Egypt’s Vetwork among 2022 six winners of Purina’s UNLEASHED Program

Egypt’s Vetwork is among 2022 six winners of Purina’s UNLEASHED Program for their pet care innovation. Each winner will be assigned a personal team of Purina experts for mentoring and CHF 50,000 for a pre-scoped value exchange proof-of-concept project to grow their business over the next six months.

With expertise in cutting edge new food development and digital technology platforms, the winners were chosen from more than 150 applicants.

The 2022’s winning cohort includes: eniferBio, Finland; MOA Foodtech, Spain; knok, Portugal;  Kibus, Spain; Feragen, Austria; and Vetwork, Egypt.

Europe’s first and only petcare accelerator, the UNLEASHED 2022 program is designed to drive the growth of participants, supporting the development of innovative new products and services.

Kim Bill, Head of the Purina Accelerator Lab said: “We are delighted to welcome such an extraordinary group of innovators into the 2022 cohort. Just like Purina, these businesses are driven to innovate and challenge the industry through technology, and data-driven solutions. While the next six months will be busy, we cannot wait to see what they will build.”

Jeff Hamilton, CEO at Nestlé Purina PetCare in Europe, said: “After a global pandemic, the number of pet owners and animal lovers worldwide is greater than ever, and the industry is responding by accelerating its innovation, offering greener, smarter and better solutions than ever before.”

“We are hugely proud of these exemplary winners – they face a busy six months, but the UNLEASHED accelerator will help them. We are proud to be facilitating the work of these start-ups and look forward to seeing the impact these companies make for pet owners in Europe and beyond.”

Simo Ellilä, CEO and co-founder of eniferBio, said: “The PEKILO® protein produced by eniferBio is the most competitive alternative protein out there, and the production technology is ready to scale. Through Unleashed, we want to understand the potential of introducing our unique protein to the companion animal sector.

“More and more attention is being paid to the quality and sustainability of the ingredients in pet food today and Purina is a leader in this segment, so obviously an ideal partner to investigate whether there is a product-market-fit.”

The UNLEASHED program works to select the most impactful start-ups from across Europe, and the Asia Oceania region, identifying the businesses that are creating innovative solutions, products and services for pets and the people who love them.

By gaining access to a team of Purina’s senior experts, winners will benefit from Purina’s extensive and deep expertise in the petcare category knowledge. The program will be completed in October 2022, with the next phase of cohort recruitment set to begin in October 2022 for the 2023 cohort.

In total, Purina’s Unleashed program has accelerated 12 start-ups over the last 2 years.

Winners have included BorrowMyDoggy (UK), Cat in a Flat (UK), Natu (Spain), Petable (Portugal), BlueNalu Innovations (USA) and OneMind Dogs (Finland) in the Class of 2020. The Class of 2021 included Animoscope (France), BioKind (UK), Pawesomer (Finland), PuppyFat (UK), Pawpots (UAE) and Scorpet (France).

“Start-ups joining Unleashed can expect a well-resourced and transparent co-development process – this is quite unique when starting a relationship with a large corporate,” said Max Swinscow-Hall, CEO and Co-Founder of Biokind, a UK start-up working on sustainable alternative protein derived from agricultural waste.