BelSU student’s project is ranked Top 20 Russian FoodTech start-ups.

The exhibition was divided in 13 thematic sections. More than 600 food producers and suppliers from Russia and overseas showed their new and best products to a wide audience. Over 110 companies took part in the exhibition for the first time. Our country was represented by companies from 59 regions.

STEmEAT project by Danil Maklakov was introduced as part of the investment panel discussion of foodtech start-ups, which are ready to change the market. It ranked Top 20 Russian projects in the section.

According to a young researcher his start-up is based on a new type food production from mammal cells. It includes the so-called cultured meat, protein pills and cell concentrate.

“Such products are produced with biomass in a bioreactor without harming the environment and animals. It will eliminate environmental, ethical and food issues at a global scale”, Danil noted.

The project was also introduced to international accelerators TerraForma and WinnoMoscow in a Skolkovo science park. The outcome was the establishment of partnerships with ArtMeat, Plastilin, GreenIdea, BioVolf, as well as free acceleration from WinnoMoscow and a trip to Paris to present the start-up to larger foreign companies.

“The start-up is developing rapidly and has already attracted the interest of many companies that are ready to become industrial partners. At the moment, several contracts are waiting to be signed with large manufacturers of necessary consumables for innovative food products”, the young man commented.

Danil Maklakov has been developing the technology of cultivated food production since the first year in the BelSU Cellular, Reproductive Auxiliary and DNA Technologies Research Laboratory under the guidance of Sergey Nadezhdin, Doctor of Sciences in Biology. The first developments were introduced at the start-up fair StartUp:Land – Agro&Foodtech in 2019, initiated by JSC Development Corporation. The student was granted a strategic partnership certificate from EFKO Group, a certificate for assistance in project financing from the Volokonovsky Industrial Park and a certificate for expert analysis of the project from Skolkovo specialists.

The young researcher won the All-Russian Сompetition UMNIK-NTI in 2020 and received financial support of RUR500,000 for the further project implementation.

For reference: TerraForma is a Russia-based international agri-food accelerator, founded by Russian and German entrepreneurs as part of a public-private partnership to support innovations of both experienced industry players and start-up companies.

WinnoMoscow is a private innovative Russian-French platform that combines an accelerator for start-ups, an open innovation centre for corporations and a platform for collaboration and development of technology entrepreneurs’ community.