Chromologics

Fermenting colours of the future

Name: Chromologics Country: Denmark Product: Natural colouring production via a fungal biotech platform; fermented red colour Award: Best Innovation Award, 2017 Interviewee: CEO and Co-founder, Gerit Tolborg

How did you benefit from taking part in the Startup Innovation Challenge?

“The award helped us in many ways. It gave us a lot of exposure and industry connections, it provided us with a lot of confidence to pursue our goal with Chromologics because it validated our innovation, and it helped us raise extra non-dilutive funding. Also, in a soft-money context, it helps to have industrial validation from winning an award, for example. We got a lot of good industry contacts and are still working with some of these companies. Most of them we could not utilize straight away because we were so early in our journey, but we profited from the networking provided by the event.”

Do you think it’s important for startups to take part in such challenges, competitions, pitches?

“It validates your pitch and your idea in a new context. Often its international, so also the jury has a different background. And every time you get new questions, you can rethink your business model. It also helps you grow your presentation skills. And then it exposes you to the great network of industry specialists, but also other startups from which you can learn a lot.”

Do you have any advice for budding entrepreneurs who are just starting out?

“It was difficult under COVID, but as soon as you have the chance again, take part in ‘in-person’ events. The relationship-building cannot be matched with online events. But it’s also important to choose the right events, that really create value for you and your startups. I think you can easily lose time and focus by attending too many random events, without there being a good fit for your business.”