The Toulouse-based scale-up Green Spot Technologies is redefining how the world thinks about food waste. The French company has developed a unique combination of solid-state fermentation and upcycling to turn agricultural byproducts into premium ingredients for the bakery, pastry, and confectionery sectors.

Green Spot Technologies is a member of the EIC Scaling Club’s Agri & Food Tech market group.

Ancient know-how, industrial purpose

Co-founder and President of Green Spot Technologies, Ninna Granucci, says that the team has a lot of knowledge in fermentation. They’ve put that to use in developing their own fermentation tool, which uses a traditional solid-state method but is adapted to an industrial scale.

Ninna explains that fermentation gives these ingredients special functionalities, including textures, flavors, or other qualities. Now, the company is working on developing these ingredients for the indulgence market – bakery, pastry, and confectionery.

On top of fermenting, Green Spot Technologies also does upcycling. Meaning, the company sources upcycled fibers from fruits, cereals, and legumes – the parts removed during food processing but still perfectly edible. Then, they turn these discarded parts into sustainable ingredients inspired by traditional ones, like cocoa powder, texturants for sauces, umami flavouring, and more.

With its approach, Green Spot Technologies is both promoting a circular economy and reducing the environmental impact of the food industry. Food waste is a critical problem globally. In the EU alone, over 59 million tonnes of food waste are generated annually – that is 132 kg per inhabitant. The associated market value is estimated at €132 billion.

The company’s secret sauce to tackling this problem is its innovative technology and a team that is very dedicated to its mission. 

“[We] really think about a more sustainable food system, [focusing on] how to develop a technology that keeps things as sustainable as possible.”

The beginnings and initial challenges

Green Spot Technologies was born out of Ninna’s PhD thesis at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. In her thesis, she focused on adding value to food sidestreams through fermentation. 

Ninna co-founded the company together with her PhD thesis supervisor, who has since returned to public research, and a French entrepreneur, Xavier Duportet. She later moved to France to work side by side with Duportet, who is not operational, but played a significant role in attracting the first investors and reaching the right people in the industry. 

Today, Green Spot Technologies’ team consists of 23 people across Toulouse and Carpentras in France. It is the dedicated team and sense of mission that have helped the company overcome different challenges along the way.

“The main challenge was to find a product that would kind of encompass everything that we wanted to push forward as a business. So, something that was sustainable enough, that was viable in terms of production, and that was a really good market fit,” Ninna admits. Incorporating all these requirements into a few products wasn't easy, but the team has now achieved it.

Navigating the food industry itself was no less challenging. Ninna believes that the sector is often undervalued and not given the importance it deserves. Profit margins are very low, and the industry is resistant to change. It takes significant effort to convince the industry’s stakeholders that new approaches are needed. 

The team has begun to offer their Carpentras facility as an asset for other innovators, where they can host partnerships and help startups working in fermentation. Green Spot Technologies had to build everything itself, which was challenging. Now, they can support others.

The power of a dedicated team. And Europe’s support

There are several things that Ninna is proud of as a founder of Green Spot Technologies. 

They’ve managed to set up an industrial demonstrator – a tangible representation of a new technology, process, or system designed to validate its potential for industrial application. This makes Green Spot Technologies one of the very few companies in this area that is fully implemented and running. 

Ninna also appreciates all the awards and recognition they’ve received – acknowledgments of their technology, leadership in sustainability, and the impact the company is making in the food sector.

But the biggest achievement for Ninna is the team she’s managed to build around her idea. “It was a very, very important achievement – to have people in the company who are really passionate about what we are doing, who believe what we are doing, and work hard for that.”

Soon, the company plans to announce big news regarding a major commercialisation push, with a focus on the confectionery ingredients brand. “It will concretize our business case and grow the commercialization side of the company.”

Participation in the EIC Scaling Club has been valuable for the scale-up, which saw it as an important external recognition. The team appreciates the chance to work with mentors who not only supported but also challenged them. 

“Some mentors were really trying to understand what the problem was that we wanted to solve, and how they could help. That was interesting and, at some point, challenging. Sometimes it's not that easy to explain. But I think it was an interesting exercise.”

Now, Green Spot Technologies is ready to expand its impact. The launch of its new indulgent brand will bring sustainable, fermented ingredients to bakers and pastry chefs across Europe, proving that sustainability can be a source of joy.

About the EIC Scaling Club

The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.

The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.

The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.

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