As a part of its 2020 strategy of collaborative innovation, Givaudan, one of the world’s leading flavour and fragrance companies, has inked a partnership with StartLife, the leading food and agritech incubator in the Netherlands.

StartLife, which is based on the campus of Wageningen University and Research, will be Givaudan’s innovation and scouting partner in the Netherlands. The organisation will support Givaudan to further expand its innovation ecosystem by acting as a connector and early start-up innovation enabler with food entrepreneurs based in the European nation.

Fabio Campanile, head of science and technology, flavours, Givaudan, said, “Our partnership with StartLife forms part of our wider commitment to address global food challenges through collaboration and innovation.”

“It will enable us to engage with emerging start-ups on the Wageningen campus, which is becoming a hot-spot of food science and foodtech activity in the Netherlands,” he added.

“We look forward to exploring new business models, disruptive ideas and novel technologies together as well as offering entrepreneurs access to our technological and scale up know-how and market access facilities to help them succeed,” Campanile said.

StartLife’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship in food and agtech by supporting entrepreneurs and their teams as they build their business ideas into global enterprises with a lasting impact.

Jan Meiling, managing director, StartLife said, “We currently work with over 300 start-up enterprises and believe they are the propelling force behind the food and agtech innovations required to meet global food demand in the future. Our partnership with Givaudan will provide start-ups with access to a wealth of food science knowledge and expertise to help them navigate challenges in their product development journeys.”