Thailand’s SPACE-F Kicks Off First Exclusive Preview Event with 23 Startups

SPACE-F, the first food-tech incubator and accelerator program in Thailand, kicked off its first exclusive preview event with 23 startups from Germany, India, Norway, Singapore, Thailand and the U.S., with an aim to drive innovation in the food industry.

Each startup delivered a five-minute pitch and met with Thai Union executives and other potential investors who were exclusively invited to the launch.

“As a global seafood leader with a focus on innovation, Thai Union’s partnership with the National Innovation Agency (NIA) and Mahidol University in SPACE-F is a platform for us to offer our innovative expertise to food-tech startups,” said Dr. Tunyawat Kasemsuwan, Group Director, Global Innovation at Thai Union Group PCL.

SPACE-F, the first global food-tech startup incubator and accelerator in Thailand, provides a global food maker and co-innovating space with a mentoring program. It was initiated and established through cooperation between Thai Union, the NIA and Mahidol University’s Faculty of Science. SPACE-F is open to startups innovating in health and wellness; alternative proteins; smart manufacturing; packaging solution; novel food and ingredients; biomaterial and chemical; restaurant tech; food safety and quality; and smart food services. With a non-equity model, it allows founders to have full ownership of their ideas and products.

“Thai Union has long recognized that innovation is one of the keys to the future growth of our business, so we have invested heavily in innovation to improve and develop products and processes to satisfy our customers,” said Joerg Ayrle, Thai Union Group CFO. “We have seen first-hand that new ideas are driven by smart, young people who are very agile and can fail, stand up and run again. So, we are very proud to be working with the Thai government and Mahidol University to establish SPACE-F.”

SPACE-F contributes as a central platform gathering resources from corporates, VCs, CVCs, universities and government to develop and promote deep-tech and innovative food-tech startups with speed and effectiveness. Selected startups will be incubated and accelerated to be new food economy warriors and scaled up to the global market.

About Thai Union Group

Thai Union Group PCL is the world’s seafood leader bringing high quality, healthy, tasty and innovative seafood products to customers across the world for more than 40 years.

Today, Thai Union is regarded as the world’s largest producer of shelf-stable tuna products with annual sales exceeding THB 133.3 billion (US$ 4.1 billion) and a global workforce of over 47,000 people who are dedicated to pioneering sustainable, innovative seafood products.

The company’s global brand portfolio includes market-leading international brands such as Chicken of the Sea, John West, Petit Navire, Parmentier, Mareblu, King Oscar, and Rügen Fisch and Thai-leading brands SEALECT, Fisho, Qfresh, Monori, Bellotta and Marvo.

As a company committed to innovation and globally responsible behavior, Thai Union is proud to be a member of the United Nations Global Compact, and a founding member of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF). In 2015, Thai Union introduced its SeaChange® sustainability strategy. Find out more at seachangesustainability.org. Thai Union’s on-going work on sustainability issues was recognized in 2018 and 2019 by being ranked number one in the world in the Food Products Industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, achieving a 100th percentile ranking for total sustainability score. Thai Union has now been named to the DJSI for six consecutive years. Thai Union was also named to the FTSE4Good Emerging Index for the third straight year in 2018.