Food Accelerator Program

The RutgersX Accelerator Program has been created by the Rutgers Food Innovation Center (FIC), a globally-recognized incubation program that provides business and technology expertise to startup and established food companies in the mid-Atlantic region, and utilizes its outreach capacity to support food and agribusinesses throughout the world.   

This new program became available thanks to funding from the US Small Business Administration (SBA) in the fall of 2014. The Rutgers FIC was a national winner of the SBA’s first program designed to create or enhance business accelerators, and was the only award recipient in New Jersey and one of only 50 winners nationwide from over 800 applicants.   Further information about our SBA sponsor program, and other sponsors to the RutgersX Accelerator Program can be found here.

In our inaugural year of RutgersX, we have developed an accelerator for fast-growing food companies that have been part of our Rutgers FIC client and partner network for the past several years. We showcased these companies at our first-ever RutgersX- Accelerating Food Entrepreneurs Conference during Global Entrepreneurship Week, on November 16, 2015 in New Brunswick, NJ.

The event had over 180 attendees! The Conference featured pitch presentations from our cohort of companies to an audience of potential funders, strategic partners, customers, and fellow food entrepreneurs.  In addition, our Conference included panel
discussions with food industry leaders, conversations with successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, remarks from state and national government leaders, and a unique opportunity for industry networking.

We are already making plans for our 2016 RutgersX Accelerator Conference, which will again include an amazing panel of food industry entrepreneurs, and will also be expanded in scope.   Food entrepreneurs looking to apply to our 2016 program can get further information here.

Please browse through our website and learn more about our RutgersX program, mentors, cohort companies, sponsors, and conference.