Startup Caenator developed a fries machine together with Wageningen researchers and received subsidy from Statlife. After the presentation in the Restaurant of the Future the prototype toured the campus to test how the market would react, explained Mark Derksen from Caenator. In no time the machine had caught the attention of large supermarket chains in both the Netherlands and abroad (‘From Brazil to South Africa’), shopping malls and IKEA. ‘I had never expected that the interest would be so great’, says Derksen. ‘Showing and demonstrating the machine quickly became irrelevant, they were interested in the next step.’
Currently, the Wageningen startup is talking to financiers, builders and operators of the fries machine. A difficult task to get everything in order, says Derksen. ‘A French supermarket chain wants to start using the fries machine. So we need to further develop the prototype to a tested beta model, that we can take into production. A lot of time and money is needed for this, because it involves thousands of machines. You know in advance that this is part of the deal, but sometimes it is frustrating that it takes so long to connect all the dots.’
2016 will thus be an exciting year, Derksen thinks. ‘Beginning as a start-up is pretty easy, but you need a party that believes in the product and is willing to invest. A lot of young, innovative companies fail on this ground. In the Netherlands there are few opportunities for start-ups to further develop. This is a really positive development for us, but much remains to be done.’
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Campus receives innovative fries machine