iFoodbag receives EC grant
iFoodbag – the Swedish company which has developed a new carrier bag for grocery deliveries – has been awarded a €1.7m grant from the European Commission’s (EC) Horizon 2020 SME instrument programme. iFoodbag launched its water-resistant carrier bag, which is designed to protect chilled and frozen groceries for up to 24 hours, in November.
With the €1.7m EC funding, which will be provided over a two-year period, the company will have a project budget of €2.5m with which to develop its second generation carrier bag.
In a statement sent to Post&Parcel yesterday (16 February), Xavier Aubry, the founder of Zaz Ventures (which helped the iFoodbag team drawi up the funding application), said: “We can’t overstate what an achievement it is to be awarded this grant, especially considering that only 3% of all applications receive financial support. The award is a seal of credibility, as it is a very selective programme in which only the best of the best are selected. The programme is also the pathway to reaching future partners and investors, as the European Commission is developing a networking community around the SME instrument winners.
“We think that iFoodbag’s concept has the potential to revolutionise food deliveries. Our funding application ranked first out of 62 applications submitted at this deadline, and iFoodbag is one of the only two companies to have been awarded funding in the food area.”
iFoodbag’s production budget for its second generation product will now be five times larger than its budget for the original carrier bag last winter.
According to iFoodbag: “The thinking is that the second generation of the bag will be even more environmentally-friendly, will keep its contents chilled for even longer and will be even cheaper to produce.”
Karl Fallgren, CEO and founder of iFoodbag, added: “This development has come around at just the right time, as the European Commission realises the importance of working to create a sustainable world, which coincides completely with what we want to achieve with our flexible packaging solutions. With generation two, we are putting our efforts into such things as improving the cost-effectiveness of the carrier bag, that more people should be able to afford to shop online, the environmental impact and reducing both CO2 emissions and food waste.”
