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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Startup Showcase

Suggestic Brings Personalized Nutrition to Your Fingertips

As we all know, it’s easy to decide to eat healthier — but sticking to your diet plan can be very tricky indeed. That’s where, Suggestic, one of the 13 companies pitching at the Startup Showcase for the Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) this October, comes in. The young company is leveraging technology to help users outline individualized meal plans, then connects them with recipes, grocery stores, and restaurants to help them stick to it.

Read our Q&A with co-founder Shai Rozen to learn a little more about how Suggestic hopes to make the world healthier through personalization, augmented reality, and some serious focus. Then get your tickets to see him pitch live at SKS!

The Spoon: First thing’s first: give us your 15-second elevator pitch.
Rozen: Our goal at Suggestic is to guide consumers through personalized nutrition journeys towards their individual health goals.

With our unique service, users can forget about reading, counting and memorizing to figure out what is best to eat. They don’t need to sort through the huge amount of misinformation about what foods are “healthy” for them. We provide each person with the ease of mind that they are doing the right thing at all times, delivered conveniently at their fingertips.

Our App is backed by powerful and proprietary AI, which delivers precise recommendations of what to order at a restaurant, what to buy at a grocery store and what to cook at home, and then tracks user progress to adjust each suggestion.

Users can select a free dietary filter, or subscribe to one of our premium programs curated by renowned health and nutrition experts.

What inspired you to start Suggestic?
My co-founder and I have both seen firsthand the devastating effects improper nutrition can have, but we’ve also seen the power of food as a means of health. We both saw our fathers pass away from type 2 diabetes-related complications and we both managed to revert our own pre-diabetes through nutrition.

Our mission is to help shift healthcare from treatment of symptoms to primordial prevention through “precision eating.”

And we don’t just want people to be “healthy”. We want each individual’s health optimized rather than just reduced to an asymptomatic average.

What’s the most challenging part of getting a food tech startup off the ground?
The possibilities! There’s so much that can and needs to be done in the world of food tech that honestly the hardest part is deciding where to invest our efforts, and how to keep focused on what matters most.

Also, when you have a mission that’s also social and positive in nature, it’s pretty amazing how many people just want to help. It’s truly inspiring. But it can easily be a distraction as well, so focus is key.

How will Suggestic change the day-to-day life of its users?
We already do, everyday. By helping our users make the best possible food choices at any moment in time we have a direct impact on their health and wellbeing.

Q: What’s next for Suggestic?
The future looks great. We have scheduled over a dozen new premium program launches with our partner authors and experts for 2019, and also have new integrations coming up with lab tests that will allow our users to further optimize their individual health journeys. And we are also working on an Android version, as well as possible a stand-alone app for our Suggestic Lens (augmented reality) experience.

Thanks, Shai! Get your tickets to SKS to hear him pitch alongside 12 emerging food tech companies at our Startup Showcase this October in Seattle.

New Company Soggy Food Sucks Wants to Eliminate Soggy Food (Duh)

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize soggy food sucks. But it might just take one to solve the problem.

Former aerospace engineer Bill Birgen started Soggy Food Sucks to combat the issue of food getting soft and soggy after it travels. To do so, he developed a patch you can stick to the food carton to absorb condensation, thereby keeping food crisp and fresh-tasting while it’s in transit. In other words, no more limp delivery french fries or lackluster restaurant leftovers.

Soggy Food Sucks is one of the 13 companies that will be pitching in the Startup Showcase at the Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) this October (meet them all here!). We did a little Q&A session with Birgen to learn more about his impassioned goal to do one thing: eliminate soggy food from the world, forever.

This Q&A had been edited for clarity. 

The Spoon: First thing’s first: give us your 15-second elevator pitch.

Bill Birgen: Food taken home from a restaurant is often ruined by condensation. This patented product stops this, with the first of its kind, high performance, non-chemical desiccant.

What inspired you to start Soggy Food Sucks?

I’ve been packing my lunch with this product for over 10 years, and I don’t like slimy, wilted salads for lunch.

What’s the most challenging part of getting a food tech startup off the ground?

Probably the money. I bootstrapped everything myself because fundraising is such a huge distraction. Providing my own funding meant I had to go slow.

The other big challenge was optimizing the customers’ value proposition. This took the longest time. There were a lot of non-scientific friends, advisers and marketing consultants who kept telling me to make the product “sexier”, which would have been a pivot away from value.

Objective performance validation was a distant 3rd challenge.

How will Soggy Food Sucks change the day-to-day life of its users?

Imagine a world without soggy food. Imagine crunchy freedom fries, crisp fried chicken, and salads that snap with each bite you take. This is my vision for the future of food delivery, and the ultimate user experience that I will bring to the world.

What’s next for Soggy Food Sucks?

Next up will be limited production, sales and deliveries of our small batch production. I will collect letters of intent from customers at the SKS and use these to leverage financing for a full-scale production. I am also re-visiting the licensing path.

Thanks, Bill! Get your tickets to SKS to hear him and 12 other budding food tech entrepreneurs pitch at our Startup Showcase, then see his anti-soggy food patch in action. 

Meet the Finalists for the Smart Kitchen Summit 2018 Startup Showcase

Year after year, one of the most popular — and exciting — parts of the Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) is the Startup Showcase. Not only do you get to watch as startup founders with an idea for the next great kitchen appliance, AI-driven personalization app or food robot get on stage at Benaroya Hall and tell us how they will change the way we cook and eat forever, but you get to follow that up by seeing, touching and tasting all the products at our Showcase happy hour.

This year we had an amazing pool of applicants, but have finally whittled the list down to 13 startups which we think show some serious potential. Learn about the diverse set of finalists, then snag your tickets to SKS to see live demos of their technology on the show floor.

Startup Showcase Finalists

Kabaq 3D Food Technologies

Kabaq partners with restaurants and food brands to create immersive experiences for their customers. Using AR, VR, and mixed reality, the startup creates 3D visualizations of food so people can visualize exactly what their next meal (or wedding cake) will look like.

Suggestic

Suggestic combines AI, AR and personalized nutrition to help people eat better. Users can input health goals and Suggestic’s app will create weekly meal plans, suggest restaurants, and give fitness tips. They’re currently working on an AR feature which will let users “read” restaurant menus to determine which items are on their diet plan — and which aren’t.

Dizzconcept

Croatian startup Dizzconcept designs pop-up kitchens designed to fit into our urbanized world. Their portable kitchens take up 1.6 square meters of space and function as a TV cabinet when closed. However, they open up to reveal a fully operational mini-kitchen, including a sink, fridge, and stove.

Dexai Robotics

Dexai Robotics makes a robotic arm for foodservice. Named ‘Alfred,’ the robot can learn restaurant layouts and recipes and rotate hand attachments for different ingredients. It also integrates with restaurants’ POS systems so that it can start preparing food as soon as an order comes in.

Soggy Food Sucks

Have you ever experienced the crushing disappointment of finding that your delivery fries have gotten soggy in transit? As its name implies, Soggy Food Sucks is out to fix that nagging problem plaguing food delivery. They make a patented peel-and-stick patch which absorbs condensation and can keep your food from getting soggy during transit.

Mimesis

Mimesis is the maker of smartcook, a connected all-in-one kitchen appliance that aims to streamline home cooking. Their smart surface acts as a visual interface with interactive recipes, video cooking lessons, and online grocery ordering, and also functions as a stove, cutting board, and kitchen scale.

Pizzametry

Pizzametry’s concept is pretty darn simple: pizza vending machines. They can make and cook 8-inch pizzas (in cheese or pepperoni) in three and a half minutes.

MyFavorEats

MyFavorEats uses AI to create modular, easily customizable online recipes. The startup translates online recipes into a machine-readable format, so users can easily swap ingredients and personalize meals to their particular diets, preferences, and kitchen appliances.

HotBot Beverages

Hot Bot is a two-part system which combines an in-store induction heating unit with special drink bottles. The result? Grab-and-go hot beverages and soups available in restaurants, grocery stores, office canteens, and more — all in roughly a minute.

MoJoe Brewing Co.

Mojoe is a portable coffee brewer/travel mug that lets users brew coffee on the go. Pop in some ground coffee or tea (you can buy a Mojoe pod or custom-fill your own) into the brewer, add any temperature water, and brew. The device can be powered by wall socket, car charger, or a rechargeable battery, and fits in a standard cupholder.

Klove Chef

Klove Chef is a white label voice technology service for the kitchen. Their technology can guide users through recipe preparation, sync up with smart home devices to monitor cook temperature and time, and can also order groceries.

MockMill

The Mockmill 100 is a tabletop stone mill for home/restaurant/bakery production of bakery-quality flours, also for milling of spices, pulses,and other dry foods.

Garbi

Garbi is a smart trash can that recognizes items you throw away and reorders them for you from local e-commerce retailers. They’re also working on a recycling functionality that would let Garbi’s garbage cans indicate to users whether items should go in the trash, recycling, or compost.

Curious about this diverse group of food tech startups? Join us at the Smart Kitchen Summit on October 8-9th to see them pitch live, ask them about their companies, and learn which will win the $10,000 prize! Make sure to get your tickets today and save 25% today with discount code SPOON. 

Are You a Food Tech Startup? Pitch at our Startup Showcase!

One of the best parts of attending the Smart Kitchen Summit is getting a front row seat to brand new technology and innovative products that are coming down the pipeline. The event’s startup showcase is now in its fourth year and invites all startups in the food tech and smart kitchen space to apply for a spot.

Details

The Startup Showcase is the perfect way to demonstrate the most innovative new ideas, products and companies reinventing food, cooking and the kitchen. If that sounds like you, apply today! Anyone with a working product that is either a late-stage working demo or actually shipping, and who will be able to attend the Summit this October in Seattle, is welcome to apply free of charge.

SKS organizers will select 15 startups as finalists who will be invited to the event to demo their product. In addition to an eager audience, finalists will also have a demo space in the heart of the main Summit event and a chance to pitch a panel of judges.

One of the final 15 will crowned the winner of the Startup Showcase on October 9th and will receive a $10,000 cash prize.

To apply, fill out the application and make your case for why you deserve to be a finalist – the more articles, photos, videos and compelling info you can provide on your product and company, the better your chances are of grabbing one of the coveted tables at the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit.

Past Startup Showcases

The Startup Showcase in 2017 proved to one of the absolute highlights of the Smart Kitchen Summit; attendees poured in to see live demonstrations of a chai tea brewer, a smart kitchen assistant, a crepe-making robot, a connected pantry system, customizable ice pops, and more. Hydroponic gardening system Verdical ended up taking home the trophy — as well as a $10,000 prize.

The deadline for applications is August 17th.

Q&A with Thomas Buerki, CEO of DigiMeals

It’s hard to believe, but Smart Kitchen Summit Europe is less than 2 weeks away! So it’s time to get to know another finalist who will be presenting at our Startup Showcase: DigiMeals.

Based in Zurich, Switzerland, DigiMeals creates custom digital interfaces to help users take advantage of smart kitchen tools — and help brands bridge the gap to connect with consumers. Their platform lets people surf and select recipes, order ingredients for through grocery delivery, and monitor their connected appliances.

Head to the SKS Europe blog to learn more about how DigiMeals is aiming to bring on the smart kitchen revolution, and the particularly tricky parts of getting a food tech startup off the ground.

And if you want to meet the DigiMeals team in person and see their tech in action, register for Smart Kitchen Summit Europe in Dublin on June 11-12th!

COO of Lecker Labs, Makers of Yomee, Talks Crowdfunding Success

Since we announced the 8 finalists in our SKS Europe Startup Showcase last week, we’ve launched a series of Q&A’s to introduce this year’s talented crop of food innovators. Next up is Anindya Roy, COO of Lecker Labs, producer of Yomee.

Lecker Labs got their start at the food tech accelerator program FoodX and before launching a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign for Yomee, a countertop appliance which combines milk (and milk alternatives) with branded probiotic pods to create chilled yogurt in 6 hours.

Head to the SKS Europe blog to read our Q&A with Roy and learn more about the inspiration behind Yomee, the startup’s biggest challenges, and the secret to their crowdfunding success.

If you want to meet Anindya and more of the Yomee team in person and see them demo their countertop yogurt maker, register for SKS Europe in Dublin on June 11-12th!

 

Q&A with Jeroen Spitaels, Cofounder of Mealhero

Last week we announced the 8 finalists who will participate in SKS Europe’s Startup Showcase. Next month they’ll head to Dublin to pitch our panel of judges on how their company will change the future of food and cooking.

We’re launching a series of Q&A’s so you can get to know these founders a little bit better. First up: Jeroen Spitaels. He’s the cofounder of Mealhero, a Belgian startup which combines a frozen meal kit service with a connected countertop steamer. Head to the SKS Europe blog to read our Q&A with Spitaels and learn what inspired him to start Mealhero, the power of a good vacation, and why he wants a smart tech chef in every home.

If you haven’t already, register to join us for SKS Europe this June 11-12 in Dublin! You’ll get to meet these ambitious founders, rub shoulders with kitchen innovators, and hang out in the Guinness Brewhouse.

Cooking Tech That Lets You Keep Taste & Save Time

The Smart Kitchen Summit Startup Showcase provides a platform for exciting startups, inventors, culinary makers and cutting-edge product companies to showcase what they are working on and let others experience it firsthand. Now in its third year, the Startup Showcase + PitchFest take place during SKS on October 10-11, 2017 in Seattle and is sponsored by the leading maker of soups and simple meals, beverages, snacks and packaged fresh foods, Campbell Soup Company. Campbell’s will provide a $10,000 cash prize to the winner, announced at live at SKS. Below we take a look at one of these finalists, IXL Netherlands.

What does the future of cooking really look like? Current heating techniques often blunt flavor and take away a food’s core nutrition. One startup in Europe hopes to change all that with a new cooking technology known as Pulse Electric Field (PEF). IXL Netherlands combines the effects of electroporation and pulsed ohmic heating in the eCooker, allowing cooked food to maintain its nutritional value, flavor, color, structure and taste.  The appliance features three individual compartments. Each compartment works independently of one another, consisting of two vertical electrodes that are connected to a high voltage pulse generator inside the apparatus featuring electronic communication. The machine has the capability to program different process parameters and their results can then be stored.

Food Valley Award winner 2011 Nutri-Pulse e-Cooker, IXL Netherlands

This sounds overly technical – but the process for users is fairly straightforward. Users start by placing the food in one of the baskets along with a liquid sauce that acts as an energy transferring medium. They can then select a cooking strategy based on the type of food they’re cooking from the program on the tablet. The eCooker then cooks the food using electrical pulses, evenly heating the contents without destroying taste or nutrition. Once the required temperature is reached, the unit automatically turns off to save energy. And, as it turns out, cooking via electrical pulses is pretty quick.

The result is a healthy, hot meal using low temperatures cooked in just a short period of time.

To learn more about IXL Netherlands, visit http://www.e-cooker.eu/

Use this link to get 25% off to the Smart Kitchen Summit & see the startups in action!

Move Over Coffee Pot, Chime Is The Keurig For Chai

Coffee gets all the glory – the fancy machines, the social media memes, the cute mugs. But outside the U.S., different forms of tea are even more popular than coffee. First created in India, chai tea is renowned for its unique, spice-based flavor and has a cult-following of devotees across the globe. The team at Camellia Labs believe that the chai tea latte is just as special as a cup of coffee and deserves its own unique experience and they inveted Chime, the first authentic chai tea brewer to create just that.

INTRODUCING CHIME - AUTHENTIC CHAI IN 3 MINUTES!

Like a Keurig or similar cup-based brewing machine, Chime is a single touch brewer. Chime simmers milk for the beverage while combining whole tea and spices in a brewing chamber. When the two are ready, the milk and steeped tea come together for the ultimate chai tea. The machine uses recyclable capsules called Chime Caps that are filled with Indian tea, similar to K-Cups. The current flavor lineup includes black tea, cardamom, ginger, cardamom ginger, and masala.

Chime lets users tweak the temperature, strength and milk content of the beverage to further customize their chai tea latte. The system adapts to a user’s chosen preferences and remembers for the next cup. With Chime, Camellia Labs is looking to increase the chai market presence and make chai tea more accessible to people who are currently unfamiliar with the drink to create a whole new wave of fans of the unique beverage.

To learn more about Camellia Labs and Chime, visit http://brewchime.com/

The Smart Kitchen Summit Startup Showcase provides a platform for exciting startups, inventors, culinary makers and cutting-edge product companies to showcase what they are working on and let others experience it firsthand. Now in its third year, the Startup Showcase + PitchFest take place during SKS on October 10-11, 2017 in Seattle and is sponsored by the leading maker of soups and simple meals, beverages, snacks and packaged fresh foods, Campbell Soup Company. Campbell’s will provide a $10,000 cash prize to the winner, announced at live at SKS

Use this link to get 25% off to the Smart Kitchen Summit & see the startups in action!

Chefling Is The Smart Kitchen Personal Assistant You Never Knew You Needed

The Smart Kitchen Summit Startup Showcase provides a platform for exciting startups, inventors, culinary makers and cutting-edge product companies to showcase what they are working on and let others experience it firsthand. Now in its third year, the Startup Showcase + PitchFest take place during SKS on October 10-11, 2017 in Seattle and is sponsored by the leading maker of soups and simple meals, beverages, snacks and packaged fresh foods, Campbell Soup Company. Campbell’s will provide a $10,000 cash prize to the winner, announced at live at SKS.

Created in 2016 by a group of Northwestern University grads, the Chefling app was designed to be the ultimate smart kitchen assistant. The app, available on both Android and iPhone aims to resemble life spent in the kitchen of an average family and comes with three main features: a home inventory management system that syncs across devices, a colorful shopping list and a smart cookbook that suggests recipes based on available ingredients.

The home inventory management system monitors what a user buys and then keeps an eye on freshness levels, based on purchases. It also syncs across every family member’s device so any quick trips to the grocery store are simplified. The shopping list feature allows users to organize and create a list that is not only easy to browse, but easy to share. The cookbook feature browses a user’s inventory using an algorithm that calculates recipe matches based on what is in the pantry.

Chefling also has Amazon Echo and Google Home skills so users can operate the app hands-free through voice control.

Chefling’s long-term goal is to bring the platform outside of the phone and into smart fridges, as well as incorporating advanced A.I. elements and image recognition technology to create an assistant that is truly integrated with the home kitchen.

Learn more about Chefling at http://www.chefling.net/.

Use this link to get 25% off to the Smart Kitchen Summit & see the startups in action!

Calling All Startups: Apply To Pitch & Demo At 2017 Smart Kitchen Summit

One of the best parts of attending the Smart Kitchen Summit is getting a front row seat to brand new technology and innovative products that are coming down the pipeline. The event’s startup showcase is now in its third year and invites all startups in the food tech and smart kitchen space to apply for a spot.

Details

The Startup Showcase is the perfect way to demonstrate the most innovative new ideas, products and companies reinventing food, cooking and the kitchen. If you have the next great idea that will change the way we buy, cook, store, or consume food, apply today on the SKS website. Anyone with a working product that is either a late-stage working demo or actually shipping is welcome to apply free of charge.

SKS organizers will select 15 startups as finalists and they will be invited to the event to demo their product and get on the Summit stage to talk about who they are and how they’re going to change the future of food, cooking or the kitchen.

From these 15, a winner will be chosen from a mix of judges and crowd-voting and be crowned the winner of the Startup Showcase on October 10th.

To apply, fill out the application and make your case for why you deserve to be a finalist – the more articles, photos, videos and compelling info you can provide on your product and company, the better your chances are of grabbing one of the coveted tables at the 2017 Smart Kitchen Summit.

Past Startup Showcases

The Startup Showcase in 2016 proved to one of the top highlights of the Smart Kitchen Summit – attendees poured into the showcase room to see live demonstrations of 3D food printing, home growing systems, smart precision cooktops, connected spice racks and more. For startups, the Smart Kitchen Summit audience consists of directors, executives, investors and press across the tech, food, design, housewares and appliances, commerce and retail spaces.

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The 2017 Showcase will not only offer a demo table and an eager audience but a demo space in the heart of the main Summit event at Benaroya Hall and a chance to pitch a panel of judges and the audience. No event brings together the decision makers and disrupters from across the food, cooking, appliance, retail and technology ecosystems. The Startup Showcase provides a platform for exciting startups, investors and entrepreneurs to demonstrate what they are working on and let others experience it firsthand.

The deadline for applications is August 15.