The agri-food sector looks to the future through the convergence of complementary visions: the productive, financial and innovative visions of the new entrepreneurial generations. This is the message that Joinfruit e LaGemma Venture S.r.l. with sole shareholder wanted to leave during the meeting “The future has young roots: the role of start-ups in the evolution of the agri-food sector held on Wednesday 7 May at Macfrut.
The event was a moment of intergenerational and cross-sectoral discussion involving fruit and vegetable entrepreneurs, investors and founders of start-ups selected by the AGRIFOOD24 programme, the acceleration path promoted by LaGemma Venture - a venture capital company 100% owned by Fondazione CRC - which has already supported 11 innovative start-ups with a total investment of 1.7 million. The aim of the meeting was to bring a specialised audience such as Macfrut a good example of how the collaboration between institutions, fruit and vegetable companies and young entrepreneurs is essential to support innovation, and can lead to a collective growth positive, through dialogue between: Bruno Sacchi - director of Joinfruit, Enrico Collidà - president of LaGemma Venture, Wilma Tesio - director of LaGemma Venture, Matteo Beccatelli - CEO of the start-up Plantvoice and Stefano Ferioli - Co-founder of the start-up Agreenet.
A three-part synergy: business, finance and start-ups
The synergy between Joinfruit and LaGemma Venture was born out of the acceleration process AGRIFOOD24 of LaGemma Venture, which started in January 2025. Joinfruit, an organisation of fruit and vegetable producers with long experience in the agricultural sector, brings the voice and experience of the production world. LaGemma Venture, on the other hand, acts as a financial and social catalyst, selecting and supporting high-potential ideas through targeted investments and accompanying paths. Finally, the start-ups bring with them the energy and vision of the new generations, introducing solutions capable of responding to the environmental, social and economic challenges of contemporary agriculture. “Like Joinfruit - stated Bruno Sacchi, Director of the Verzuolo OP – We believe that companies have a great responsibility in the growth path of start-ups. When LaGemma Venture proposed us to be among the partner companies in this project, with the aim of enhancing the selected start-ups by helping them to ground their projects with concrete collaborations, we enthusiastically accepted. We believe, in fact, that this is useful not only to find innovative solutions that can add value to our productions, but above all to facilitate the evolution of the entire sector, through the ideas of the new generations entering the business world.”
“We chose partners like Joinfruit because they share a proactive approach with us. - commented Enrico Collidà, President of LaGemma Venture – It is not just about investment: we want to build an ecosystem in which skills, ideas and technologies are integrated to generate economic value, but also a tangible social and environmental impact. An example of collaboration that, if consolidated with other realities, could become a national model.”
Testifying to the effectiveness of this model are the stories of Agreneet e PlantVoice - two start-ups proposing innovative solutions for agriculture, selected from the Call4Future AGRIFOOD24 - who participated in the intensive training, strategic mentoring and customised support of LaGemma Venture and started a collaboration with Joinfruit.
“We carry a product that allows natural intervention in the biological deterioration of fruit and vegetables. - explained Stefano Ferioli, Co-founder of Agreenet talking about PìFrescÒ, a sachet that is inserted into the secondary packaging of fruit and vegetables and releases active ingredients of plant origin that prevent the proliferation of moulds – a value proposition that not only aims at limiting waste, but also allows us to cope with bad seasons with peaks in delivery that require more time to market the fruit. A product that can reduce losses by 50%.”
Also PlantVoice brings to the market a support tool for producers: it is an innovative sensor technology that allows real-time knowledge of the health and stress status of plants. “We asked ourselves: when is the plant in its optimal production regime? - explained Matteo Beccatelli, CEO of PlantVoice. “When there is no stress: if stress is not properly managed, the quantity and quality of production drops, water, fertilisers and pesticides are wasted, and operating costs increase. The solution we propose is a lymphatic probe (biocompatible with plant physiology) that analyses internal fluids and collects data directly from the plant, notifying the producer of any stress, such as water stress, within the first 24 hours.”
“Our name was not chosen at random: it represents our commitment to search for the “gems” of the future, commentWilma Tesio, Director of LaGemma Venture. “The next 20 May in Cuneo we will host our first Investor Day, where the 11 start-ups we have invested in will meet businesses, investors and citizens to present their solutions. It will also be an opportunity to officially launch the new Call4Future AGRIFOOD25, which will remain open until 21 September. The challenge now is to continue the work we have started, intercepting the best start-ups nationwide to offer them not only capital, but a network of companies like Joinfruit ready to put their projects to the test in the field.”
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