The Japanese investor and incubator founded by Taizo Son, and partners, GSF – India’s leading tech accelerator founded by Rajesh Sawhney and Infobridge – Indo-Japan business consultancy, announced the launch of “Gastrotope”, a new Agrifood tech accelerator in India.
Gastrotope is a focused accelerator with the vision to catalyze the creation of a new agriculture and FoodTech enabled industry ecosystem that builds upon India’s rich food diversity and focuses on sustainability throughout the ‘farm to fork’ value chain. The accelerator aims to invest in startups that can add value at various parts of the value chain, starting with farmers and moving to food transportation, processing and delivery to and consumption by customers.
Taizo Son, CEO and founder of Mistletoe said, “I truly believe India will be the center of AgriFood tech innovation, and am very excited. India has amazing talents and engineers, and a vast land and population, and in addition, India has a long and rich food culture.”
He added, “Japan is also a country with deep agriculture technologies and food culture as well. I have always believed that innovation comes from the connecting of diverse dots, and this time, with the bridge between India and Japan, new and unique solutions to the fundamental questions of food and agriculture will arise. We hope, while working with our great partners here, we will become a catalyst for this new movement of ‘farm to fork’ permaculture.”
Rajesh Sawhney, CEO and founder of GSF India said, “Gastrotope is borne out of a new world vision of democratizing healthy gastronomy experiences for millions. The food consumption habits are changing globally with a focus on nutrition and wellness and instead of food industrialization; the new goal is all about ‘what we grow’. Gastrotope seeks to play a vital role in catalyzing India’s adoption of these trends through the birth of a completely new agriculture and FoodTech ecosystem.”
“We are in talks with various government entities including government of Andhra Pradesh and are hopeful of creating meaningful partnership to strengthen India’s farm economy in a few months from now,” Rajesh added.
Naho Shigeta, CEO of Infobridge Holdings said, “We recognize that India’s amazing food and cuisine diversity must be respected and nurtured for sustainable growth of India’s farm economy. At Gastrotope, our focus will be to completely reverse the western world’s pursuit of food standardization and instead create locally relevant and sustainable businesses that truly benefit the two most important stakeholders: farmers and consumers.”
Mistletoe is already present in India and has made investments in multiple agritech and foodtech startups including Innerchef, Ninjacart and Kisan Network. Rajesh Sawhney is also a cofounder of Innerchef.
About Mistletoe
Mistletoe is the collective impact community to empower startups and innovators to create a more human-centered and sustainable future through technology. It is comprised of founders, investors, entrepreneurs, researchers, and visionaries in the startup and venture communities who share the lofty ambition of addressing the problems humanity faces in the near and long-term future.
About GSF India
Started in 2012, GSF network has three components: an accelerator, an angel network, and tech conferences. GSF is India’s leading startup accelerator program, having accelerated over 40 startups in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. Among these, 5 startups have exited, about 40% have raised venture rounds, and over 80% have gone on to raise angel funding. The GSF investment team includes: Rajesh Sawhney, Hiro Mashita, M&S Partners, Anand Chandrasekaran (ex-CPO of Snapdeal), Sumesh Menon (founder of Utopia Mobile and Woo), Dinesh Agarwal (founder of Indiamart), and Ashish Toshniwal (founder of Y Media Labs, San Francisco).
About Infobridge
Creating a bridge between India and Japan, Infobridge has more than 10 years experiences here in India. We provide consulting and business development services to Japanese in India. Infobridge also has expertise in bringing several Japanese startups to India, too.
