Mission Ventures

We love a good founder story, and Harry Turpin at The Savourists LTD has a great one. He shared a tale of resilience, learning & humility at an event hosted by our partners Impact on Urban Health. He also shared delicious Crunchy snacks! 🌎 Our audience was a group of MBA students from University of Wyoming College of Business on an international study trip. 🚀 Our Good Food Programme is about demonstrating that healthier challenger brands CAN compete with the mainstream to deliver health by stealth for ALL families. They need expert guidance, funding and deep consumer insights, all of which they secure via the programme, thanks to the foresight of our charity partner. 💰 The #startup and #scale-up food industry is facing challenging times for #fundraising in the current climate. We are preparing a report on the Funding Gap, due to be published this Summer. If we are to help change the health of the nation we need more action; by industry, investors and government. 🔭 Watch this space....

#BAME founders of #foodbrands, checkout the 2nd "Spill the Beans" event from Colin Mordi of Food Sauce Media. 22nd April, London. Great chance to meet-up with fellow founders, industry specialists and those all elusive retail buyers... Check out the Eventbrite page below for more details. https://lnkd.in/eGw5jYPT

Is the food industry failing when it comes to feeding babies? A new report from Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI) believes so, highlighting the astonishing fact that of nearly 1,300 infant foods tested, not one was fit to be promoted to infants. The nonprofit ATNI draws heavily on the World Health Organization for its assessment methodology. Across ten markets they scored the six largest suppliers, including Nestlé, Danone, The Hain Celestial Group and Kraft Heinz. This is not the first time that these independent bodies have shone a light on products that the producers would rather they didn't. The corporates correctly point out that they comply with local laws and claim that they are being unfairly marked against voluntary guidelines. ⚖ But is that fair? Abiding by local food laws means that consumers' health is better served in some territories than others. After all, why spend shareholders' profits on raising the bar in a given country when you don't have to? 🤔 Surely the industry should live by higher standards. We believe so. We also believe that old ways of thinking are best challenged from outside, harnessing the vision and purpose that innovative founders can bring to the table. That is at the heart of the work we do with our partners. And this is why we are so proud to be working with our long standing partners at Impact on Urban Health on an infant feeding project. This may - just may - demonstrate that it is possible to launch age-appropriate baby-foods that meet labelling and nutritional standards. We may fail, in which case we take the learnings and try again. We believe we owe it to the next generation to do so. Brave producers will always seek to live by higher standards, doing what's right for their consumers, not just what is legal. We see this increasingly through the adoption of B-Corp, an initiative embraced by many SMEs. ❓ How brave is your organisation? Would listening to some visionary and disruptive founders help shape your thinking? Contact us - we know a few 😉 #innovation #babyfood #nutrition Link to the FoodNavigator article in the comments below.

Delighted to see one of our Good Food Programme cohort Steve Laurence, Founder of SweetAble, pick-up the "New Ingredient from a Startup" award at IFE Manufacturing. 👨🍳 Motivated by his family and his work as a chef, Steve and his team have developed innovative sugar and mass replacement ingredients that can transform the health credentials of everyday foods. ⏳ Many years of trial and error have led Steve to this worthy recognition from the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST), demonstrating that a fundamental quality of an entrepreneur is resilience in pursuit of a vision. 👏 Congratulations Steve and team - we look forward to helping you continue on your journey to commercialise Sweetable and improve the nation's health. Impact on Urban Health #health #nutrition #food