Japanese firm sets up agri-food tech accelerator 'Gastrotope'

Japanese investor and incubator Mistletoe, in partnership with GSF India and Infobride, today announced the launch of 'Gastrotope', a new agri-food technology accelerator in India.
Gastrotope aims to invest in startups in agriculture and food processing sector here, an official statement said.
Mistletoe is already present in India and has made investments in multiple agri-tech and food-tech startups, including Innerchef, Ninjacart and Kisan Network.
Mistletoe founder and CEO Taizo Son said, "With the bridge between India and Japan, new and unique solutions to the fundamental questions of food and agriculture will arise. We hope, while working with our great partners, we will become a catalyst for this new movement of 'farm to fork' permaculture."

India's tech accelerator GSF founder and CEO Rajesh Sawhney said, "We are in talks with various government entities, including the government of Andhra Pradesh, and are hopeful of creating meaningful partnership to strengthen India's farm economy in a few months from now."
According to Indo-Japan business consultancy Infobridge CEO Naho Shigeta, the focus will be to completely reverse the western world's pursuit of food standardisation and instead create locally relevant and sustainable businesses that truly benefit the two most important stakeholders -- farmers and consumers.