Bühler hosts global biotech, AI leaders to accelerate sustainable innovation in food industry

SWITZERLAND – Bühler, a global leader in food processing technologies, brought together investors, startups, and industry leaders at its CUBIC Innovation Campus for the Icos Capital Accelerating Sustainability Summit, spotlighting the critical role of biotech and AI in transforming the future of food.

With growing challenges such as reduced funding, rising costs, and the need for high-quality data, the summit emphasized the urgency of collaboration to scale sustainable innovations across the food value chain.

The summit, held on March 28 for the third consecutive year at Bühler’s CUBIC, aimed to grow a dynamic ecosystem of startups and corporates focused on solving complex challenges through innovation.

“We’re delighted to play a role in strengthening this collaborative venturing approach to scale impactful innovation,” said Ian Roberts, Bühler’s Chief Technology Officer.

“With established supply chains and market access, corporates can significantly accelerate the growth and sustainable impact of startups,” he added.

Organized in partnership with Icos Capital, the event attracted a wide range of emerging companies from Europe and North America, leveraging artificial intelligence and biotechnology to reshape sectors such as alternative proteins, dairy, seafood, and even cosmetics.

“At Icos Capital, we aim to uncover and invest in cutting-edge innovations to drive sustainability forward. This year, we focused on biotech and AI, as these technologies are revolutionizing production efficiency and enabling new sustainable solutions,” said Nityen Lal, founding partner at Icos Capital.

“By leveraging our collaborative venturing approach, we foster mutually beneficial partnerships between startups focused on food technology, chemical technology, decarbonization, and sustainability and established corporations, facilitating their growth and development.”

Since its founding in 2006, Icos Capital has backed startups that integrate financial, environmental, and social value, helping them scale through strategic collaborations. Startups such as BioRaptor and Triplebar showcased how AI is already accelerating product development timelines and cutting costs.

“BioRaptor accelerates the path from R&D to scaled manufacturing with AI-driven bioprocess optimization,” said Ori Zakin, CEO of the platform, adding that their tools enable instant analysis and streamline the entire data workflow.

“This is an exciting time for biotech — they are able to bring science fiction to life, making products that were impossible just years ago.”

Meanwhile, Triplebar is using Generative AI to create microbial strains for protein production that would otherwise take years and millions to develop.

“These models can create a strain for precision fermentation that would have taken years and millions of dollars to construct manually. Our strength is deep technical information and development. To make that a reality, we must work with people who have the power to bring it to market,” said Sarah Bolmer, VP of Product at Triplebar.

However, AI’s promise is only as good as the data it’s fed. Participants repeatedly emphasized that poor data quality is a major roadblock.

Generating reliable, original data in laboratories and supplementing it with validated external data was identified as a cornerstone for both product development and market credibility.

Wolfgang Heinzl of the PHW Group, a major European poultry producer expanding into alternative proteins, reinforced the value of startup partnerships: “If there’s only one strong connection from this event, it’s worth it. Startups bring the speed and daring that large companies need.”

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