The Food Foundry is a Chicago-based growth accelerator program by Relish Works built in partnership with Gordon Food Service and 1871. The Food Foundry supports, connects, and propels innovative startups who are reimagining the food industry.
We provide startups who are accepted into the program with $75k of venture capital funding to grow their businesses. Please see our FAQ page for a further explanation of funding.
We connect our startups to national foodservice business resources, provide a targeted yet flexible curriculum, and support them with dedicated mentors and access to our team of innovation and design professionals.
We host a number of events and workshops that connect startups with like-minded entrepreneurs, seasoned mentors and industry experts within one of the nation’s brightest food startup hotspots – Chicago, Illinois.
The Food Foundry is focused on finding disruptive solutions within the food ecosystem -topics like 3rd Party Delivery, emerging technology (Blockchain, Supply Chain, IoT, AI, Sensors, AR/VR, Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, Warehousing), Food as Medicine, Food Safety, Food Science, Food Waste, Hydroponics/Vertical Farming, Labor Solutions, Loyalty Programs, Meal Kits, or anything else that is aiming to disrupt and reshape the food industry in North America. If you’re playing in this space, we want to hear from you. Please note: we are not a program for CPG focused startups.
It takes a village to make a program successful and we were excited that over 200 Food Foundry supporters came out to cheer on and celebrate our inaugural cohort on Demo Day.
