

AFBIS Breakthrough Workshop 2: Winning Corporate Venturing in Food & Bio
Cornucopia FutureScapes, in partnership with Informa Markets presents a marquee event at Fi Asia Thailand 2025, the Asia Food Business Innovation Summit: Hungry Games & Startup-Investor Forum on the morning of Thursday 18 Feb 2025. [Separate information and registration for morning program is here]
Carrying on our extended programme in the afternoon, we're delighted to present an excellent workshop delivered by our Partners MIDNIGHT:
Breakthrough Workshop 2:
Winning Corporate Venturing in Food & Bio
1515 – 1645, QSNCC MR117
How do we get from Pilot to P&L? Corporate venturing promises growth but often stalls in innovation theatre. This hands-on session gives food and biotech leaders a pragmatic playbook to move from scouting to revenue. Bert will distill lessons from venture-building, startup partnerships, CVC, and teaching Human–AI collaboration at the National University of Singapore.
We’ll align on five decisive moves:
·set thesis and intent;
·choose build–partner–invest per case;
·run experiments with clear kill/scale gates;
·govern for speed with IP/compliance guardrails; and
·plan the handover to the core (procurement, manufacturing, channels).
You’ll leave with a 90-day action plan, evidence templates, a portfolio scorecard, and practical ways to use AI as a teammate.
About the speaker:
Dr. Bert Grobben, Managing Partner of Midnight, is a global innovation leader with over 25 years of experience driving strategic innovation across multiple industries and continents. He has led innovation portfolios exceeding $100 million during his R&D leadership tenure at Procter & Gamble and Avery Dennison, delivering both incremental improvements and disruptive breakthroughs that fueled business growth. His extensive experience spans fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), healthcare & life sciences, food & beverage, personal and home care, nutrition, specialty ingredients, and packaging sectors, implementing innovations for billion-dollar global brands.
Dr. Grobben has worked with Fortune 500 consumer goods manufacturers, leading technology and healthcare firms, B2B ingredient suppliers, and advanced packaging providers, helping these organizations develop new technology platforms and market-winning products. He has orchestrated global innovation programs across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, operating seamlessly across cultures and technical domains. Equally adept in both R&D and commercial strategy, he combines scientific rigor with business acumen to translate visionary ideas into practical solutions. He leverages deep consumer and market insights to ensure new products address real customer needs, a cross-industry perspective that enables him to identify novel business model opportunities and drive profitable growth for organizations of all sizes.