A Bold Stage for Entrepreneurs

On Thursday, April 30, 2026, the 7th edition of the Startup Pitch Competition will take place on the Food & Bev Connect stage at SIAL Canada in Montréal. This flagship event will spotlight 15 promising entrepreneurs from the Startup Village, ready to accelerate their growth.

Focused on innovation, sustainability, and food safety, the competition is designed to identify and reward products and technologies with strong potential for scalable growth and market expansion across North America.

The competition will unfold across three distinct categories, each featuring 5 entrepreneurs, with 1 winner per category:

Start-up Tech – technological innovations transforming the agri-food industry
Start-up Seed CPG (0–3 years) – early-stage consumer packaged goods startups
Start-up Scale CPG (4–6 years) – growth-stage companies ready to expand across the North American market

Each participant will have 2 minutes and 30 seconds to pitch their vision to a jury of industry experts, followed by a Q&A session.

More than a competition, the Startup Pitch Competition is a strategic platform connecting entrepreneurs with buyers, investors, and key decision-makers from across the agri-food ecosystem.

Join us on April 30, 2026, to discover the next generation of innovators shaping the future of food.

PRESS RELEASE 2025

The winners of the 2025 edition

On the second day of the expo, the highly anticipated Pitch Competition began. This event showcased 13 exhibitors from the Start-Up Village thanks to our collaboration with the City of Montreal. Start-up companies competed in our unique format, with each having 3 minutes to convince the jury in two categories: Food & Beverage Products and Technology & Services. This competition is particularly important for SIAL Canada and its partners, all of whom are committed to supporting the new generation and the development of start-up companies.

Nana shake | Gold Prize CPG category

Nana shake captivated the judges by presenting an outstanding and unique line of desserts that meet the most pressing customer demands such as nutritious, flavour, clean label with a tremendous marketing and business growth potential. The jury members were impressed with the potential of the unique fascinating innovative upcycling base that would grow beyond the dessert category.

NanaShake

Goldy’s | Silver Prize CPG category

Goldy’s impressed the judges with an outstanding product that would offer convenience and nutrition. Moreover, Goldi’s products have an incredible potential for scalability, distribution and diversity in market expansion.

Goldy's

Bonbon Collections | Bronze Prize CPG category

Bonbon Collections offers outstanding novel desserts and other plant-based products utilizing common plant-based ingredients. The strategic plans and potential for expansion and growth captivated the judges.

Bonbon Collections

Chien Gourmand | Bronze Prize CPG category

Chien Gourmand products meet the most recent consumer demands and trends in this market. The jury members strongly encourage Chien Foods to look for more marketing strategies for growth and expansion considering the incredible potential of the products.

Chien Gourmand

New School Foods | 1st Prize FoodTech category

The judges were fascinated with the novel technology that new school foods presented for the manufacture of plant-based products. This technology responds to a pressing gap in the industry. It presents a solution due to the current plant-based innovation challenges.

‘’We would like to thank our team that continues to take risk and learn with us, the judges for seeing our vision and the potential that automated in-store sampling has, and SIAL for hosting such an incredible event!’’

NewSchoolFoods

Terra Bioindustries | 2nd Prize FoodTech category

The judges were impressed by the innovate technology that transforms upcycling ingredients into functional ingredients for the food industry. The variety of application and the unique processing that the company developed showed the incredible potential of the company.

Terra Bioindustries

Listen to the Pitch Gold winners 2025

Bananas, Business & A Better World: Meet Co-Founders of NanaShake, winners of the SIAL Startup Pitch Competition (CPG category) in SIAL Toronto 2025

In this feel-good (and tastes great!) episode of The Food Professor Podcast, we welcome Tamara Al Dip and Yazeed Yasin, Co-Founders of NanaShake, winners of the SIAL Startup Pitch Competition in Toronto. They share their incredible journey from health-conscious parents to successful CPG entrepreneurs disrupting the frozen dessert aisle with “smoothie on a stick” pops made from upcycled bananas.

Discover the CPG winner