Bridging the gap between insects and food companies

Picture of Sibö's founders Daniela Arias and Alejandro Ortega

In the picture: Sibö’s co-founders Daniela Arias (COO) and Alejandro Ortega (CEO).

This article is part of a blog series introducing the startup teams of the EIT Food Accelerator Network Helsinki 2022 programme.

Sibö is a biotechnology company focused on solving the gap between insects and food companies to provide better and more sustainable ingredients and biomaterials. Our team consists of biologists and researchers who work at making their dream come true: making insect-based biomaterial the new normal.

We help insect ingredient manufacturers meet the requirements of food companies & food brands, which requires improving the qualification and functionality of their current materials using new and innovative process optimisation technologies we develop. Together with this, we focus on accelerating the innovation & development for our customers that will lead to clean, efficient, and sustainable insect-based bio-active components. These include protein, fats and chitosan, as highly functional food ingredients for food manufacturers.

 

Two men chatting in a kitchen about Sibö

 

Sibö’s isolation technology Entowise® helps to reduce the carbon footprint, improve yield efficiency, and increase revenue

Nothing would be possible without our unique green isolation technology called Entowise®. Entowise® unlocks the potential of insect-bioactive components and improves the application of these materials as ingredients for food production.

The Entowise® technology helps insect manufacturers to develop high value-added and easy-to-use ingredients for food manufacturers, like Nestlé or Unilever. Our technology and approach help food manufacturers reduce CO2 emissions by up to 95% compared with current alternatives while also improving the health of their end consumers by providing highly digestible ingredients that are 100% natural. This way, we help insect manufacturers increase revenue by up to 300% and improve yield efficiency to 99% from input to output for any insect.

We aim to become the foreleader of the industry and a point of reference for insect-based biomaterial technology & innovation. One key reason why we will be able to do it is the Entowise® Ingredient Discovery tool, powered by data science. The Entowise® Ingredient Discovery tool allows us to speed up our development processes and create targeted insect-based ingredient discovery according to the full range of applications & functionalities food manufacturers may need to replace traditional food ingredients.

The EIT Food Accelerator Programme brings networking opportunities and helps to clarify Sibö’s business model

We decided to participate in the EIT FAN programme because it is an excellent way to accelerate our development and connect with the European food ecosystem, which is essential for our company to start bridging the gap between insects and food.

Our main goal with the EIT FAN programme is, by the end of the programme, to have successfully closed our funding round, establish R&D collaborations in the Nordic region, and start preparations for pilots with food companies.

 

Sibö's COO and co-founder Daniela Arias giving a presentation

In the picture: the COO & co-founder of Sibö, Daniela Arias.

 

The EIT FAN has been an amazing opportunity and source of improvement so far. It has not only allowed us to explore collaborations we did not expect with other startups of the programme but also to understand our go-to-market strategy better. In addition, we were able to present our value proposition in a better way. Thanks to the EIT team and mentors, we can now confidently say we have a clear business model and are ready to start with our first clients.

We believe the programme is really focused on building relationships. As a startup, this is key; understanding who your partners could be and how they would benefit from your solution is essential to taking full advantage of the opportunity.

Written by Margaux Lopez, Marketing Coordinator at Sibö

 

Visit Sibö’s website, and follow their journey on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Learn more about the EIT FAN Helsinki programme here.