Chosen from over 100 international submissions, ImpactVision wins fast-track introduction to Tesco’s supply chain and mentoring from the Tesco Agriculture team.
A USA agri-tech start-up has beaten more than 100 international entrants to win the first Tesco Agri T-Jam, hosted at World Agri-Tech’s Pitch Day on Monday October 15 in London.
The Tesco Agri T-Jam was run by the leading UK retailer in partnership with the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit, searching for new agri-food technologies to support its supply chain partners to improve efficiency and sustainability. The winning start-up will enjoy introductions to Tesco’s key supplier partners, with the opportunity to trial or implement their technologies and feedback to Tesco with results.
San Francisco-based ImpactVision was crowned the winner, with its solution that applies advanced imaging technology to food supply chains to deliver consistent food quality, generate premium products and reduce supply chain waste. The software provides insights about the quality of foods, such as the shelf-life of meat, the freshness of fish, the dry matter content of avocados or the presence of foreign objects non-invasively and rapidly at production grade speeds.
Tesco’s Agri-Food team led the judging panel with Emmanuelle Lerges, Food Technical Director, and Barney Kay, Head of Agriculture, joined by supply chain representatives: Vee Gururajan of Branston, Ian Tremain of Bridgwater College and Ash Gilman of Cranswick.
Tesco’s Food Technical Director, Emmanuelle Lerges, said: “We’ve seen some fantastic technologies and it’s been fascinating to see the sheer breadth of solutions and their applications - in fact we will be continuing the conversation with several companies. We’re excited to have named ImpactVision as our winner, chosen for its potential to cut across a number of Tesco’s supply chain sectors from meat to fish, fruit and vegetables, with immediate and long-term applications that will directly benefit our supply chain and customers, delivering a consistent quality of food while also reducing waste.”
Commenting on the win, Abi Ramanan, CEO of Impact Vision, said: “The whole process has been rigorous, we were already delighted to make the top ten! For any tech company, the opportunity to work directly with Tesco, have access to their varied supply chain partners and the sheer scope of data is just incredible. Our technology can help Tesco set realistic objectives for reducing supply chain waste and improve transparency in the supply chain to ensure consistent quality for their customers. We’re thrilled, and particularly as a Brit myself I’m delighted to have this opportunity to work with such a prominent UK retailer.”
Jennie Moss, Founder and MD of Rethink Events, organisers of the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit said: “It’s been great to host this year’s Pitch Day in partnership with the Tesco Agri T-Jam. Having a judging panel directly from the supply chain generated some really interesting questions for our presenting start-ups. We’re excited to watch their progress over the coming months.”
Impact Vision will pitch again on Tuesday October 16 to the World Agri-Tech audience of over 450 agri-food business leaders and investors, as part of the summit’s acclaimed start-up Technology Showcase.
The other nine Agri T-Jam finalists were: Agrotech USA (USA), ArqAqua (Spain), Azotic Technologies (Switzerland), eggXYt (Israel), Fixed Phage (UK), FungiAlert (UK), Soil Steam International (Norway), Thrive Multi Visual (Netherlands) and ZELP (UK).