The Independent View: Food-X: An Accelerator to Grow the Food Movement

Meet a good friend of mine, the founder of Food-X Shen Tong, who was an organizer behind the Tiananmen Square protests of the 1990s, and is now a father of three living in New York City. A desire to feed his kids healthy and nutritious food has thrown Tong knee deep into investing in a more sustainable food system. In June 2014, Tong joined Sean O’Sullivan at SOS Ventures, a venture capital firm with a roster of successful accelerators, and this past September the pair launched Food-X.

On a mission to create change throughout the food system, Food-X’s goals are lofty but admirable:

- How can we get more people eating better?

- How can everyone access healthy foods?

- How can we lower the carbon footprint of food production?

Shen Tong is on the right.

Funded with $50 million dollars from an Evergreen fund, Food-X’s plans to seed upwards of 200 companies over the next 10 years, which, the team hopes, will make valuable changes to the global food industry. The accelerator is taking the long view, with plans to give the startups plenty of runway to make their companies successful. This means the founders won’t be pressured to exit, sell or even make a profit for the foreseeable future. The exact terms are different for each company, but many in the first class gave a 7.5 percent stake in equity in exchange for an investment of $40,000.

In December, after 14 weeks of intensive work and collaboration, Food-X hosted a launch party to showcase the first class of companies. Here are a few of the startups:

Agrilicious, a website to connect consumers to every organic farm in their region, both by sharing locations and contact info, and by then enabling customers to order fresh foods directly from farmers. Think of it like an Etsy for kale, corn, and cucumbers. Agrilicious is in discussions with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assist them with their organic program management.

Nextdoorganics, a NYC-based meta-CSA delivery program that delivers a blend of local produce with value add-ons. Their food hub is located in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, with another planned in the Northeast later this year. The food hub is open to the public and allows a convenient location for customer pick-ups and farmer drop-offs. Already operating at a profit, Nextdoorganics has over 1,000 customers.

Nextdoorganics, a mobile app and website that will help users search local restaurants for any number of filters including organic, gluten-free, sustainable seafood, vegan-friendly, and more.*mnsp; It also serves as a B2B resource for chefs looking to connect with farmers and they’re beta testing giving restaurants the ability to modify their farms and purveyors anytime they make changes.

Food-X has put out a call for applications for their spring class. In addition to technology start-ups, the team hopes that food producers will apply to the program too. And, although the members need to be in New York for the duration of the program, applications will be accepted from anywhere. All you need is a good idea.