October 28, The Hague. With the common goal of fueling promising Spanish FoodTech ventures to scale to The Netherlands, we’re thrilled to be partnering up with ICEX, The Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade, an agency of the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade for the Desafia FoodTech Immersion Program.

In the last five years, Spain has emerged as one of Europe’s leading FoodTech ecosystems, with innovative startup solutions and established corporates in this domain combining to account for more than 9% of Spain’s GDP and 17% of total exports. With an establishedFoodTech innovation culture, strong supply chains, a large conscious consumer-base and established food traceability infrastructures.

The Desafia FoodTech Immersion Program will connect Spanish startups with Dutch industry leaders in the food and agriculture sector. The program is designed to help Spanish startups scale internationally via The Netherlands, find a clear product-market fit and establish themselves in a new ecosystem while getting access to market and capital needs. It will also leverage the participating partners’ unique opportunities of meeting ground-breaking startups from the innovative Spanish food ecosystem. For this program, Spanish startups working on solutions in Food and Agri Technologies are encouraged to apply.

Willem Knaap,  Global Director Food & Agri at Unknown Group said:  said: “We are very happy to be partnering up with the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX) and support them in their mission to boost the Spanish food tech ecosystem. With our Venture Engine, we are committed to creating Tomorrow’s Taste – by teaming up with Dutch industry leaders and the best Spanish ventures to help them bring tasty, healthy, accessible and sustainable food to the market. “

Maria Naranjo, Director for Food & Drink Industry at ICEX said: “We believe the Spanish food tech sector has a strong potential to grow today. The immersion program designed by Unknown Group will make our startups develop strong skills and multiply their network in the Netherlands, creating a strategic ecosystem for the food industry worldwide”.

Oscar Via Ozalla, Economic and Trade Counsellor of Spain in The Hague said: “Due to the importance of the foodtech industry in The Netherlands, and in partnership with Unknown Group, we have built up DesafiaNL, a program for Spanish FoodTech companies, divided in different phases, being the most important one the immersion program, in which those companies will have the opportunity to learn and understand different skills, systems, procedures and also business cases from top dutch companies, including matchmaking sessions. We do believe with the program designed by Unknown Group, there is a great opportunity for the selected spanish start ups to strengthen their capabilities for the future.”

To this effect, we are on the lookout for Netherlands-based corporates, investors and organizations that are keen to join this journey and support these promising Spanish ventures with a softlanding in the Dutch FoodTech ecosystem. If you would like to become a partner or know more about this project, please contact alice@unknowngroup.com 

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