Prince Khaled named in advisory board of $15m global food tech challenge

Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed, founder and CEO of KBW Ventures has been named to the advisory board of the $15m ‘Xprize Feed the Next Billion’ a worldwide competition to find alternatives to meat-based diets.

Prince Khaled joins eight other experts on the advisory board, among them Bernhard Kowatsch, head of Innovation Accelerator, ‎United Nations World Food Programme, Lisa Sweet, head of Future of Protein, Covid Response, and Food-Health, World Economic Forum and Varun Deshpande, managing director, Good Food Institute India.

Launched in December 2020, amid a surge in global food insecurity during the Covid-19 pandemic, Xprize Feed the Next Billion seeks to meet the growing demand for protein products through the development of nutritious alternatives to traditional chicken and fish products that are cost-competitive and more sustainable to human health, the environment and animal welfare. Over the next three years, with the guidance of the competition’s advisory board, teams of innovators will be asked to develop environmentally-conscious alternatives that replicate the look, taste, smell, feel, and cooking behaviour of a fillet of fish or chicken.

Xprize Feed the Next Billion competition was launched with the support of partners including Aspire, a part of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), which funds research and runs global tech competitions, the Tony Robbins Foundation and The Good Food Institute. Through the development of chicken or fish alternatives, teams competing in the prize will work to ensure that, as the world grows in wealth, the availability of sustainable food can meet the coming demand for high-protein diets allowing the next billion to live active and healthy lives.

“The Middle East, specifically GCC countries like Saudi and the UAE, have already been focused on food security and the potential of sustainable and innovative food tech solutions for a few years now,” said Prince Khaled.

“Abu Dhabi’s Aspire sponsoring the competition stands testament to the commitment to help support entrepreneurs and startups that could potentially crack this thing that we call sustainable alternative proteins. Having a regional voice involved from the inception of the competition, like having those from other parts of the world, is integral to finding a solution that is truly global. I’m looking forward to the next few years of work with the Feed the Next Billion advisory board,” he added.

Registration is open until May 31, 2021, and winners will be revealed in 2024.