Pascual, a leading Spanish manufacturer of dairy products and beverages, has launched Mylkcubator, the first global incubation program for cellular agriculture technologies in the dairy industry. The program is run by the group’s new Corporate Venture unit, Pascual Innoventures, on a mission to support innovative startups disrupting the dairy value chain.
Pascual Innoventures aims to become an early-stage investor, accelerating and forging alliances with startups that share the same purpose while also thriving as a corporation by launching its own startups, with the objective of incorporating them into Pascual’s future business operations.
The first edition of Mylkcubator will last 6 months, from selection to the demo day. The goal is to enroll 10 startups, entrepreneurs, or scientific projects, with innovative solutions in the cellular agriculture spectrum for the dairy industry within the following technologies: cell-based, fermentation-based, and applied technologies. All the details about the program are available on the official website mylkcubator.com.
Pascual Innoventures counts on the support of Eatable Adventures, one of the top three global food-tech accelerators, deriving from their continued strategic partnership after the first plant-based dairy challenge launched in 2020.
According to the RethinkX report “Rethink Food and Agriculture 2020-2030”, by 2030 almost 90% of U.S. dairy protein demand will come from precision fermentation alternatives. Solid protein (casein and whey) account for just 3,3% of milk’s overall composition, 87,75% is made up of water and the rest is sugar (mainly lactose), fats, vitamins, and minerals. The key to understanding the disruption of the dairy is that cellular agriculture only needs to disrupt 3,3% of the milk bottle, attributed to the key functional proteins.
Gabriel Torres Pascual, director of Pascual Innova and third generation of the Pascual family is leading the new unit together with Sejal Ravji, director of Pascual Innoventures, a biochemical engineer from UCL (University College London) with a Ph.D. in Rheology. Sej began his career in Switzerland and France, worked in various companies in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain, and also gained experience as a strategic innovation consultant as well as co-founding a FoodTech startup.
Gabriel Torres Pascual has worked for Google in New York and London holds an MBA from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and completed a Master of Science at Imperial College London.
“The entrepreneurial, innovative spirit is in our genes, it comes from the attitude that my grandfather instilled in us of being nonconformist, dreaming big and daring to take risks, not only with our heads but also with our hearts. This is how Pascual Innoventures was born with a long-term vision and the purpose of giving the best for the future of food. We will work hand in hand with startups that allow us to move into the future” says Gabriel Torres.
In addition to this initiative, Pascual Innoventures is already working on many other strategic projects, which seek to respond and provide solutions to some of the major challenges in the agri-food sector, such as food security, health & wellness, and circular economy
Applications open until the 20th of June! Learn more here
