The Breakthrough Innovators Shaping What’s Next
The most inventive early and growth stage companies are rewriting the rules of how food is discovered, formulated and scaled. That momentum comes to life at Future Food-Tech San Francisco on March 19-20, 2026.
The global food system is entering a defining decade, one shaped by scientific leaps, new biological tools, and a generation of founders building solutions once considered impossible.
Across the Start Up Arena, main-stage sessions, live pitching and demos, and investor showcases, Future Food-Tech spotlights a new generation of founders who are moving fast, thinking globally, and designing with both commercial viability and planetary boundaries in mind.
From proteins grown from air to enzymes that reprogram nutrition, AI revealing hidden molecular functions, and bioprocesses turning waste into high-value ingredients - these aren’t distant ideas. They’re real solutions reshaping supply chains today.
Take a first look at the innovators poised to unlock new categories, new efficiencies, and new possibilities for the future of food.
Featured Scale-Ups
• Maia Farm produce clean label, oyster mushroom ingredients from powders to textured proteins, designed for diverse applications across food industries.
• Fermelanta uses synthetic biology and microbial fermentation to produce high value plant based chemicals and secondary metabolites for health foods.
• Cellva develops proprietary technologies to create scalable, high-performance ingredients from natural resources.
• Aelius Biotech develops advanced in vitro digestion and absorption models to help companies generate early data and accelerate product development.
• Marine Biologics accelerates macroalgae based ingredient innovation by combining advanced data curation, cheminformatics, and machine learning.
• Inbiose uses precision fermentation to produce specialty carbohydrates like HMOs, creating nature identical sugars that support gut, immune, and metabolic health.
• Ubiquity Sprouting uses climate controlled germination to create cleaner, more nutritious grains and legumes for improved plant based mylks and Sprouté foods.
• Floco Process provides advanced CIP and fluid handling technologies that help food and beverage manufacturers cut resource use and boost operational efficiency.
• Kokomodo grows real cacao through cellular agriculture, offering consistent, sustainable cocoa without traditional farming challenges.
• Eden Brew produces animal free casein proteins through precision fermentation to create dairy with the same functionality as milk, without the cow.
Start-Ups
• 2nd Nature is an AI-powered discovery engine for next-gen ingredients made from agri-food processing by-products.
• Nurtured Nuts commercializes the world’s first allergen less peanut using advanced CRISPR gene editing to create safer, nutritious peanut based products.
• Outer Worlds Coffee is developing an integrated roast grind brew appliance using vacuum roasting to deliver fresher, lower carbon, better tasting coffee.
• BioBlends develops gas based bio preservatives that eliminate spoilage fungi without residues, extending shelf life with a clean label alternative to chemical preservatives.
• Trilliome create next-generation precision biotics that selectively activate keystone gut bacteria to drive healthy aging.
• Kioga unlocks beneficial microbes from healthy soils into scalable brain-targeted postbiotic ingredients for stress resilient foods and supplements.
• R2DIO connects all your process data into a unified, searchable Process Data Fabric to make information more findable, analyzable, and reusable across R&D and manufacturing.
• Solarferm is developing a CO₂ to sugar biomanufacturing platform that bypasses agriculture to enable scalable fermentable sugar production for the bioeconomy.
• Quartz Labs blends genAI with behavioral science to help companies modernize innovation, build their genAI roadmap, and manage high impact initiatives.
• Totality Biosciences engineers plants to produce complex HMOs, expanding access to these beneficial bioactive sugars for nutrition and health.
• Dogodan Therapeutics applies epigenetic control of protein expression to develop genomic medicines and extend its platform into food applications.
• Sweet Bliss produces clean tasting brazzein sweet proteins via precision fermentation to enable sugar reduction without compromising flavor.
• PawCo makes fresh, plant based dog food using its GreenMeat™ protein and science backed formulations to offer healthy, sustainable meals for pets.
• Bayou Best Foods makes plant based shrimp for foodservice, matching shrimp’s taste and bite with clean, allergen free ingredients and nationwide distribution.
• TerraSafe Materials creates plastic free, plant based barrier packaging and dissolvable pods using advanced biopolymers.
Global Food Tech Awards
The Global Food-Tech Awards, hosted in partnership with FoodNavigator, celebrates the innovators setting new industry benchmarks for sustainability, functional performance, and commercial scale. After judges have been working through their entries for the Americas heat, find out who’s been voted the winner and hear them pitch on stage!
• 2nd Nature is an AI-powered discovery engine for next-gen ingredients made from agri-food processing by-products.
• BioBlends develops gas based bio preservatives that eliminate spoilage fungi without residues, extending shelf life with a clean label alternative to chemical preservatives.
• Fermeate Inc. uses photomolecular, light controlled fermentation to dramatically improve the efficiency and economics of microbial biomanufacturing.
• JOYN Foods blends premium roasted mushrooms with meat to create modern, nutritious, lower impact comfort foods.
• Kresko RNAtech harnesses dietary RNAs to create science backed functional ingredients that elevate nutrition and support cellular health.
• Maia Farms produce clean label, oyster mushroom ingredients from powders to textured proteins, designed for diverse applications across food industries.
• Michroma is revolutionizing ingredient production with fungal biofactories that deliver sustainable, scalable natural compounds.
• SCO2 uses patented supercritical CO₂ extraction technology to upcycle food and agricultural waste into high value ingredients, unlocking new revenue while advancing sustainability.
• Spacemilk produces the first yeast derived vegan protein isolate with 20g of complete, allergen free protein and whey equivalent quality for a lighter environmental footprint.
• Strive Nutrition creates animal free, protein rich dairy alternatives using precision fermented whey to deliver sustainable, nutritious milk products without cows.
Visionary Speakers
Hear from leaders of companies shaping the future of food-tech and biotech including:
• Lembas develops AI discovered bioactive peptides that naturally support GLP 1 activity for healthier appetite regulation and metabolic support.
• Nuritas uses AI to discover natural bioactive peptides that deliver targeted health benefits, creating next generation functional ingredients from plants.
• Celleste Bio produces natural cocoa butter and powder using cell cultured cocoa technology, offering a scalable, sustainable alternative to traditional cocoa farming.
• Solar Foods produces Solein, a nutrient rich protein made from air and renewable energy, offering a highly sustainable alternative to conventional agriculture.
• Checkerspot uses microalgae fermentation to make sustainable, high performance fats and oils for food, nutrition, personal care, and materials applications.
• Shiru uses AI to discover natural functional proteins that enhance texture, taste, and performance in food products.
• Pow.Bio develops continuous fermentation technology that cuts biomanufacturing costs and accelerates scale up for food and ingredient production
• Caladan Bio builds modular, high throughput benchtop bioreactors that automate experimentation and lower the cost of scaling bioprocesses.
• Turing Labs uses AI to help CPG teams design and optimize product formulations faster and more efficiently.
Innovation and collaborations will be sparked throughout the summit, with notable companies accelerating change such as Cellora, Day 8, Plantopia, Unlocked Bio, MicroHarvest, bitBiome, Zya, Savor – with more added daily. Smart networking will be powered by the summit’s AI-enabled app to streamline meetings, scheduling and introductions.
Future Food-Tech is a launchpad for innovation, where breakthrough science meets commercial opportunity. These pioneers are unlocking new pathways for sustainable protein, waste valorization, gut health, and cutting-edge biomanufacturing.
Join the global food-tech community in San Francisco on March 19-20 and meet the companies shaping the future of food.
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