Alicorp and UTEC Ventures launch innovation program

With the aim of continuing to nurture a better tomorrow, Alicorp, in partnership with UTEC Ventures, launched the "Feeding the Future" open innovation program. The objective is to promote startups with innovative solutions in the food sector and help develop the future of the industry in Latin America.

“Transforming and being transformed is part of the DNA we carry at Alicorp. In this sense, we work to develop and find new data-driven and innovative solutions that help strengthen our value chain and offer to our customers and consumers. Additionally, through this call, we aim to foster entrepreneurship focused on innovation and digital transformation, two pillars that are transversal to our business,” commented Álvaro Rojas, Corporate Director of Innovation and New Business Platforms at Alicorp.

The goal of this program is to identify startups or ventures that, by using technology, enhance the food experience in Latin America through proposals that positively impact the health and nutrition of families, contribute to strengthening the distribution chain, improve the value proposition with the commercialization chain, create new business models, or even help develop new foods. After the call, around eight ventures are expected to be selected, all at least in the prototyping stage and applicable to a Latin American country.

On the other hand, UTEC Ventures, the startup accelerator of the Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC), will offer selected ventures an intensive two-month program that includes scaling and pilot implementation or Proof of Concept (POC), followed by a pilot implementation at the closing event "Demo Day." During this period, Alicorp will be part of the feedback process to help entrepreneurs build a product tailored to the market and design a well-grounded pilot proposal. At the end of this stage, participants will present their pilot projects to senior executives and key stakeholders from Alicorp, who will evaluate the viability and impact of the projects and choose the proposals with the greatest potential.

“Startups and changing consumer behavior have forced mass consumption companies to dramatically accelerate product innovation cycles. That’s why we’re looking for ventures with a team committed to this goal, with an innovative and scalable solution, at least at the prototype stage and ideally with traction in a Latin American market,” explains Evelyn Gómez, Program Manager at UTEC Ventures.

Among the main benefits is participation in the scale-up program, which offers training, follow-up, mentoring, and connections with national and international investors from the UTEC Ventures network. Additionally, they will have access to credits for digital services—over 300 digital services valued at over 1 million dollars—and support for soft-landing in Peru for foreign companies.

Interested startups can register until June 1st, 2021 by visiting https://www.alimentaciondelfuturo.com.