Bühler hosted Scale-Up Day on June 25 as part of its Networking Days 2025, convening 21 high-impact start-ups alongside more than 1,200 food and feed industry decision-makers in Uzwil, Switzerland. The event aimed to facilitate partnerships and deployment of scalable solutions addressing food system transformation, climate mitigation and sustainable materials.
“Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation,” said Thierry Duvanel, director of innovation at Bühler North America. “These companies are solving problems our customers face today, or will face soon. By giving them this platform, we hope to spark new partnerships, fresh ideas, and real business opportunities.”
A bridge to industry partners
Selected start-ups, California, U.S.-based Rondo, and Suzhou, China-based Farmtory, presented solutions ranging from functional proteins and biomanufacturing to high-grade thermal energy storage. Rondo has developed a heat storage battery that converts excess electrical energy from wind or solar generation into high-grade heat for industrial processes. The technology uses refractory bricks heated to more than 1,000°C, which offer an energy storage density higher than lithium batteries.
Farmtory has created a flexible, low-cost biomanufacturing system to produce peptides. The company has already commercialized a peptide-based sweetener based upon brazzein, a sweet-tasting protein that occurs naturally in oubli, a fruit from Central Africa, as well as a range of peptides that increase taste sensitivity to salt, allowing food producers to reduce the salt content of their recipes.
“We came to the Scale-Up Day because we want to connect with partners in the food industry who could use our products, and food tech companies who could help us develop our range of ingredients,” said Yonatan Golan, CEO and Co-Founder of Brevel.
Bühler developed the event to align with its 2025 Networking Days theme, “Multiplying impact together,” by fostering collaboration between innovative start-ups and large-scale food and feed producers.
