for participants Arena42 is searching for promising entrepreneurs who want to co-create the future of agribusiness. Given global ecological challenges and the raising awareness of customers for the quality and origin of food, the emerging fields of Agtech and Foodtech hold a massive economic potential. Especially the recent merges of traditional agriculture and food manufacturing with biotech, robotics, software technology and the Internet of Things have paved the way for innovation. Hence, potential products and services that can be developed in the Arena42 reach from drones and intelligent sensors for soil measurement over mobile services for food supply chains to the creation of functional nutrition for specific target groups..

Financial support and new application procedure
Not only the focus of Arena42 has changed but also the selection procedure: The best 100 applicants will be selected via peer-2-peer evaluation and granted travel vouchers 2k euros. Using the vouchers, participants will be able to join the pan-European “Matchmaking Weeks” where they can team-up to work on shared projects. A three days onsite bootcamp held in summer 2017 will support the teams in finalizing their business ideas and in preparing those crowdfunding campaigns that will finally decide which 10 teams will be granted another 100k euros. “It is really important to us that our teams focus on the actual needs of their users,” says Alexandra Rudl, Head of Innovation Programmes at bwcon GmbH and Founder of Arena42. “Using reward crowdfunding campaigns they will receive direct feedback from potential customers that helps them adjust their products.”

Application is open until 28 February
From now on, single entrepreneurs and small and medium sized companies from all across Europe can apply for Arena42 with a 2-minutes pitch video via the KATANA platform. This video shall focus on the motivation of applicants, their understanding of the dynamics in the sector and their vision for the future of agrifood whereas explicit ideas are not necessarily required.
Financial support in this batch is provided through the cooperation with the H2020-funded European business accelerator KATANA which is a joint project of bwcon GmbH and 13 international partners.