There is something almost counterintuitive about the location of the Fresh Start foodtech incubator. The companies it invests in are aimed at the global food market and its investors and partners include some of the biggest names in the industry, but its headquarters are nevertheless in Kiryat Shmona.
Fresh Start was founded in 2020. It operates in partnership with Tnuva, Tempo Beverages, OurCrowd, and US equity firm Siddhi Capital, with support from the Israel Innovation Authority. It invests in early-stage foodtech startups, usually for a two-to-three-year period, and assists them in financing, business development, formulating strategy, and forging connections with overseas partners and markets.
The incubator was founded at the peak of the Covid-19 epidemic as part of a plan aimed at building a food and agricultural ecosystem around the Tel-Hai Academic College (now Kiryat Shmona University of the Galilee). Since then, however, the situation has changed dramatically. The war made Kiryat Shmona one of the most difficult places in Israel for running a technology company and Fresh Start also had to move elsewhere for a while. Fresh Start CEO Rony Patishi-Chillim says that her incubator has fully resumed activity only in the past six months.
"Had everything been quiet, we probably never would have left," she declares, "but of course the past three years have not been straightforward for anybody. I’m in the north at least two or three days a week, and recovery here still ongoing. For us, being here is both good business and a national mission."
In Fresh Start's presentation to investors, the incubator's return to Kiryat Shmona is also cited as one of its most important actions over the past year. Around it, the map of its ecosystem features the MIGAL Galilee Research Institute, located on the grounds of Kiryat Shmona University; a foodtech industrial area; a planned national food institute; and additional infrastructure designed to transform the area into a focus of agri-foodtech.
Not just money
The northern company has a considerable portfolio. Since its founding, Fresh Start has invested in seventeen companies, eleven of which are currently active in its portfolio, with cumulative direct investment of over $35 million. Subsequent financing raised by the companies themselves amounts to over $120 million.
As noted, the Innovation Authority is one of the partners in the incubator. Fresh Start chairperson Mitchell Presser describes it as a "real partner" - even when the war made it difficult for companies to raise money from overseas investors. For Presser, whose background is in private investment and who has devoted a large part of the past two decades to the food and agriculture industries, an incubator should not be merely the source of the first check for the entrepreneurs. "Companies come to us at a very early stage and they need a lot more than money," he says.
The interesting part of the story, however, lies in the companies themselves. Fresh Start's investments now fall into several main categories: lifestyle and healthier nutrition; next-generation raw materials; and cutting costs and waste in the food industry. For example, BlueTree has developed technology that removes part of the sugar from natural beverages - initially from fruit juices, but according to Presser milk, wine, and beer are next in line - without turning the beverage into a product based on a sugar substitute and without any substantial change in the manufacturing process.
Another portfolio company, Plantopia, takes the new food idea in an entirely different direction - it produces casein, one of the dairy proteins, by means of "molecular agriculture." Patishi-Chillim says that the company has begun production in northern Israel and is building another facility following a substantial financing round.
Fresh Start emphasizes, however, that the next wave of foodtech is not necessarily another meatless hamburger or cowless milk. In some cases, the consumer will be totally unaware of the innovation. DistanSea, for example, is attacking the problem of how to transport live seafood over long distances. In the shipping process, ammonia excreted by the fish accumulates in the water, which limits the duration of the journey and adds to its cost. DistanSea's technology, which originated at the Technion, is designed to capture the ammonia and improve shipping conditions.
Presser, formerly the owner of a large seafood companies in the US, is especially enthusiastic about this company. "The potential significance is not confined to reducing ammonia," he explains. "If live seafood can be transported for weeks at a time instead of days, it will alter the supply chain and extend the distance from which fresh produce can be brought."
The small company's advantage
Patishi-Chillim singles out price as the main obstacle to turning an interesting invention into a product that reaches the store. "In 2020 and 2021, the prevailing concept was that consumers would be willing to pay a premium for an innovative, healthier, or less perishable product," she states. "The market has demonstrated that this is not necessarily true, and if there is such a premium, it has to be a small one."
Foodtech companies have to establish production lines or special facilities long before they reach the volumes of the traditional food industry. The result is large capital investment and high unit cost. Meanwhile, despite their declarations about innovation, the large food companies are not always the first to adopt unproven technology in their activity.
"When a young company begins, it is inclined to think that its ideal immediate target is one of the world's largest food corporations," Patishi-Chillim says. "Sometimes, however, a small or medium-sized company will be more willing to take the risk. It has less to lose and is more agile."
The incubator is very optimistic about Israel. Years before foodtech became a fashionable investment sector, Israel had already built industries on seeds, irrigation, crop enhancement, and agricultural research. Now, the CEO and chairman say, the advantage is likely to come from the integration of these fields with AI, biology, robotics, and engineering.
"Israel was innovative in agriculture for years," Patishi-Chillim reminds us. "But it is also particularly well-positioned where a combination of several technologies is required. Both physical AI and molecular agriculture are spheres in which we believe that amazing things will come from here."
Presser is convinced that the global demand for more protein and fiber is likely to bring traditional agriculture back to the center of innovation. As he sees it, this also constitutes a degree of correction to the expectations that characterized the peak years of foodtech: "There were periods in which agriculture and food companies were regarded as technology companies and were expected to be the next Google. That won't happen, but the direction in which the market is going is becoming clearer and we have a better idea about what the industry and the consumer really need."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 6, 2026.
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