Photo: Webvilla / Unsplash.com
I loved the comment of Epic Foods CEO Martti Paatela at Stockholm Tech Fest about the rise of fields that have been thought as “sketchy” – like the food industry – growing to become the next big thing in startup scene. Food related startups had been trending already for years especially in making food delivery process more easy for consumers through technology as well as in creating different food-related online marketplaces.
To keep up with the current trends in the Nordic and Baltic foodtech or nutritech scene, we’ll introduce you to food related startups from the region that concentrate on making the consumers experience more smooth, aim to maximize the nutrition-efficiency scale or aim on creating more sustainable solutions for food production and consumption.
Trend 1: High Nutrition Supermeals
Three words for this category – Quick. Easy. Nutritious.
Ambronite is an organic drinkable supermeal that promises to keep away your hunger for 4–5 hours. After enjoying your Ambronite, you may reach optimal productivity level already in two minutes – fits suits to the busy lifestyle. The Helsinki based startup behind the product doesn’t want to get mixed with meal replacement shakes, as the drink mixture contains 100% of everything you need based on the nutrition guidelines.
While you mix Ambronite powder with water to enjoy your liquid meal – Lithuanian Hello Hungry goes for a superfood drink mixed ready for you. In comparison to Ambronite, Hello Hungry is not a meal supplement but rather a healthy and nutritious snack for office workers. Every bottle consist of a combination of buckwheat, omega-3, vitamins, minerals green tea, fruits and vegetables.
In the service end of healthy food solutions is Finnish meal.fi –service by Epic Foods – which is launching their platform also in Sweden. The concept of meal.fi is to order easily online ‘Scandinavian home-cooked meal made by top chefs’ straight to your office or your home.
If you’re more up for cooking yourself, Gastrofy keeps on helping its customers in healthy meal planning in Sweden by recommending personalised recipes based on taste and dietary needs – And deliveries all you need for preparing the meals with just one click in cooperation with Coop. That’s why they call themselves the “Netflix of Food”.
Trend 2: Sustainability and educating the consumers
Finnish startup Entocube has a big mission in this field – They want to end world hunger by providing an affordable source of protein, protect the environment, reduce food waste, farm animals ethically and support local entrepreneurship and food production with their delightful and also nutritious insect food.
Selling and marketing insects as groceries is forbidden in EU, but the trend gathers interest all over world. For instance in Finland, Entocube participated at a food market in Helsinki – not as selling their products as food – but just as a product, that the consumers can decide themselves what they want to do with the insects. And as a result there was an hour queue for their shop – And based on the Instagram pics and tweets most of the people ate the crickets.
Something little to eat #Entocube #HelsinkiNightMarket #dailyprotein #Bugs #espooinnovation pic.twitter.com/XgdhiYyraU
— Tuula Antola (@AntolaTuula) August 21, 2015
As Entocube concentrates on sustainable food production, Froodly wants to take care that as little groceries as possible will be thrown to waste. Froodly’s application enables sharing information about soon to be expired products at stores in Helsinki.
While Froodly provides a platform for their community – they also want to educate people about smart consumption and shopping habits alongside giving practical tips about the ‘science behind expiry dates’.
Trend 3: No more queuing or waiting
All we need to say to describe this category is saving time.
Swedish Waitress and Finnish Wolt are taking stopping by at the restaurant or coffee place to the next level when it comes to smooth customer experience. Through both apps one may order and pay for your food or drinks on the go – and pick up the food or either sit down and enjoy of your purchase at the spot.
By using these apps, you’ll know when your portion is ready to be picked up.
Waitress is available in Stockholm region where they’ve counted that they have have served 11634 customers and saved 113730 minutes of their users’ precious time.
Wolt has also a home delivery service in Helsinki region – And they enable you seeing through the app how the process is proceeding. When you can follow your order you’ll know exactly when you meal arrives.
Know other interesting food related startups in the region? Send me a tip to [email protected]
