InVivo Quest EuroTour 2020 - 2021

European Innovators and Changemakers

Register now for the 4th edition of Quest, InVivo’s Open Innovation Program.

Together, let’s accelerate the technological and ecological transitions in AgFood to overcome climate change challenges while feeding the world!

Health or environmental crises linked to climate change imply moving towards more resilient, responsible and economically profitable production, distribution and consumption models.

To adapt to this new environment, the European Agro-food industry will need to operate a transition of its model, making it more resilient in times of crisis such as the one we are experiencing, and more sustainable in order to mitigate the effects of climate change. These changes will require some structural shifts from the industry to adapt the way food is produced, processed and distributed. Innovation breakthroughs will also be an essential component to support the industry in this remodelling. Luckily, some of the solutions answering these problems are already being developed. Precision farming in its more efficient use of resources, biological control and bio stimulants to reduce the use of chemical inputs or the creation of new markets for carbon dioxide sequestration or for agricultural by-products represents wonderful solutions to counter climate change effects at the farm level. New distribution and consumption models are already emerging using digital platforms and networks bringing a better traceability to ensure food safety and health for consumers and increase farmers’ incomes.

Quest strongly believes that a thriving and supportive ecosystem which includes startups, cooperatives, agri-food companies, investors, R&D centres and universities will be necessary to make sure that European innovations are nurtured and given the opportunity to scale to maximize their impact on the resilience and durability of our food chain.

For this 4th edition, Quest is glad to launch the Quest EuroTour 2020 - 2021 with selections in the 7 zones displayed on the map below:

UK-Ireland

UK-Ireland

UK & Ireland are home of huge R&D investments led by excellent institutions, both in biotechnologies and digital, both nations are set to increase their productivity in a significant way. Regarding its answer to climate change impacts, the region is home of numerous research centres in biocontrol and precision farming, technologies enabling to grow food with a lower environmental impact.

Apply until: March 15th 2021

Quest selection week: March 23rd to 25th 2021

Partners:

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Northern Europe

Northern Europe

The Northern countries of Europe are set to be less sensitive to climate change effects than their southern neighbours in the years to come. However, an augmentation of the temperature will bring new pests and diseases to crops that are currently not under a lot of pressure. This change will require a lot of adaptation for Scandinavian and Baltic farmers. Biotechnologies and digital solutions will play a huge role in the selection of adapted crops and the elaboration of models to produce more in an evolving context.

Apply until: August 15th 2020

Quest selection week: September 14th - 16th 2020

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South West Europe

South West Europe

The South West part of Europe is home of the highest productivity for cereals in the entire continent. More importantly, the region is home of a huge activity in arboriculture with the biggest producers of wine of EU, respectively Italy, France and Spain and olive oil with Spain, Italy and Portugal accounting for 85% of the European production. Continuous adoption of technology will be necessary to fight the consequences of climate change in the area.

Apply until: January 11th 2021

Quest selection week: January 19th to 21st 2021

Partners:

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North West Europe

North West Europe

The Northern countries of Europe are set to be less sensitive to climate change effects than their southern neighbours in the years to come. However, an augmentation of the temperature will bring new pests and diseases to crops that are currently not under a lot of pressure. This change will require a lot of adaptation for Scandinavian and Baltic farmers. Biotechnologies and digital solutions will play a huge role in the selection of adapted crops and the elaboration of models to produce more in an evolving context.

Apply until: December 7th 2020

Quest selection week: December 15th to 17th 2020

Partners:

Register
Central Europe

Central Europe

This vast region of Europe could be divided between Austria and Switzerland, two of the most mountainous countries of Europe, where agriculture is quite balanced between livestock and crops and the 4 countries of the Visegrad Group (Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland) where crops and especially field crops are predominant. The two alpine countries are more technologically advanced than their Eastern neighbours. However, the greater potential of yields improvements could tomorrow come from the Visegrad nations through higher use of machinery and technology adoption.

Apply until: Septembre 30th 2020

Quest selection week: October 6th to 8th 2020

Partners:

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Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is home of some of the most fertile soil of Europe. Through an increasing adoption of equipment and technology, most of the productivity increase of the continent could tomorrow come from this region. The area is also a region with a big pool of talents in software development paving the way to a growing AgTech scene.

Apply until: October 14th 2020

Quest selection week: October 20th to 22nd 2020

Register
Southern Europe

Southern Europe

This region of Europe, home of mountainous landscapes, is an area dominated by raw crops, exception made of Greece where Olive trees, vineyards and other permanent trees represents a huge part of the agriculture. Innovation in the fields of varietal selection and irrigation will be key in this region, as this will be the most climate sensitive area of Europe in the near future.

Apply until: February 8th 2021

Quest selection week: February 15th to 17th 2021

Register

Click on the region of your choice to discover more information!

Register to meet our teams in your region!

Bioline Innovation

Olivier Descroizette

Innovation Technical Director

Bioline Innovation aims at accelerating the transversal innovation strategy within Bioline’s business lines by promoting access to knowledge of new technologies while confronting its strategic vision of the 3rd way of agriculture to the international ecosystem of Open Innovation.

#Biocontrol #smartframing #Iot #blockchain #robotics

Invivo Retail

Mathieu Gaubert

Incubator Director

Invivo Retail aspires to become the European leader in sustainable gardening and pet care, with a target of 2,000 shops. To achieve this, InVivo Retail is building a new business model including innovation at the heart of its product conception.

#retail #gardening #sustainability #biocontrol #agromaterial

Invivo

Rachel Kolbe Semhoun

CSR Director

Engine of development and innovation, corporate social responsibility drives all the group’s activities by pursuing a triple objective of economic, social and environmental performance.

#sustanaibility #biodiversity #techforgood

CapAgro SAS

Bénédicte Mompert

Partner

Capagro is one of the global VCs and recognized pioneer in venture capital dedicated to AgTech and FoodTech investing in Europe, US, Canada, Brazil and Israel.

#investment #accelerate

Fermes Leader

Carole Rocca

Program Director

Agtech farmers network working on digital innovations at all stage of developpement.  Farmers and cooperatives identify, test and build the best technologies for Agricultural sustainaibility.

#Agtech #farmers  #openinnovation #sustainability

Bioline

Frédéric VOLLE

Agri Food Business Director

In order to deal with the global emergency caused by climate change, the whole food chain must implement keys changes and incorporate more traceability ans transparency in to their supply chain. Bioline is committed to support the agricultural transition and participate in this food revolution.

#bettersupplychain #agrobiodiversity #traceability

Local Ecosystem Partners

Around half of the jury boards will be composed by local ecosystem partners from all Europe.

Are you a start-up tackling these issues?

This 4th edition of InVivo Quest will be to leverage innovations to answer to climate change challenges. To fight these new challenges, the right combination of digital technologies, biotechnologies and innovations in bioeconomy will be necessary. For instance, Precision Agriculture in its more efficient use of resources, Urban Farming in its potential to grow food closer to the final consumer helping to tackle food waste, Biocontrol and Biostimulants to reduce the use of chemical inputs, the creation of a market for carbon sequestration or agricultural by-products represent wonderful opportunities to limit climate change effects.

 

Some examples of technology focuses (not limited to):

AgTech

Precision Farming

IoT & Data Collection

Data Analysis & Farm Management Software

Drones, Robotics & Machinery

Biocontrol & Biostimulants

Controlled Environment Agriculture

FoodTech

New sources of proteins


Food waste reduction solution

RetailTech

Bio-packaging

New in-store
& online customer experiences

Traceability & Blockchain

Bioeconomy

Valorization of by-products


Carbon sequestration

Javelot

Telaqua

La Plucherie

How do I take part?

Click on the Challenge of your region on the map above (or on the list if you are browsing on mobile) and submit your application by filling out your participation form and uploading your business deck (10 slides, detailed in the “application process” tab).

Methodology:

Once submitted, your candidacy will be evaluated by our pre-selection jury. If selected for the final selection of your region, will receive an invitation to meet us for a selection day. During this day, you will meet InVivo’s internal experts as well as partners of the Quest ecosystem divided in three different jury boards: technical, business and financial that you will meet for 20 minutes each. If unfortunately, you are not selected to take part of the final, we will detail you the reasons of this answer.

Evaluation:

The jury will evaluate each application on the basis of the following criteria:

Impact: Scale of environmental and social impacts of the solution

Technique : Innovation & Differentiation

Business : Business Model & Market Validation / Development / Management & Team

Finance : Fundraising & Equity capital

What to expect?

The laureate of each geographical area will earn:

 

a “business connexions” pack including (“consulting from Business France on the French Agricultural landscape and how to market and sell in this context, tests of the solution via Fermes Leader*, introduction within the InVivo network)

*subject to project eligibility

 

Two day stay in Paris with lunch with InVivo Executive Commitee and visit of key sites

Bridges to international innovation hubs and new markets

Video of our QuestTour 19 over 3 continents

Quest on Youtube

Get to know more InVivo Quest:
Open Innovation Program of InVivo

The first 3 editions of Quest have positioned InVivo among the committed players in Agfood innovation:

+1200

startup sourced

+100

worldwide partners

6

international destinations

+100

startups met in our selections days

Kapsera

Antoine Drevelle

CEO

"InVivo Quest was a great experience for Kapsera: a challenging and stimulating competition that allowed us to mature our project in front of the juries, two key networking events at Station F and CES 2020, and finally the possibility to have privileged interactions with InVivo group. An ideal format for a developing AgTech".

Motorleaf

Scott Dickson Dagondon

Co-founder and Director, Artificial Intelligence

"Quest is able to connect us to an amazing ecosystem of innovators, technologists, and industry experts. The partnership opportunity allows us to test our technology and get valuable feedback. This is very important for young companies like us who want to make sure we are developing products and services that are able to answer real life industry needs".

TBIT Tecnologia

Igor Chalfoun

CEO

“Participating in QuestBrazil 19 brought Tbit great visibility both in Brazil and in Europe. It was a great opportunity to contact other incredible and potential startups and potential customers, in addition to participating in CES and getting to know new technologies.“

Our partners

You would like to take part in the ecosystem?