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Corporations call on startups for help with pet food innovation

The pet food industry is pushing to partner with startups to stay ahead of trends and deliver innovative, sustainable, and functional products.

There is a growing trend shaping the pet food industry, according to Mintel’s report The Future of Pet Food 2024: pet owners are increasingly treating their pets like family members.

Because of this, pet owners are looking toward premium products with organic, “free from additives”, and “supporting overall wellness” claims – a trend that mirrors what is happening within the human food space.

Alongside wellness becoming a central theme in pet food, sustainability is a major concern for some, especially younger pet owners. However, financial constraints mean some pet owners deprioritise more expensive sustainable options for cheaper, less sustainable products.

Major players in the food industry, including Nestlé and Mars, have acknowledged these consumer trends and demands, and are responding by turning their attention toward pet care innovation.

Programmes like Nestlé’s Purina’s Unleashed accelerator and Mars Petcare's Open Innovation Challenge are calling on startups to help bring fresh ideas to pet care.

Purina’s Unleashed: Selected startups will receive mentorship, funding, and networking

The Unleashed programme, launched by the Purina Accelerator Lab in 2020, runs yearly and targets startups within the pet care industry. The Lab looks for innovative solutions that could improve the lives of both pets and their owners.

Applications for the 2025 cohort close on 30 September. The winners – ten selected startups – will be announced in February 2025.

As the Unleashed website suggests, Purina is looking to collaborate with and support startups that bring disruptive technology to pet care. The programme's focus areas include pet services, health technologies, novel nutrition, and new types of pet food ingredients.

Both B2C and B2B startups are invited to apply, given they can demonstrate sustainable and scalable business models. Business ideas will be evaluated based on their ability to answer customer problems.

The programme casts a wide net, targeting startups across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Oceania, and Latin America.

Alongside collaboration opportunities, the accelerator programme provides the selected startups with mentorship from Purina and industry experts, and opportunities for funding, networking, and expert guidance.

Previous winners include plant-based pet food protein ingredient

Winners from the 2023 cohort include Arbiom, creator of SylPro, a protein-rich ingredient made from sustainable sources using yeast fermentation, with applications for premium and plant-based pet food diets.

LampoVet, an online portal for gut microbiome analysis, personalised nutrition, and virtual consultations with vet specialists, was also selected in 2023.

Finnish startup EniferBio was a winner in the 2022 cohort. EniferBio has developed a fungi-based “drop-in” mycoprotein, suitable for pet food, from renewable raw materials using fermentation.

In 2021, PawPots, based in the United Arab Emirates, made its way on to the winners’ list. The company is an online meal subscription service for animals, delivering freshly cooked and customised daily servings.

Mars Petcare’s Open Innovation Challenge

The Open Innovation Challenge was initiated by Mars Petcare in 2024, in partnership with EIT Food. The challenge is part of Mars Petcare’s broader commitment to sustainability and innovation.

Mars Petcare is an arm of Mars, Incorporated, and includes nearly 50 pet food brands such as Pedigree, Whiskas, Temptations, and Cesar. EIT Food is a pan-European organisation and innovation community supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.

The challenge's primary objective is to promote the use of sustainable ingredients in pet food by transforming agricultural products that would normally be considered waste, such as straw from crop harvesting and discarded peel from chopped vegetables, into digestible and nutritious ingredients for pet food.

In particular, the challenge looks for solutions capable of breaking down lignin, hemi-cellulose, or cellulose contained within fibres into safe and nutrient-rich proteins or sugars that are digestible by dogs and cats.

Applications closed earlier this month.