Brinc, a leading venture accelerator with a global sustainability mandate, and DayDayCook, a leading content-to-commerce Asian culinary platform, announce a commitment of US$10 million to invest in food technology companies that are developing the sustainable, animal-free, global food ecosystem and scaling commercialization in Greater China and Asia. DayDayCook and Brinc will invest in and support 45 companies over the next three years through the Good Food Accelerator Program, operated by Brinc. This alliance is further bolstered by Brinc’s US$500,000 investment in DayDayCook, solidifying a long-term collaborative effort to support game-changing startups.
Applications for the Good Food Accelerator Program open on July 21, 2022. Startups accepted into the program will receive an initial investment of a minimum of US$200,000 and will have access to Brinc and DayDayCook‘s network of later-stage investors during and post-program for potential follow-on funding.
The key investment themes of the program include Alternative Protein, Functional and Novel Ingredients, Sustainable Packaging, Food Supply Chain Innovation, and consumer Agritech solutions. Companies with commercial-ready products and services that are actively contributing toward global food sustainability goals will be prioritised.
The program will be delivered completely virtually and will accept applications from commercially-ready startups located in or looking to enter the Greater China or Asian market. Interested startups can apply online here: http://www.brinc.io/good-food-accelerator/.
The core directive of the Good Food Accelerator Program is to help food tech companies meaningfully commercialise in Greater China and Asia, leveraging the online and offline distribution channels of DayDayCook’s core business as well as Brinc and DayDayCook’s combined network of food corporations, hospitality groups and investors in the region. With Brinc bringing eight years of accelerator program design and operational experience to strengthen the Good Food Accelerator, selected startups will also have access to DayDayCook’s commercial team during the program to explore opportunities for business collaboration.
According to GFI APAC, Asia’s leading alternative-protein think tank, strong year-on-year investor growth for the APAC alt-protein market is marked by a 92% surge: from US$162 million in 2020 to US$312 million in 2021. This has concurrently paved the way for the region’s startups to grow in global prominence — making them a strong force alongside North America’s alt-protein companies, which have fully dominated the market this past decade. In particular, the adoption of alternative proteins will be crucial for China, where, due to the rapid increase in demand for meat, the country is expected to experience a meat deficit of more than 53 million tonnes between 2021 and 2030.