Waterlily popcorn, fibre-boosting enzymes, and legumes that mimic weight-loss drugs could be coming to store shelves sooner than expected, as pladis unveiled the 12 startups selected for its 2025 Accelerator Programme.
The London-based snacking giant is backing early-stage businesses developing breakthrough food and ingredient innovations with real commercial potential. The eight-week programme aims to fast-track scalable solutions that address some of the industry’s biggest challenges – including obesity, food waste, sustainable sourcing, and the rise of personalised nutrition.
Chosen from over 300 applicants across five continents, the selected startups will gain access to pladis’ global R&D and commercial expertise, with a clear focus on bringing their innovations to market.
“There’s so much creativity in this group. What stood out is how practical their thinking is. This cohort has big ideas that are grounded in real science and they’re ready to be tested in the real world.” said Jennifer Moss, Chief R&D Officer at pladis.
Turning waste and science into snacks
Among the more radical ventures is Dublin-based Nuritas, which uses AI and genomics to unlock bioactive plant peptides that can trigger health benefits at a cellular level. Fermtech, meanwhile, has created a cocoa alternative by fermenting food industry side-streams - resulting in a product with a 98 per cent lower carbon footprint than traditional cocoa powder.
Then there’s Zya, which has developed enzymes that convert up to 30 per cent of sugar into fibre after it’s consumed - a behind-the-scenes transformation that could help reduce the impact of sugar without changing how food tastes.
Rethinking fats, flours and packaging
MicroLub is reinventing texture for the plant-based market with next-gen fat replacements. PulseON Foods is targeting gut health and satiety - mimicking the biological pathways triggered by new weight-loss medications, but doing it with legumes.
Just Nosh is turning water lilies into a popcorn-like snack, and, Pack2Earth is tackling plastic waste with packaging that breaks down naturally in household conditions, even when used for liquids and semi-solids.
The programme, powered by Yıldız Ventures - the innovation arm of pladis’ parent company Yıldız Holding - will give each start-up access to pladis experts across R&D, supply chain, regulatory and marketing, as well as real-world testing opportunities.
"We applied to the pladis Accelerator because we’re looking for partners who understand both science and scale,” said Dr Nora Khaldi, Founder and CEO, Nuritas. “The access to mentors, technical expertise and commercial insight is exactly what we need to bring our next generation of functional plant peptide ingredients to market.”
Forward Fooding has been a strategic partner in helping pladis source and evaluate the applications, using their insights into Food Tech trends and solutions to guide our selection process.
Alessio D'Antino, Co-founder and CEO, Forward Fooding: “This selection process has been a highly collaborative and rewarding journey. The 12 companies selected for this programme truly represent breakthrough innovations that are well aligned with pladis' mission to revolutionise snacking while addressing wellness and sustainability challenges. We're excited to see how this programme will drive meaningful impact for pladis and the broader industry."
The full 2025 pladis Accelerator Programme cohort:
- Nuritas is on a mission to improve billions of lives, the company uses AI, deep learning, and genomics to discover and unlock precision cell-signalling peptides from natural plant sources, creating a new category of bioactive ingredients.
- BIOVIT provide food companies with the world’s most effective and sustainable vitamins and minerals.
- PulseON Foods is a patented, legume-based ingredient offering manufacturers and consumers a natural way to support digestive wellness, satiety regulation and weight management via metabolic pathways used in recent weight management medications.
- Zya uses the power of enzymes to transform how our bodies use food. Their first ingredient is called Convero – an enzyme that converts 30% of sugar into fibre after eating.
- Kyomei uses technology to valorise crop waste green leaves into healthy, sustainable food ingredients for consumers.
- Supernatural Foods is revolutionising snacking with its proprietary process that creates truly healthy snacks by pressing vegetables in a way that preserves their nutritional value while delivering the satisfying crunch of a crisp.
- Just Nosh offers Water Lily Pops - crunchy like potato chips, fluffy like popcorn, but even better.
- Fermtech creates food without traditional farming by converting food industry side streams into nutritious, great-tasting ingredients. Their Koji Cocoa, a cocoa replacement, can fully substitute up to 75% of cocoa powder at a 1:1 ratio—while boasting a 98% lower carbon footprint than conventional cocoa.
- MicroLub uses next-generation protein technologies to revolutionise texture in fat replacement and plant-based food products.
- Pack2Earth has developed the first materials that compost at ambient temperatures almost anywhere, while being suitable for packaging long-life dry, semi-liquid and liquid products - including food. These materials reduce CO2 emissions and protect both the environment and human health from toxins and microplastics.
- Shiru transforms product innovation by using AI-driven discovery to unlock natural, scalable, high-performance ingredients.
- Sun Bear Biofuture is bioengineering the future of ingredients through microorganisms and precision fermentation.