The FoodRise Acceleration Week brought together 12 startups from Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay in Buenos Aires. Among the proposals presented, standouts included proteins designed by artificial intelligence, an antifreeze biological input, a pellet that reduces cattle methane and a hydrogel for drought.
The FoodRise Acceleration Week was recently held at the Innovation Park of the City of Buenos Aires. The initiative, backed by the Adventures fund and BID Lab, brought together 12 selected startups from more than 130 applicants from Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay over three intensive days.
The selected companies gain access to 16 weeks of support to attract investors, improve their business and validate their ideas. FoodRise is the Agrifoodtech innovation hub driven by the global accelerator Eatable Adventures.
Paz Álvarez, co-founder and CEO of Zavia Bio, said she is the granddaughter of a farmer and experienced the difficulties of the climate firsthand when her grandmother had to leave the farm due to a lack of rainfall. The Argentine company uses artificial intelligence to design new proteins, with the aim of fighting weeds that are resistant to herbicides such as glyphosate. It also created a biostimulant so that plants tolerate drought better, and it is seeking to connect with customers and expand to countries such as the United States.
Enzo Galliani, a Chilean biotechnologist and co-founder of Pewman Innovation, searches for microorganisms in Antarctica and in desert salt flats that survive extreme temperatures. These bacteria have natural antifreeze properties, which they used to develop a product that is applied to crops to prevent frost damage. Ice breaks the tissues of plants; with this biological input, growers avoid losing yield or quality and can bring planting forward in sensitive crops such as potatoes. The company already sells to hundreds of customers in Chile and is targeting other markets in the region as well as Europe.
Lucía Belga, from the Rosario-based startup Agrosintex, explained that methane is not only an environmental problem but also a direct loss for weight gain, because every expelled gas is feed that does not turn into meat. After testing powders and treats for cows with poor results, they created a pellet that is mixed into the feed bunk at a rate of 0.5% of the feed. The additive curbs the bacteria that generate gas in the rumen and improves feed utilization: in trials with heavy steers, the animals ate 7% less ration and gained up to 25% more weight.
Arnaldo Lezcano and Ivo Peroni, Paraguayan chemical engineers, created at Terramas a hydrogel based on corn starch that is placed next to the seed. When it rains or is irrigated, the material absorbs water, swells and stores it in the soil to release it toward the root when the crop suffers from a lack of moisture. It is fully biodegradable. In the Paraguayan Chaco it raised corn yields by 13%, with increases of up to 30% in more productive areas. The development earned them a trip to Silicon Valley and an invitation from the University of California, Berkeley, but they decided to validate the product in the Southern Cone because of the droughts affecting neighboring countries.
In addition to these four ventures, there were other cases of Argentine startups featured in the FoodRise acceleration program.
