Rebel Meat wins top prize at MU Startup Hub's FAB Accelerator Demo Day

The Modul University Startup Hub in cooperation with Metro Cash & Carry Austria and HERD Open Kitchen, celebrated the official end of the MU Startup Hub's FAB Accelerator program for food and beverage start-ups on a sunny evening last week. At Demo Day, our first batch of start-ups pitched their products and showcase their development over the program at an open-air event paired with Austrian wine from Martin Bergkirchner Winery.

Bernhard Koler, Head of Marketing of METRO & his team were in attendance along the with the Head of HERD who judged the five-minute presentations in the style of Shark Tank or 2 Minuten 2 Millionen.

Keynote speaker Anna Abermann from PONA Juice shared her own successful start-up journey with the evening’s hopefuls, detailing her five-year experience from selling the first 50,000 bottles of juice to expanding their product line to 8 different juices and flavoured waters.

The start-ups:

Rebel Meat – working to reduce meat consumption by creating burgers made 50% of organic beef and 50% vegetable-based ingredients with all the flavour and texture of a 100% meat patty.

SixBug – utilising the protein and abundance of insects to creating a more sustainable way snack through cricket flower and chocolate protein bars.

Unverschwendet – taking misshapen and blemished fruits and vegetables that wouldn’t be sold whole in supermarkets and making spreads, chutneys, mustards and other preserves out of them them.

Alpengummi – offering a new take on chewing gum with no refined oil by creating a 100% natural version made of tree resin.

Die Frischemanufaktur – German start-up with a high-tech process to remove all the oxygen from jars containing fresh cut fruit, so that it stays fresh for an entire week after cutting.

In addition to the food & beverage start-ups, two MU bachelor students, Danny Mittheis and Denis Morozov, had the opportunity to pitch their ideas to the jury and assembled public.

The attendees had the opportunity to taste all the products, as well as enjoy catering from another successful Vienna start-up, Wrap Stars. After difficult deliberation by the jury, Rebel Meat was declared the winner of the first ever FAB Accelerator. The three-person team were awarded with a distribution deal in all Metro stores Austria wide and active sales assistance by the METRO Sales Force.

Congratulations to Rebel Meat and all our other wonderful start-ups for their participation, and we wish them continuing success!