Lugano, October 3, 2022 – Loomish, the Swiss-based investment management firm, announced the finalists of the open innovation initiative, the FoodTech Innovation Award 2022, promoting cutting-edge solutions that can support Barilla and Lavazza in boosting customer engagement and using data in a more effective manner.

All applications were analyzed by a prestigious jury represented by the top management of Barilla and Lavazza, executives from major Swiss and Italian retailers, as well as senior leaders from the Lifestyle Tech Competence Center member companies, including Accenture, Microsoft, and UBS and Venture Capitals, such as Anchor Group, New Epoch Capital, Privilège Ventures SA, and Yesss CAPITAL.

More than 100 applications were submitted and the selection was very tough. Twelve cutting-edge solutions were selected to pitch for the FoodTech Innovation Award 2022 at Microsoft Headquarters in Zurich on October 26, 2022.

The finalists – six in each of the categories – are:

Category 1: Boost customer engagement

Solutions to enhance and transform the shopping experience, engaging shoppers and consumers as well as integrating multiple channels/touchpoints. The finalists are:

Adventr – Ossum Technology https://adventr.io/

Location: New York, US

Adventr allows anyone to create interactive, connected video experiences and share them anywhere for the most engaging content ever. Experiences created with Adventr let viewers control and navigate their own story and unlock unparalleled performance with 13x more engagement and conversion than traditional video.

Beaconsmind http://www.beaconsmind.com/

Location: Stafa, CH

Beaconsmind AG is a location-based marketing software. Beaconsmind enables retailers to transform the shopping experience for customers in physical stores. Our localization technology and software suite allows retailers to converge digital and physical shopping and address the convenience gaps of each.

Cortex https://www.meetcortex.com/

Location: Boston, US

Cortex is the software platform that uses AI to enable food product brands to know exactly what visual choices cause their audiences to decide to buy, click, and engage. Applying AI for photos and videos, Cortex completely changes the game when planning your next marketing campaign.

Proqure INC https://www.proqure.io/

Location: Pleasanton, US

ProQure is at the forefront of the phygital revolution transforming physical products into digital platforms – bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds. Scanning smart labels, brands could deliver product-centric and augmented experiences based on marketing objectives, educating and rewarding customers and extending the physical value of the product.

The Nemesis https://thenemesis.io/

Location: Lugano, CH

The Nemesis is the entertainment platform that offers innovative VR experiences through gameplays, challenges and events set in fun metaverses. The Nemesis is the future of advertising and entertainment: an ecosystem where live unforgettable experiences.

Wecheer http://www.wecheer.io/

Location: Lausanne, CH

Wecheer provides the first Brand Loyalty card (instead of a retailer card) that actually works across any supermarket, restaurant or eCommerce shops. Wecheer app leverages three technological verticals (OCR, QR codes & IoT) to capture offline sale from any retail channel.

Category 2: Extract value from data

Solutions to manage sales and customer data from different sources, run data intelligence, extract business value, automate and quickly present useful insights. The finalists are:

Ariadne Maps https://ariadnemaps.com/

Location: Munich, DE

Ariadne is a precise and anonymous tracking and crowd analytics without application, network connection and cameras. It integrates with CRM, BI, ERP, advertising software and workforce management solutions.

B2Metric https://b2metric.com/

Location: Istanbul, TR

B2Metric is an AI-Powered customer journey predictive analytics solution for marketing and growth teams that predicts user behaviors in real-time and optimizes marketing growth by understanding and orchestrating customer journey on digital platforms.

Intouch.com https://www.intouch.com/

Location: Dublin, IE

Intouch.com is a two-sided in-store media network in which physical retailers enrol their in-store digital displays and advertisers compete to advertise on them. Bringing AI to the store’s digital channels, we display the right product ad to the right shopper, in real-time.

Konnecto http://www.konnecto.com/

Location: Tel Aviv, IL

Konnecto enables brands to know why customers ended up buying products from their competitors, and what they should do about it.

Nexoya http://www.nexoya.com/

Location: Zürich, CH

Nexoya built a modern SaaS platform allowing the modern Marketing Expert to automatically gather all his data in one place, apply simplified reporting and analysis on it, and then use sophisticated artificial intelligence models to get predictions and prescriptions on what to do next.

Salesbeat http://www.salesbeat.co/

Location: New York, US

Salesbeat is an AI driven platform processing micro and macro data to model consumer buying behavior to make recommendations of optimal stocks, eliminating lost sales due to out of stocks and write offs due to overstocking.

Contact information

Loomish SA & LTCC – Andrea Lentini, Senior Innovation Manager – andrea.lentini@loomish.ch

LTCC – Michele Crespi, Open Innovation Team – michele.crespi@ltcc.ch

About Loomish SA

Loomish SA is a Swiss-based investment management firm specialized in Lifestyle-Tech, with a focus on Food, Fashion, Travel and Design industries. We are committed to accelerating value creation for all the players within the lifestyle ecosystem: investors, digital start-ups and established corporations looking for innovative solutions. Strategically located in Ticino, between the dynamic financial centre Zurich and the global lifestyle hub Milan, Loomish is perfectly positioned to link the best of both worlds. We deliver expert guidance and facilitate investments in the Lifestyle-Tech sector, focusing primarily on the disruptive technologies offered by European medium-sized start-ups and scale-ups. Find out more at LinkedIn @Loomish_SA and http://www.loomish.ch