Real California Milk Snackcelerator Doubles Semi-Finalist Pool And Expands To Over $800,000 In Awards
The California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) announced today it has doubled the number of semi-finalists and added more than $350,000 in additional awards to the Real California Milk Snackcelerator, its dairy product innovation competition. Inspired by the number of quality ideas and products that integrate the flavor and functionality of California dairy into both sweet and savory snack formulations, the VentureFuel-run competition has expanded to include 16 companies competing for more than $800,000 in awards.
The Real California Milk Snackcelerator aims to inspire innovation and investment in dairy-based snack products, packaging and capacity within California by connecting the dots between processors, producers, investors, ideas and entrepreneurs.
“The purpose of this competition is to inspire new ideas integrating the natural ingredients, flavor and nutritional profile of milk and other dairy products and this year’s entries certainly delivered,” said John Talbot, CEO of the CMAB. “In fact, when the judging committee evaluated the applications, we saw so many unique ideas and scaleable opportunities to bring new products to market, it was clear we needed to find a way to expand the program even further.”
VentureFuel, Inc., the leading corporate innovation consultancy, is partnering with CMAB to run the program and identified and recruited applicants from their global network of investors, founders and academics. “We saw a 153 percent increase in qualified applications from our first program with CMAB, which is a testament to the momentum we have been building together as well as the opportunity in marrying snacking innovation with dairy,” said Fred Schonenberg, Founder of VentureFuel, Inc. “We saw applications from Ghana to Oakland that included personalized nutrition, functional foods as well as unique flavor-profiles inspired by cultures around the world. Now comes the fun part of helping accelerate these products so that they are ready to pitch at the semi-finals, the finals and ultimately get to market for consumers to enjoy.”
The competition now moves to the Sweet & Savory 16 where semi-finalists will be broken into two groups, “Sweet” for those that cater to the sweet flavors and “Savory” for those palates that look for more salty and cooked flavors. The 16 semi-finalist applicants for the 2020 RCM Snackcelerator are:
Sweet
- Peekaboo Ice Cream
- FitPro Heroes’ Cookies
- Moody’s Ice Cream
- Lucha Leche
- Frutero Ice Cream
- Optimized Foods: Functional Ice Cream Bars:
- Petit Pot
- wunder Cheesecake Bites
Savory
- Baozza
- WheyUp Probiotic Kefir Krisps
- Point Reyes Farmstead Whey Cool Kitchen Curd Cup
- Sach Foods Organic Paneer
- Fahris LLC: Yoghurt Chips
- Saga Ventures Crispy Cheese Bar
- Yummy Industries: Cheese Bits
- Enrich Protein
Through the Real California Milk Snackcelerator, the CMAB sought high-growth potential snack product concepts, with cow’s milk dairy as their first ingredient and making up at least 50 percent of their formula. The startups have committed to producing the product in California, with milk from California dairy farms, should they win the competition. The 16 startups accepted into the cohort will receive $10,000 worth of support each, to develop an edible prototype, while receiving a suite of resources including graphic design, lab or kitchen time and elite mentorship from global marketing, packaging, and distribution experts. They also will receive additional services and support via industry leaders to help drive success of their new venture.
Semi-finalists will compete in four virtual events on Nov. 10 and 11 followed by a final virtual public pitch event for the “Final Four” Nov. 19 from 5 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. PT. The first-place winner will receive up to $200,000 worth of additional support and the second-place winner $100,000 worth of additional support to get their new product to market. The value of the competition prizing is more than $800,000.