Project seeks initiatives, across the country, to foster the innovation ecosystem
Foster innovation and the startup ecosystem is one of the pillars of iFood's operations. The company constantly seeks solutions for the delivery market — and to move the entire technology and food ecosystem.
One of these initiatives is the iFood Labs, an innovation hub launched in October 2021 to test, co-develop and invest in new solutions for the market. With the initiative, startups from all over the country can sign up and make their pitch to raise investment for your projects. Public investments have already been made, for example, the companies Hekima, E-Comanda, Site Mercado and Synkar.
“Initiatives like this are essential to encourage new ideas across the country. Brazil is immense, with different realities and opportunities from north to south. Being able to find solutions and proposals with such widespread reach is giving space to all this potential”, explains Marcos Gurgel, director of Corporate Venture, Open Innovation and Jet Skis at iFood.
In just three months, iFood Labs enabled 180 new connections with the ecosystem, testing 45 startups. In total, 30 new businesses and 7 investments have already been generated in the areas of foodtech, logistics, retail, martech, fintech It is greentech —pillars linked to the iFood business.
“Closing the year with so many connections and an average of 10 new businesses per month is gratifying. It shows us that we are on the path. As the largest foodtech in Latin America, we know that it is part of our duty to develop the New Economy in our country”, says Gurgel.
How to sign up?
To register, you must follow the pitch calendar published on official page of the initiative.
The last pitch day took place on December 6, in Londrina (PR), for a special edition in the city. On the occasion, food disintermediation foodtechs, mapping and urban mesh logtechs and retail startups focused on picking and POS were included.
The next pitch day, in "Retail – POS and payment systems picking”, the date will be announced soon. However, it is now possible to register. Startups that propose new POS (point of sale) solutions that help the restaurant base in managing their businesses can enlist; From a market point of view, systems of picking (choice and withdrawal of products) that guarantee more productivity in the logistics management of iFood Mercado.
