Delight Food from Pohang Advances to MassChallenge Finals
Fostering the Food Tech Industry... Maximizing MICE Industry and Global Green City Development
The food tech industry, which Pohang City is actively fostering, is gaining attention on the global stage and demonstrating its potential to become a leading city in the future food industry.
The inauguration ceremony of the Korea Food Tech Association Gyeongbuk Daegu Branch held at Change Up Ground last May. Photo by Pohang City
On June 2, Delight Food, a Pohang-based food tech startup developing plant-based alternative meat technology, was selected as a finalist in 'MassChallenge Switzerland 2025,' one of the world's largest startup competitions.
This competition attracted more than 1,500 innovative startups from around the world. Delight Food was recognized for both its technological capabilities and market potential by presenting plant-based alternative meat that replicates the texture of real meat using cellulose-based dietary fiber structure technology.
The finalist companies will participate in a 10-week acceleration program in Lausanne, Switzerland, starting at the end of June. Outstanding teams will be awarded a total of $1.1 million in prize money and given opportunities to attract investment.
Delight Food plans to use this opportunity to enter the European market and expand its global partnerships. Pohang City will continue to provide customized administrative support and expand industrial infrastructure to support the growth of promising food tech startups.
This achievement goes beyond the overseas expansion of a single startup; it demonstrates that Pohang City's food tech industry promotion policies are beginning to bear tangible fruit.
In April last year, Pohang City was selected for a public project by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and became the first in the country to attract a food tech research support center specializing in food robotics.
This center will support device certifications such as NSF for global market entry of food tech companies and provide smart kitchen demonstration capabilities. It aims to lead key areas in the future food industry, including AI and robot-based food industry automation, technologies for an aging society, and the globalization of K-food.
Furthermore, the city is expanding its regional base with the goal of building an industrial ecosystem where a variety of food tech startups?not limited to the food robotics sector?can grow and thrive.
In particular, as part of its strategy to foster the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) industry and to become a future advanced city, Pohang is establishing a public-private food industry development platform to systematically nurture the food industry and facilitate collaboration among companies. In July, the city will hold the inaugural ceremony of the 'Pohang Food Industry Development Council,' the largest food-related corporation in Gyeongbuk Province.
Through these efforts, the city plans to create a field-oriented innovation ecosystem that enables active cooperation between food manufacturing, distribution, and restaurant companies and food tech companies, realizing the convergence of digital technology and the food industry.
In addition, the city is pursuing functional linkages with food tech research institutions and organizations nationwide, including the National Food Cluster in Iksan, Jeonbuk, which specializes in plant-based alternative foods.
Pohang City will continue to refine its mid- to long-term vision of becoming a green growth city that leads the sustainable global food tech industry through wide-area cooperation.
Mayor Lee Kangdeok stated, "The food tech industry is a future growth engine for Pohang and will become a key pillar driving the regional economy. By creating a hyper-converged ecosystem where tech companies, research institutions, and the food industry work together, we will make Pohang a city where the dreams of food tech startups come true and a sustainable global green industry growth city."
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