Lausanne (VD), October 18th, 2021
Swiss food-tech company SwissDeCode has secured an investment of €1M funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, complementing the EIC Accelerator Grant previously awarded to the company. The start-up, who provides rapid and on-site food certification, is attracting investors from the global food- and ag-tech panorama who aim to actively support continuous advancements in the food supply chain.
Caring for the future of the Food Industry
Food sustainability, safety and authenticity have been increasingly under the spotlight, as the industry is required to improve the efficiency of its processes, to feed a growing population of more demanding consumers.
As a provider of innovative food quality monitoring solutions, SwissDeCode has been raising the interest of global investors looking for breakthroughs in the food industry. Current members of the board include VisVires New Protein, and EIT Food as board observers.
With the addition of the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, SwissDeCode believes it is bringing the right expertise on board, which will allow the company to put its growth strategy in place, while taking the needs of consumers, companies and investors into account.
"The investment will be used to drive our growth in customer acquisition and new product development. In addition, as a Board member, we will leverage the network of the European Innovation Council.”
Brij Sahi, CEO & Co-Founder of SwissDeCode
"I am pleased to announce the EIC Fund is supporting SwissDeCode to build its innovative technology on food safety, monitoring and control in an innovative way, helping farmers and food manufacturers in identifying undeclared and undesired ingredients, viruses and contaminants. This shows the EIC Fund commitment in helping companies in tackling global challenges co-investing with other partners in promising solutions for the future”.
José Fernando Figueiredo, EIC Fund Investment Committee member
Five years of innovation from farm to fork
Since its establishment in 2016, SwissDeCode has been working with agri-food companies and carefully listening to the needs, requirements and trends in the industry.
An example of this is the A2 Family of Tests, the world’s first line of on-site testing solutions that validates the authenticity of A2-type milk and that is being highly sought by customers at the global level. The technology was one of the finalists of the 2021 World Dairy Innovation Awards - Best manufacturing/technology innovation category.
Similarly, the development of an automatic, on-site device is bringing rapid testing also to companies dealing with large food volumes and throughputs, such as border control agencies, commodity traders, logistic companies or food processing plants. A pilot program with a large, global commodity trader is currently in place, to validate and refine the usability of the platform.
More recently, a successful partnership with Mars Wrigley has allowed SwissDeCode to use its technology to help tackle a disease that is reducing cacao yields and affecting the incomes and livelihood of farmers in West Africa. The testing solution is currently under final validation and will soon be released to the wider market.
Sustainable growth based on solid grounds
Besides the European Innovation Council, the work of SwissDeCode has been supported by other European institutions, such as the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, as well as Swiss institutions, such as Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency.
Product validation from global customers and a growing demand in different areas of the food industry also confirm the need for SwissDeCode’s solutions.
With institutional and customer recognition in hand, SwissDeCode is getting ready to open its next financing round in Q1 2022.
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About the EIC Fund
Established in June 2020, the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund) is a breakthrough initiative of the European Commission to make direct equity and quasi-equity investments (between €500.000 and €15 million) in European high impact and deep tech start-ups and scale ups. With a long-term perspective, the EIC Fund invests in companies from any sector, across all EU member states as well as in associated countries.
The EIC Fund aims to fill a critical financing gap and its main purpose is to support companies in the development and commercialization of disruptive technologies. This is achieved by crowding-in market players, and further sharing risk by building a large network of capital providers and strategic partners suitable for co-investments and follow-on funding.
The Fund pays particular attention to the empowerment and support of female founders as well as the ambition to reduce the innovation divide among EU countries.
For more information, please contact:
Joana Gomes | Marketing and Communications Manager
E-mail: press@swissdecode.com