By Lisa Radinovsky from Greek Liquid Gold.
An agrifood startup company contest affiliated with the third Cretan Lifestyle Conference helped promote young agrifood entrepreneurs in Greece. At an Innovation Symposium that preceded the larger conference, five young finalists gave brief “shark-tank pitches.” Experts from business and industry served as judges at the conference venue near Heraklion.
As conference organizer Dr. Stefanos Kales of Harvard University and the Hellenic Center of Excellence for Health & Wellness emphasized, “it is important to promote youth in academia, business, and innovation, because the food and products of tomorrow come from young people.”
Smart Agro Hub S.A. and Industry Disruptors Game Changers helped the conference organizers coordinate the competition in the autumn of 2024. With 13 applications received, representatives of the top five startups were invited to introduce their businesses to the judges and other experts at Grecotel’s Amirandes Resort.
Young Greek Agrifood Entrepreneurs Make Impressive Pitches
Competition judge Rafi Taherian, Retired Associate Vice President of Yale Hospitality, announced that Teapsule won first prize. Teapsule makes home-compostable organic herbal tea capsules that are compatible with Nespresso machines. Taherian and the other judges praised Teapsule for its innovative, useful, healthful, and environmentally sustainable products, for promoting an authentic local Greek specialty, and for already demonstrating its ability to succeed. This startup also placed third on the 30 under 30 list for Forbes Greece.
Teapsule was created by Nikitas Kefalogiannis and Ilia Ioannidi, who currently run the startup on their own. Their invention was inspired by a desire to prepare sleep-inducing chamomile tea quickly and easily when Kefalogiannis needed it to overcome insomnia in the middle of the night. Their Nespresso machine suggested a solution, although extensive R&D was needed to make it work with herbal tea.
Kefalogiannis and Ioannidi explained that these capsules are filled with minimally processed herbs from Mount Psiloritis in Crete. Offering six unique flavors, Teapsule provides convenient, consistent results in less than a minute. Its inventors and many others believe their tea tastes even better than typical herbal infusions, which take seven to nine minutes to brew.
Ioannidi surmises that the excellent flavor is “due to high quality herbs and pressure and lower water temperature,” which leaves no bitterness. Teapsule provides a “sweet, delicate, aromatic” result that has already been embraced by some of the finest restaurants in Athens and abroad. Teapsule’s motto encourages tea-drinkers to “taste your connection” to nature by drinking this herbal tea.
All Agrifood Entrepreneur Finalists Are Winners
At the agrifood startup company competition, the second prize winner was ManaGi, which promotes high quality Greek food and beverage products on global markets. At the same time, ManaGi provides various services to both producers and international buyers. They enable buyers and consumers to order directly from producers across borders in their online portal.
The other start-up contest finalists included iMPACKD, a spinoff of the Agricultural University of Athens, which collects, curates, and analyzes “research-grade” data for food manufacturers and retailers in Greece and the Balkans.
Fertile Land provides guidance to farmers so they can use less input to grow more, both in soil and with hydroponics.
Cerelco, a digital platform that connects buyers and sellers in the agrifood sector directly, also offers logistics, quality control, financing, statistics, and advice. This makes it the only business in Greece and the Balkans to provide this type of complete service.
Young Entrepreneurs Hear from Experts
The startup competition event also featured a presentation and open discussion with Phil Kaferakis, president and CEO of IFMA, the Food Away from Home Association. He emphasized the importance of brand ambassadors and “boots on the ground” even as technology becomes more important in the supply chain.
After announcing the first and second place winners, Taherian reminded the audience that all five presenters were winners who would benefit from additional mentoring. They had all demonstrated that they “already had a solution that was far above the others.”
Rather than bemoaning the imperfections of the world today, these innovative young agrifood businesspeople in Greece focus on tackling problems using their energy, intelligence, and understanding.
*Originally published on Greek Liquid Gold: Authentic Extra Virgin Olive Oil (greekliquidgold.com). See that site for recipes with olive oil, photos from Greece, agrotourism and food tourism suggestions, and olive oil news and information.
