PR90218

WAGENINGEN, Netherlands, June 22, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/

On June 2021, Yili, Asia's largest and fast-growing dairy company, is

officially partnering with the agri-foodtech accelerator StartLife in the

Netherlands. Yili is also joining the Open Innovation Forum, an industry

network for food and FMCG companies at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM),

which is part of the University of Cambridge. Through building this wider

innovation ecosystem, Yili will enhance collaborations across Europe to work on

the challenges faced in the food and agricultural sectors to deliver healthy

solutions to consumers.

The collaboration with StartLife enables Yili to tap into the innovation

ecosystem of agri-foodtech start-up and scale-up companies. Together with

entrepreneurs, Yili will also brainstorm and facilitate exchange of new ideas

across the industry. Yili Innovation Center Europe and Startlife are both based

on the campus of Wageningen University & Research at the heart of Food Valley

in The Netherlands, which makes the collaboration even more appealing.

Through becoming a member of the IfM's Open Innovation Forum, Yili has a unique

opportunity to collaborate with industry experts and world-leading academics,

gaining access to the latest industry insights, tools and techniques. IfM's

Open Innovation Forum also provides a platform for collaboration opportunities

among companies at full range of activities in the food, beverage and FMCG

value chains. The Forum helps members to combine their internal thinking with

external insights, ideas and paths to market, and strengthens Yili's membership

in the Corporate Venturing Leadership Forum originating from the Cambridge

ecosystem as well.

Through these exciting collaborations, Yili gains access to a very large

ecosystem of innovative agricultural and healthy food start-ups to help

overcome future challenges faced by the industry, including challenges emerging

in the next decade and beyond. This will result in new win-win collaborations,

such as proof of concept projects to deliver holistic solutions. Yili will be a

catalyst in enabling start-ups to get access to the fast-growing healthy food

market in China and the rest of Asia.

Yili ranks among the Global Dairy Top 5 and has sustained an undisputable

position of No. 1 in Asia for seven successive years. Yili has the ambition to

become the most-trusted healthy food provider across the world. Yili Innovation

Center Europe (YICE), based in Wageningen, The Netherlands, is the innovation

bridge to Yili in China.

StartLife is Europe's longest running and leading agrifoodtech accelerator. Its

mission is to support founders in accelerating their agrifoodtech startups that

help, shape, a sustainable food system. Since 2010, StartLife has

built, supported and funded over 300 agrifoodtech startups propelling

breakthrough technologies in the domains of food &agriculture.

IfM Engage partners with organisations across industry, government and academia

to support them in solving complex challenges, using approaches and knowledge

developed at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), a division of the

University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering. IfM are grounded in

exceptional research, combined with a breadth of industrial expertise.

Source: Yili Group

Image Attachments Links:

   Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=394307

   Caption: StartLife Representatives visiting Yili Innovation Center at Wageningen Campus