*** ----> Company in efforts to groom food entrepreneurs | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Company in efforts to groom food entrepreneurs

Kök Projekt, an ecosystem builder working in the food, agriculture, and water (FAW) sector has initiated Food Ideathon MENA Boot Camp in the Kingdom with an aim to showcase the MENA food ecosystem and build solutions that can be applied to the food systems, for the future of food in the MENA Region. Food Ideathon is a series of entrepreneurial events, where food entrepreneurs work on their brilliant ideas to solve the problems that they face in food, agriculture, and water systems, before pitching their sustainable business ideas to the potential investors.

Speaking to Tribune, Semi Hakim, Co-Founder and CEO at Kök Projekt, said: “Kök Projekt is an ecosystem builder organisation that works for the food, agriculture, and water (FAW) sector. We develop entrepreneurship programmes focused on supporting startups on the food value chain. “We contribute to the conversation on the future of food. We organise our events focusing on bringing together the sector representatives and startups in common platforms, to take action. “Therefore, we develop the bridges between the companies and innovation through our events, that will empower the food entrepreneurship.” “We work with early-stage FAW startups by focusing our efforts to support and empower early-stage FAW entrepreneurs to grow and expand their businesses beyond their potential. We design acceleration programmes for FAW startups with 16 weeks of intense training by providing them with the necessary tools to improve their products and services and the opportunities to access the market directly through our opportunities programmes.

 “We believe that food systems affect us all. Any of the challenges we face within the food systems, we face it globally. That is why any of the solutions we empower can create an effect on the future of food sustainability. This is why we work on building a global community of FAW entrepreneurs, a FAWsome community. “We build our partnerships globally to support entrepreneurs to grow and scale their businesses in regional and international markets. We work with our local partners to sustain our global community and develop our activities accordingly. Currently, we have local partners in Turkey and in the 8 countries in the MENA region, and we’ve started to expand our network to the APAC region, starting with Hong Kong and Taiwan. Our mission is to build one global platform for FAW entrepreneurs, for a sustainable future for food.”

“We’re a great believer of the circular approach. The FAW entrepreneurs will sustain that future of food. That is why we focus on supporting circular economy models and sustainable business models through our programs. We provide the necessary tools for startups to improve and adjust their business models with the disciplines of sustainability. “Thus we initiated, Food Ideathon MENA Boot camp, which is a four-day food entrepreneurship event in Bahrain which consisted of a sector meet up and intense food entrepreneurship training and a pitching competition for early-stage food entrepreneurs.”

“We’ve established the Food Ideathon with the goal to showcase the MENA food ecosystem and build solutions that can be applied to the food systems, for the future of food in the MENA Region.

“Moreover, Food Ideathon is about building solutions. It is the series of entrepreneurial events where food entrepreneurs work on their brilliant ideas to solve the problems that we face in food, agriculture, and water systems, then to pitch their sustainable business ideas to the potential investors. It’s the meeting ground for entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into reality,” Mr Semi added.