Thai Union Alternative Protein

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.