Mondelēz Chooses 10 Start-Ups for Snack Innovation Program

Mondelēz International has chosen 10 companies for its second CoLab Tech program, an accelerator led by the global snack company’s research and development team.

This year’s cohort represents technologies that can help advance the future of snacking in areas such as cocoa processing solutions, well-being snacks and ingredients, more sustainable packaging and manufacturing, and elevated sensory experiences.

CoLab Tech was created to help Mondelēz advance its “Vision 2030” growth agenda by identifying emerging technologies with new capabilities and helping accelerate and scale those technologies for possible future use by the company in its mission to lead the future of snacking.

“As one of the world’s largest snack companies, we are thinking creatively — including by seeking access to the newest technologies — to be ready and able to meet the opportunities we see coming in snacking,” said Ian Noble, vice president for Global Ingredient Research & Development at Mondelēz. “This year’s CoLab Tech cohort brings exciting, disruptive technologies across the entire value chain. We are very eager to work with and learn from them, while also providing the resources and expertise that can help enable them to grow and scale.”

This year’s CoLab Tech program received nearly 100 applications from around the world. Here are the 10 companies selected for the program:

Bread Free: This Spain-based company developed technology in the gluten-free category that essentially neutralizes the gluten in wheat flour to deliver the same eating experience as mainstream baked goods and snacks, but without gluten.

Enginzyme: This Sweden-based creator of enzyme-enabled biomanufacturing processes is developing a sustainable and cost-efficient method of making a prebiotic trisaccharide, or ‘gut-friendly sugar’ that can lower overall sugar content and calories without compromising the taste and texture of food products.

Enjay: This Sweden-based company is the first in the world to create a system that can recover and recycle waste heat generated by manufacturing facilities, restaurants, and other exhaust sources, and then reintroduce it into the production cycle as a new energy/heating source that also lowers CO2 emissions.

hs-tumbler GmbH: This Germany-based company has created a new-age industrial mixer without stirrer that is a faster, gentler, and highly efficient way of stirring, rolling, and mixing ingredients. Using ultrafast micro-batches, it can be programmed to deliver personalized, consistent, smooth end products.

Kokomondo: This Israel-based company uses cell-cultured technology to navigate supply chain challenges by creating real, controlled, climate-resilient cocoa. This allows cocoa to be consistently produced year-round and anywhere in the world without relying on specific climates.

Luminescent: This Israel-based clean energy start-up has developed a thermodynamic cycle that uses liquid instead of gas to dramatically improve the efficiency and economics of heat-to-electricity and electricity-to-heat conversion. Luminescent’s solutions include a heat engine that converts heat into zero-emission electricity, a heat pump, and long-duration energy storage.

Outlander Materials: This Netherlands-based company has created a technology that upcycles food industry waste into a flexible, lightweight packaging alternative to single-use plastics. The company’s product, Unplastic, is compostable, toxin free and has a 70% lower carbon footprint than conventional films.

Savor: This US-based company’s technology can produce fat and oil using 1,000 times less energy than commodity agricultural production, and at economic parity with the production of tropical oils such as coconut and palm. Savor’s process can deliver net-zero, deforestation-free fats.

Tasteomics: This Switzerland-based company created Peakaroma – a plant-based product with no inherent off-flavors that takes the Kokumi flavor and sensory experience to new, novel levels. Kokumi enhances the intensity and mouthfeel of basic tastes — and Peakaroma can take that beyond the current levels with the added potential of reducing MSG, fat and calories.

Yangi: This Sweden-based sustainable packaging start-up uses a proprietary technology called Cellera to convert cellulose pulp into 3D molded products. By using no added process water and less energy, Cellera can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 70% compared to traditional packaging solutions.

The 10 start-ups will participate in an 8-week curriculum that includes hands-on experiences, virtual sessions, 1-on-1 mentorship, and access to Mondelēz partners and experts.