Two UK winners have been selected from more than 300 applicants from around the world to join Purina’s 2021 Unleashed Accelerator Programme.
Showcasing innovative new ways to transform the industry digitally and sustainably, each winner will be awarded 50,000 CHF (about £40k) and assigned a bespoke team of Purina mentors to grow their companies.
The winners are:
* BioKind (UK) – a proprietary technology and unique, circular economy approach allow us to offer a truly sustainable product without compromising on price and quality
* PuppyFat (UK) – a software application that enables dog breeders to log their records quickly, store their records securely and share them seamlessly with vets and future pet owners
* Pawpots (Beirut) – a subscription service provider of fresh, gently-cooked meals for dogs and cats in the Middle East
* Animoscope (France) – a data-driven company based in France building an all-digital veterinary service that provides pet parents with qualified advice and recommendations
* Pawsomer (Finland) – a Finnish software engineering company specialising in cloud services. The company’s flagship product is Pawesomer, an end-to-end pet health and lifestyle monitoring platform
* Scorpet (France) – a free mobile application dedicated to pet contests.
In only its second year, the programme saw a surge in applications with a more than 200% increase from last year. The winners were chosen from entrants across 50 countries, recognised for driving some of the most innovative ideas in petcare across Europe.
PROGRESSIVE
Kim Bill, head of the Purina Accelerator Lab, said: “We are delighted to welcome such visionary and progressive young companies to our cohort. Their business models align with Purina’s drive to innovate and challenge the industry through technology, and data-driven solutions. While the next six months will be busy, we look forward to successfully completing the ‘proof-of concept’ highly structured programme with our innovators and seeing how they use technology to advance and promote the pet-human bond.”
Jeff Hamilton, CEO at Nestlé Purina PetCare in Europe, Middle East and North Africa, said: “As we launch our Unleashed programme for the second year, seeing the full range of applicants we received truly showcases how much the industry of petcare is accelerating, especially in the sphere of sustainability, technology and data- driven solutions.
“Congratulations to our six exemplary winners – 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.”
OPPORTUNITY
Michael White, founder and CEO of PuppyFat, one of the winners of the 2021 programme said: “When I spotted the opportunity to collaborate with Purina, it was too good of an opportunity to miss. Their goals around sustainability and pet health align perfectly with my personal and company values and I expect the partnership to extend beyond the Unleashed programme and long into the future.
“At PuppyFat, our breeder community is at the heart of everything we do. And, ultimately, winning Unleashed will enable us to serve them better and grow with them even faster.”
The programme will be completed in December, with the next phase of cohort recruitment set to begin in February next year.
Three of last year’s winning start-ups saw such success through the Unleashed mentoring programme that Purina has now engaged two of them in a continuation of the Unleashed Accelerator into the Unleashed Incubator, a three-year proof-of-business partnership, and another in a joint research and development agreement.
