Shipment giant A.P. Moller Maersk has recently been in the news, for their shift to a digital future and further focus on startups. Now a new initiative has been announced – the FoodTrack accelerator.
During one month this summer, the programme aims to cease global food loss. Today, one-third of the global food production for human consumption is lost or wasted and approximately 80 percent of the food loss occurs before it reaches stores. Maersk, being a global end-to-end operator in the food value chain, wants to take on this problem together with innovative entrepreneurs.
Rockstart has been working with the most important societal themes since 2014. Having a clear understanding of the needs of startups, it will jointly with Maersk guide the chosen teams through an intensive program that pushes the boundaries and gives entrepreneurs the advantage of validating their solutions close to the industry and leveraging the knowledge and expertise of Maersk.
The startups chosen for the first edition of the FoodTrack programme will spend a month at Maersk‘s office in Copenhagen and receive intensive support and guidance from mentors and the programme team. The programme itself consists of a series of workshops and focused mentoring sessions on problem validation, team development, competitive strategy, and pitching.
“As a partner and potential investor, we provide more than funds. We want to leverage our world-class infrastructure and operational expertise to help build the next business in this domain.” Peter Votkjaer Jorgensen, Venture Partner Growth at A.P. Moller Maersk
When the programme is completed, the FoodTrack startups will have a chance to get follow-on funding from Maersk or engage in a partnership. In addition to that, one startup from the program will receive the Rockstart Fast Track Award, which would allow it to get straight to the final selection stage of one Rockstart accelerator program.
The applications for the first FoodTrack programme will be open from April 17 to May 20. The program itself will kick off on June 6 and finish with a Demo Day on July 6.
