Fibre Valorisation for Pet Food

About Mars, Incoporated

Mars, Incorporated is driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. As a $50bn+ family-owned business, our diverse and expanding portfolio of leading pet care products and veterinary services support pets all around the world and our quality snacking and food products delight millions of people every day. We produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including ROYAL CANIN®, PEDIGREE®, WHISKAS®, CESAR®, DOVE®, EXTRA®, M&M’s®, SNICKERS® and BEN’S ORIGINAL™. Our international networks of pet hospitals, including BANFIELD™, BLUEPEARL™, VCA™ and ANICURA™ span preventive, general, specialty, and emergency veterinary care, and our global veterinary diagnostics business ANTECH® offers breakthrough capabilities in pet diagnostics. The Mars Five Principles—Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom—inspire our 150,000 Associates to act every day to help create a better world for people, pets and the planet.

This unique matchmaking opportunity will connect cutting edge technologies to the global leader in Petcare, with potential to scale innovations rapidly. The top 10 solutions will be invited to a virtual demo day and up to two of the finalists will be supported by Mars Petcare to develop a joint PoC (Proof of Concept) following the Demo Day.

The Challenge

Agricultural byproducts often comprise of high-quality proteins but come with high levels of insoluble fibres that limit usage in Petcare formulations due to digestibility and other produce performance challenges. Transforming the insoluble fibre fractions into materials that can be effectively digested in the gut of a dog or cat, would allow the usage of a low carbon, upcycled material in the Petcare industry.

Mars Petcare is looking for solutions that can break down fibres containing lignin, hemi-cellulose or cellulose into proteins or sugars that can be digested by dogs and cats to be used for Petcare formulations that are safe and nutritious. The raw materials used at the beginning of the process can be diverse and range from lignin to sugar beet pulp, to coproducts of the seed oil industry, to name a few.

The solutions can come from any type of entity, including startups, research teams from universities or research institutions, as well as established organisations and companies.

The deadline for applications is the 22nd of September at 23:59 CEST.

What’s in it for the applicants?

1. Get invited to the virtual demo day and connect directly with key decision makers at Mars Petcare.
2. Up to two solutions will be awarded a prize to do a joint paid POC following the demo day
3. Receive feedback, advice and input on your product, service or technology from Mars Petcare experts
4. Receive insights and information about the growing category of pet care
   

Who should join this Challenge?

We are looking for impactful startups, projects and working solutions that adhere to the following criteria:

• Your technology has a current or potential application for the pet food category,
• You are open to collaborate with industry and looking to scale your technology,
• You work in one of the following:
  • Startup or scale up,
  • Research team in a university or research institute,
  • An established company.

How to apply

Submit your profile before 22nd of September at 23:59 CEST. Click here to start working on your profile and provide a thoughtful explanation as to how you envision a pilot project with Mars Petcare. The answers will be screened first by EIT Food, and the most promising applicants will be shared with Mars Petcare, thus the more specific your explanations, the more likely they will want to engage with you

Should you have any questions, please reach out to Marie Brueser at marie.brueser@eitfood.eu