Written
23.03.2022
Author
Alise Munson
FRANKFURT, Germany – For a fifth year, TechQuartier and Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank will host a multi-day bootcamp for German startups in the AgTech, FoodTech and Bioeconomy sectors. Applications are now being accepted online through May 1, 2022. The Growth Alliance – Rentenbank’s AgTech & FoodTech Startup Bootcamp will be held from July 4-6, 2022 in Frankfurt.
The focus of this year’s three-day bootcamp is the advancement of innovative startups with sustainable values along the whole agricultural and food value chain. At the end of the bootcamp, a Demo Day (July 6) will give the startups the chance to pitch their ideas publicly and win 5.000 € in prize money to further invest into their company.
“As Rentenbank, we support the transformation towards a sustainable agricultural and food economy. This transformation is a big challenge. But where challenges exist, solutions are needed – which offers great opportunities for AgTech, FoodTech and Bioeconomy startups! We are proud to support these startups with our bootcamp on their journey from developing an innovative business idea towards becoming a successful company.”
How to Apply
For founders, the benefit of joining this free bootcamp is access to workshops and one-on-one meetings with experts from many fields including policy, data science and marketing. Topics such as growth strategies, team formation, data protection regulation, investor readiness, techniques in negotiation, pitching and storytelling will be explored in-depth. Only 10 startups will be accepted into the bootcamp.
Founders are encouraged to apply if they fit the following criteria: Their startups are working on an innovative solution in the fields of AgTech, FoodTech or Agricultural Bioeconomy. Their startups are incorporated in Germany. Their business models focus on offering products and services to other companies (e.g., B2B or B2B2C). Rentenbank, Germany’s development agency for agribusiness and rural areas, is in a unique position to initiate this event aimed at networking and creating synergies between startups and established companies.
Past bootcamps have helped launch startups like last year’s winner Organifarms, which is developing automated crop cultivation and integrating this technology into indoor farming.
More Past Winners
Spoontainable – a startup that creates edible cookie spoons to replace plastic ice cream spoons. (2020 Winner)
Corvitac – The startup has developed a camera system using AI technology that solves the problem of inaccurately and manually counting pigs. (Second Place 2020)
Circular Carbon – The startup develops vegetable charcoal from recycled materials. They are a leading producer and supplier of Biochar. (Third Place 2020)
BEEsharing: Pollinators are shared between beekeepers and farmers on an online platform. Bees can be ordered and transported to fields in Germany. If you don’t have a field, you can always buy honey products directly from producers. (2019 Winner)
MonitorFish: Monitorfish works on real-time and early detection of fish illness with the help of artificial intelligence in aquaculture. (2018 Winner)
Building the future
Together with TechQuartier, Rentenbank is expanding the bootcamp into a larger, multi-phased program co-created to support more German startups in all stages of development from pre-seed to scale-up.
“With Rentenbank we have been co-creating an ecosystem for innovation in the AgTech and FoodTech sectors for the last four years. By providing partners access to German founders using emerging technology, we are enabling future possibilities to flourish while empowering entrepreneurship. We are working together on an expanded program to support founders at all stages – ambition to acceleration.”
More information will be released during the live Demo Day on July 6. This collaboration has helped support almost 50 German startups gain access to a networking system and possible funding partners. The program is built on TechQuartier’s expertise in orchestrating innovation by connecting corporate clients with emerging startups and finding opportunities for successful business solutions.
About Rentenbank
Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank is Germany’s development agency for agribusiness and rural areas. Under its statutory mandate, Rentenbank promotes agriculture-related projects by granting low-interest rate loans via lending banks on a competitively neutral basis. Rentenbank provides funding to banks, savings banks and local authorities operating in rural areas. The utilization of profits is also governed by the promotional mandate. The Bank is a German federal public law institution whose capital stock was formed by contributions paid by the German agriculture and forestry sectors. It is subject to the German Banking Act (KWG) and is regulated by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and the Bundesbank. As one of the few triple-A rated institutions in Germany, Rentenbank raises funds primarily in the capital markets.
