Givaudan launches innovation platform for the food industry
Givaudan has launched MISTA, an innovation platform for the food industry. More encompassing than an incubator or accelerator, MISTA is an optimizer, enabling start-ups and established corporations to optimize ideas, products, people, and investments.
Givaudan has launched MISTA, an innovation platform for the food industry. More encompassing than an incubator or accelerator, MISTA is an optimizer, enabling start-ups and established corporations to optimize ideas, products, people, and investments.
Located in San Francisco, MISTA will open its physical premises in early 2019. With 7,000-sq-ft of space, the MISTA Optimization Center (MOC) will provide access to a product development facility, equipment for pasteurization and fermentation, experts providing market and leadership development strategies, as well as input from world renowned culinary and food scientists.
“MISTA, which means ‘tasty morsel’ in Sanskrit, is all about the creation of a new business model focused on product innovation and development for the food industry with the intention and capabilities to create the future of food,” said Scott May, vice president of innovation at Givaudan and head of MISTA. “Today’s food systems are so complex, and the challenges so large that no single company can address them alone, and that’s where the concept of MISTA really comes to life.”
Joining Givaudan as founding members of MISTA are Danone, Mars Inc., and Ingredion Inc. as well as a number of strategic partners with world class capabilities from across the food industry, creating an integrated innovation platform.
The MISTA team plans to target 20 start-ups to bring into MISTA’s hyper-connected platform within the first year, with roughly 10 of those start-ups located on premises at its headquarters in San Francisco.