For the fourth year in a row Ben & Jerry’s and Ashoka have been screening through Europe to find the best young social entrepeneurs in their Join Our Core competition. The Swedish winners, moreover, next generation entrepreneurs are fellow FIPDes students Gerald Marin, Vita Jarolimkova, Ada Balazy & Erliza Cabisidan who teamed up with the designer Kent Ngo and together they created a solution to manage food waste.

The international entrepreneurship competition Join Our Core from Ben & Jerry’s was created with crowdfunding in focus. The same way as Ben & Jerry’s was started! - but in a much less digital world. FoPo, the name of the project created by our FIPDES students will, with marketing help from Ben & Jerry’s, gather in the money needed to support their start up through kickstarter which can be found on this link: www.kickstarter.com/projects/fopo/fopo-food-powder-saving-almost-expiring-fruits-del/video_share?ref=video

About FoPo

FoPo was was founded in 2014 by Gerald Marin, Vita Jarolimkova & Kent Ngo who met through a packaging course at Lund University. They saw a possiblity to do something about the huge amount of food waste produced by farmers and grocery stores who simply can’t sell everything they produce and buy in. Sometimes because the fruits are nearing their expiry date or simply because they look ugly. FoPo will buy the fruits and vegetables, dry it, make it into fruit powder and sell it back to the stores. Thanks to the drying and pulverization process the shelf life will be prolonged from two weeks to two years. Through Gerald Marin, whom is borned and raised in the Philippines, they got in contact with the Philippine government who saw a chance to create more job opportunities. The Philippines are afflicted by typhoons and earthquakes every year leaving massive damage in their wake, where the need for nourishing food is essential. FoPo has also been invited to UN FAO (Food and Agricultur Organization of the United Nations) and their initiative to reduce food waste SAVE FOOD: Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction. The goal with their crowdfunding-campaign is to be able to take the next step to start up operations in the Philippines.

More information on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/fopofoodpowder
and on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hellofopo

FoPos History.....

1. FoPo won in Ben & Jerry’s Join Our Core Crowdfunding competition, where they won financial support and training support (crowdfunding bootcamp) on how to create a successful crowdfunding campaign held in Stockholm. FoPo also got media exposure from 2 magazines and mingled with bloggers. Jerry of Ben & Jerry’s flew all the way from US to Europe to promote FoPo in the kickstarter campaign: http://www.benjerry.co.uk/values/join-our-core#se

2. FoPo launched its kickstarter campaign, where FoPo needs help in promoting: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fopo/fopo-food-powder-saving-almost-expiring-fruits-del

3. FoPo is hailed as winners in Pirates on Shore Milano (ITALY) in the pitching competition last May. It is a regional competition in Europe, where FoPo got a slot to pitch in the finals and grand finals of the Pirates Summit, a growing startup community that will be held in Germany.

4. FoPo was invited in the Swiss Pavilion of World Expo Milano 2015, where they explained our successes as a company

5. FoPo are now finalists in MassChallenge UK, where they got their office space in Tobacco Dock in London. MassChallenge is the world’s largest startup accelerator. FoPo will also receive accelerator help such as networking with investors, training for entreps, and expert help from advisors, in the next 4 months.

(updated June 2015)