Food System 6 (FS6), a San Francisco Bay Area-based food and agriculture accelerator program, just announced the participants for its fifth cohort. The six chosen startups are focused on creating sustainable solutions for farmers, ranchers, and other upstream food producers.
All participating startups will receive a year of mentorship and support in areas like business development, marketing, and R&D. Through FS6’s partnership with investment fund 1st Course Capital, each cohort member will also get a $25,000 cash investment after they complete the accelerator program (in exchange for 1.5 percent in equity).
Without any further ado, here are the participants in FS6’s newest cohort:
- Firebrand Artisan Breads – Oakland-based bakery supporting the local community through employment and high-quality breads and pastries.
- Central Grazing Co. – Regenerative farming enterprise selling lamb and leather made from animals raised on the company’s zero-waste Kansas farm.
- Matriark Foods – Upcycles surplus farm produce to create healthy vegetable products for large foodservice establishments like hospitals, food banks and schools.
- Revel Meat Co. – Small-scale butchery and meat wholesaler focused on local meats raised in the Pacific Northwest.
- Farm Generations Cooperative – Piloting GrownBy, an online sales platform for direct market farmers.
- Keller Crafted Meats – Whole-animal butcher and charcuterie producer and distributor, purchasing from local farms.
These startups are more on the ag side of agtech, but all are thinking creatively to reinvent a certain aspect of how our food is produced. Farm Generations Cooperative and Matriark especially are tapping into some trends we’ve been seeing a lot of at The Spoon, like online marketplaces and upcycled food.
Food accelerator and incubator programs are so hot right now. It seems like practically every company, especially Big Food brands, is rolling out their own, hoping to attract a pool of startups to potentially acquire (and help then keep a finger on the pulse of innovation). As a nonprofit, FS6 has a slightly different agenda — though both are hoping that through mentorship and investment, they can help a new group of companies succeed.
We’ll check back in a year and see how FS6’s Cohort 5 is doing.
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