FoodTech Challenge 3.0
Pays early-stage foodtech startups a share of $2 million to scale in the UAE and beyond.
Tamkeen and the UAE's International Affairs Office run FoodTech Challenge 3.0 with a panel of agri-food-tech and commercial experts who score submissions to pick the shortlist, and a separate panel of finale judges who review the top ten finalists' pitches and make all award decisions; those decisions are final and not open to dispute. Applicants are judged against six criteria: how deployable the…
FoodTech Challenge backs early-stage, tech-driven agri-food start-ups working on solutions tied to the food-water-energy nexus, for hot, arid and increasingly difficult environments like the UAE. Every eligible start-up must address at least one of two named focus areas: Food Loss & Waste, or Food Production. It's a global competition with an explicit path for winning solutions to scale first in the UAE, then into markets across the Global South.
Sign up free to see the funding breakdown
Sign up free to see the industries in scope
Sign up free to see the full eligibility
Sign up free to see how to apply
Sign up free to see what you submit
Sign up free to see how they score you
Sign up free to see where teams trip up
Guides for this application
All guides →How to Write a Grant Proposal Reviewers Can Score
Learn how to write a grant proposal around reviewer criteria, evidence, work packages, budget logic, and commercialization for deeptech and R&D funding.
DocumentsGrant Work Plan Template: Work Packages, Gantt, Milestones, and Risks
Use this grant work plan template to structure work packages, tasks, owners, deliverables, Gantt timing, dependencies, and risk registers.
DocumentsGrant Pitch Deck Example: Slides, Storyline, and Video Script
See a grant pitch deck example with slide outline, EIC-style pitch logic, demo-video script, and grant-vs-investor deck differences.
Similar grants
Browse the directory →D.E.S.I.G.N. for BioE3 Challenge
🇮🇳DBT · India
Pays India's top biotech concept entries ₹1 lakh each month, with grants to build them.
World Agri-Foodtech Startup Challenge
🇦🇪Gulfood · United Arab Emirates
Awards a share of a $135,000 prize pool to agri-foodtech startups pitching at Gulfood.
Innovate for Impact Challenge
World Food Prize · United States
Awards $50,000 to the top early-stage AgTech startup pitching at the Borlaug Dialogue.
Ocean Idea Challenge
🇨🇦OSP · Canada
Pays up to $8,000 to Canada-based individuals, teams and very early-stage companies who complete a milestone-based customer discovery sprint validating an ocean-sustainability idea.
Zepto Nova - Food Safety Innovation Challenge
🇮🇳Zepto · India
Pays Indian DPIIT-recognized startups and MSMEs up to ₹3 lakh, plus pilot access to Zepto's dark stores, for AI-driven food safety solutions in the quick commerce supply chain.
Blockchain India Challenge
🇮🇳MeitY & C-DAC · India
Pays Indian startups up to ₹50 lakh to build blockchain solutions for government use.