YUMiTRITION (Small & Medium Enterprise Track)
YUMiTRITION was selected as the winner of the 2016 Food and Agribusiness Convergent Innovation (CI) Prize based on reviews of business plans and observations of pitches during the semi-finals and finals of the McGill Dobson Cup.
YUMiTRITION is a professional nutrition business offering a monthly subscription box and an interactive knowledge platform to provide continuous support, inspiration, and motivation for people with blood sugar control needs.
Among 16 start-ups that the Dobson Centre flagged for initial consideration for the 2016 CI prize, YUMiTRITION best fit CI, in (i) most comprehensively targeting individual behavior change and collective/societal transformation, and (ii) theirs has the most room for other types of technological, social, and institutional innovations and partnerships with other entrepreneurs.
For example their approach lends itself to MCCHE potentially engaging with them as part of the Pulse Innovation Platform (PIP), to promote pulses in the monthly delivery of products and information that they provide to customers.
Additionally among those shortlisted, YUMiTRITION had the best pitch in the finals. After the semi-finals, they came up with a few more grain mixes. They get Food Science students involved in their online blog to build an online community with customers, and the products taste great. At the time of the Dobson Cup in 2016, they had customers already, and needed only $30,000 to launch their online platform.
Independently, the Dobson Cup judges also selected YUMiTRITION as the 1st place winner of the Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) Track ($15,000). So they won $20,000 in prize money.
Shortlisted teams
YUMiTRITION (Small & Medium Enterprise Track)
YUMiTRITION is a professional nutrition business offering a monthly subscription box and an interactive knowledge platform to provide continuous support, inspiration, and motivation for people with blood sugar control needs.
Rephyll (Small & Medium Enterprise Track)
Rephyll provides a novel alternative that enables consumers to conveniently increase their daily protein and vegetable intake without sacrificing the taste and experience of meat (burgers made from plant-based meat alternative)
Ent-O-Mix (Social Enterprise Track)
Ent-O-Mix's first prototype, Falamus Instant Mix, had won first place for the 2015 Institute of Food Technologists Student Association (IFTSA) Developing Solutions for Developing Countries Competition). Ent-O-Mix alleviates malnutrition using instant mixes made from insect powder to improve the protein and iron profile.
UGo Smoothies (Innovation Driven Enterprise Track)
UGo Smoothies makes the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle simple and fun by building the first automated vending machine that blends real organic frozen fruits and vegetables into custom smoothies.
The 4 were shortlisted because they most clearly addressed aspects of technological, social, and institutional innovation for simultaneously deriving economic and social health benefit.
Independent of the CI judging process, Ent-O-Mix (who participated in the March 11, 2016 Global PIP launch event) won 3rd place in the Social Enterprise track, while there was honorable mention for UGo Smoothies in the Innovation Driven Enterprise (IDE) track. Also, Rephyll went on to win the 2016 Institute of Food Technologists Student Association (IFTSA) & MARS Product Development Competition in addition to another McGill team that won the 2016 IFTSA Developing Solutions for Developing Countries Competition:
- Fitamin Multimeal: A ready-to-eat nutritious stew made of lentils, tuna, skim milk powder, tahini, carrots and tomatoes with added eggshell powder to boost the calcium content. For a complete nutritional profile to improve the nutritional status of children and pregnant woman in Yemen, a portion of stew can be combined with flour to make flatbread.
Additionally, Ugo Smoothies was subsequently one of 6 ventures that was selected for the Dobson X-1 Accelerator, from June 6-August 12, 2016.
