• The 5 winning start-ups were selected out of a total of over 40 candidates, by a jury of Health Nutrition experts, comprising employees of the Elior Group and long-standing partners of the Prevent2care Lab: the Ramsay Santé Foundation, the Pfizer endowment fund, Innovation France and INCO.
• By joining the Nutrition Lab, start-ups will benefit from 6 months customized support to develop their project in the field of health nutrition, notably by drawing on the expertise of the partner groups.
Quality food plays a decisive role in health and helps reduce the risk of developing a certain number of diseases. As a responsible caterer, we are particularly attentive to the health and well-being of our guests and are committed to providing them a transparent, balanced and tasty diet. The recruitment of the first group of start-ups bears out this underlying trend in Elior’s commitment to supporting agile and innovative structures to bring about the emergence of technologies that serve better health through food. We are delighted to move forward together with the five winners selected on the strength of their respective solutions that meet the needs and expectations looking forward in terms of health nutrition.
— Anne-Cathy De Taevernier, Elior Group Nutrition Director
Nutrition is one of the 4 drug-free therapies on which the Ramsay Health Foundation has decided to support effective health prevention actions (along with stress, sleep and physical-activity management). Nutrition is at the heart of many pathologies such as obesity, which today affects nearly one in five French people (17% according to INSERM). The predominance of this comorbidity factor with respect to the impact of the Covid19 epidemic, underscores the sanitary importance of the direct and indirect issues related to nutrition in our country. It is in this context that we create the Nutrition Lab within the Prevent2Care Lab. Well done and welcome to the first selected start-ups.
— Caroline Desaegher, General Delegate of the Ramsay Santé Foundation, and Communications, Brand & CSR Director of the Ramsay Santé Group
In the age of personalized medicine, nutrition plays a very complementary role in an increasingly individualized approach to health and patient care. This approach also integrates behavioral and territorial dimensions, which are fundamental to take into account in the development of a solution. It is always very inspiring and cause for hope to discover start-ups, each more innovative than the next, such as those which have just been chosen to receive support from the Nutrition Lab. As a pharmaceuticals company, we are proud to support these winners and their innovative initiatives and to participate in this adventure alongside our partners.
— David Lepoittevin, member of the Management Committee and Lead of the Prevent2Care Lab work group at Pfizer France
HOW WERE THE WINNING START-UPS SELECTED?
Out of about 40 start-ups that responded to the call for applications launched in December 2020, 11 start-ups were short-listed to pitch their project in front of a jury comprising employees of the Elior group, the Ramsay Santé Foundation, Pfizer, INCO and members of the local Lyonnais ecosystem, the anchor point of the incubation program.
The jury assessed the innovative nature of the projects presented, the viability of their business model, their development potential, the quality of the dedicated team, and their ability to meet a clearly identified need in the field of health nutrition.
After this selection phase, 5 start-ups stood out from the rest and were selected by the jury to join the first edition of the Nutrition Lab.
A COMPLETE ACCELERATION PROGRAM
The selected start-ups will receive support for 6 months to accelerate the development of their solution and challenge their product or service in contact with experts from the Elior group, the Ramsay Santé Foundation, Pfizer and INCO.
The program is based in Lyon so as to benefit from the wealth of this ecosystem in the field of food, and to benefit the accelerated start-ups. On the other hand, the acceleration program will be fully dematerialized so that start-ups throughout France may benefit from it.
The acceleration program includes: a start-up diagnosis, individual strategic points that will be given once a month to define short and medium-term objectives, collective workshops to build skills on business and specific nutrition topics, access to a pool of experts to answer everyday questions (accounting, legal, communication, etc.), support for fund-raising as well as events (co-development workshops, etc.).
THE 5 WINNING PROJECTS
- Feeleat : a device that tackles eating disorders, by relying on its community, as well as a media support and an application to reconcile you with your diet.
- Ludikuiz : a fun and educational monthly box that educates children in adopting good eating habits, and which contains utensils, recipes to try out at home and educational booklets (name change in progress).
- Ogust : develops gourmet sauces in small portions that are enriched with nutrients and ready to use in the fight against malnutrition in seniors.
- Luxia scientific : a medical device designed to diagnose and analyze intestinal microbiota so as to support changes in eating behavior through personalized nutrition.
- Umiami : 100% plant-based alternatives to meat and fish, produced by using a proprietary texturing technology that retains the properties of meat, so as to have a better impact on health, the environment and animals.
The program was launched remotely on Monday February 8, 2021 in the presence of the partners and the 5 winning start-ups.