First successful spin-offs of our Tiina investment program to transform agriculture and food

Their names are Jeanne, Anas, Hugo, Pierre and Florence and they embarked on the entrepreneurial experience with strong convictions: to find solutions to improve the impact of agriculture and food on health and the planet. Our Tiina impact investment program has selected them for their ingenuity, their rigor but also their audacity and energy. 18 months after the launch of this seed fund conducted in partnership with Miimosa and makesense, discover the 13 winners and their first results!

Impact investments for sustainable agriculture and food

From Dijon to Pessac, via Besançon, Evry, Saint-Aubin and French Guiana, the 13 young companies benefiting from the Tiina programme are developing innovations that respect people and the environment and can have an impact on the value chain from seed to compost: organic insulating foam to protect vines from frost, alternatives to animal proteins, collection and recovery of bio-waste by bike, aid to reduce carbon emissions from farms… These ambitious solutions needed funds to accelerate their deployment, support R&D and reassure other funders of the solidity of their project. This is, among other things, what our Tiina investment fund provides them, with a loan at a very moderate rate. What’s more, by being selected, these initiatives join a real community, accompanied by experts. “When you look at Tiina’s ambition and values, we find each other perfectly and share the same passion for sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions,” explain Jeanne and Anas, co-founders of Fungu’it, which recycles agricultural by-products into protein feed for the food industry. “It also means joining a class of highly committed startups and entrepreneurs such as Neptune Elements, BicyCompost or Onima, a real source of additional motivation. We know how important sharing is and that’s how we’ll maximize our impact. But above all, Tiina is an opportunity for us to benefit from the expertise of Miimosa and Makesense, two players recognized for their commitment to responsible innovation. It is almost a reflex to turn to these players. »

Encouraging initial results

And the results are already palpable for Fungu’it: “After a long period of R&D, we have come up with a first industrialized product based on sunflower meal and wheat bran. This is a significant step for us because it marks the transition from research to a more concrete production phase. We are also in active discussions with about thirty manufacturers interested in integrating our ingredient into their recipes,” they said in May 2023. As for the Bee Friendly Label (winner in April 2023), a crowdfunding campaign has been launched on the Miimosa platform that invites citizens and companies to get involved in these high-impact projects. The objective: to encourage farmers to preserve bees and pollinating insects. Depending on the amount of your donation, you will receive a jar of honey from a cooperative involved in the process, a book of testimonies or a meeting with a committed farmer.

More generally, for the 5 projects that entered the programme in 2022 (i.e. 14 months on average), there was a growth in monthly turnover of 84%, and 27 FTEs created (Full-Time Equivalent) or +79%. The leverage effect is estimated at 29: €1 invested by Tiina has contributed to €29 of funds in fundraising.

3 new winners have joined the movement!

With a budget of €1 million over 3 years, this Tiina programme, at the initiative of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, is continuing. At the end of 2023, 3 new companies joined Tiina:

• Edonia for its technology capable of transforming microalgae into a functional and protein-rich ingredient for the food industry. Edonia convinced the jury with this project aimed at offering an alternative to animal proteins. The product meets the important needs of agri-food companies for the contract catering and distributor markets of tomorrow. It is already attracting customers before the transition to industrial scale;
• Aquagreen Protect for its concrete and innovative response to an increasingly recurring effect of climate change: frost. This solution, which is about to be marketed, is environmentally friendly and beneficial for our crops, especially fruit crops. First applied to the vine, it can be replicated in all arboriculture;
• Elzeard for its SaaS (Software as a Service) agricultural production management software dedicated to the planning and monitoring of diversified crops throughout the production cycle up to the delivery note, also allowing the complete traceability of each crop. The jury was unanimous on Elzeard’s solution: “The challenges of the arduous work of farmers, and in particular of rotating and diversified crops, are underestimated. The already very comprehensive solution can be enriched for this socially useful solidarity company. »

In addition to funding, all projects benefit from privileged support from MiiMOSA, Europe’s leading financing platform dedicated to the agricultural and food transition, and makesense, which brings together all the players in society to make the ecological and solidarity transition a reality through mobilization programs, training, an incubator, etc.

The next juries are scheduled for each quarter of 2024. You can submit your application on the dedicated website: www.tiina.fr