Helaina wins 2023 IFT FIRST Pitch Competition

Helaina, a biotech company specializing in precision fermentation, won the top prize at The Pitch during IFT FIRST. The startup will receive $10,000 while runners-up unClassic Foods and SnapDNA will each receive $2,500. All prize money was presented on behalf of The Seeding The Future Foundation.

Founded in 2019 in New York City, Helaina uses precision fermentation to produce ingredients using breast milk proteins, including lactoferrin. This ingredient can regulate iron levels, improve nutrient absorption, and support cognitive health, the company claims. Helaina’s first targets will be the sports and prenatal nutrition markets.

Paola Delgado, chief operating officer at Helaina, presented to the judges. She said the rate and effects of anemia on the world’s population inspired her work with the startup.

“My mother was a nutritionist in a soup kitchen, where I saw firsthand the effects of anemia,” she said in her winning two and half minute pitch. “This is the future of food as medicine.”

The final round of The Pitch included 12 finalists from the preliminary rounds that took place in the Startup Pavillion at IFT FIRST on July 17 and 18. The finalists were BlueNalu, Climate Partner, Divestiva, Fuddis, Fusion Foods Group, Helaina, Lemnature Aquafarms, MontBlanc AI, RedLeaf Biologics, SnapDNA, Sustain-A-Grain, and unClassic Foods.

Five judges scored the final round of pitches: Angela Cauley, founder and executive director of the George Washington Carver Research Institute; Pete Speranza, CEO of Wicked Kitchen; Staci Seibold, senior director of client and technical services at Partners in Food Solutions; Dan Ripma, vice president of S2G Ventures; and Chris Downs, IFT president and director of the Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA) at the University of Queensland, in Australia.

unClassic Foods, the first runner-up, makes oyster mushroom products with enhanced protein. The mushrooms are frozen and can be cooked on a stovetop within minutes. The second runner-up, SnapDNA, is a technology company with an instrument to speed up food pathogen testing times. The instrument can test samples in as little as one hour.

The Startup Pavillion at IFT FIRST 2023 featured 86 startups from 14 countries.