Buffalo Company Among 43North Grand Prize Winners

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - A Buffalo company was among the big winners at this year's 43North business startup competition.

FoodNerd, a food technology company based in Buffalo that hopes to change the way shelf-stable foods are processed, took home not only one of the $1 Million grand prizes, but also the $25,000 People’s Choice Award.

"We've developed a really fun way of making shelf-stable products that retain all of the incredible nutrients and make the deliciously disguised so people can get all their fruits and veggies in fun ways," said FoodNerd CEO Sharon Cryan. "We're able to condense a ton of fresh fruit and vegetables and mega-foods into these little bite-sized pieces. That way they eat like an ultra-processed food, but really you're just eating your fruits and veggies."

Winners of the 43North competition must make Buffalo their headquarters for at least one year. For Cryan, already based in Buffalo, it means expanding operations.

"Winning really allows us to turn on our new commercial manufacturing facility," Said Cryan. "It's a 30,000 square foot facility right here in Buffalo. That money allows us to take our technology from the bench top scale it's been at to a fully automated line where we caan actually really produce these products at large scale and sell them throughout the country."

The five winners give 43North a 5% stake in their respective companies. Other winners last night include HeronAI and Spiky.ai from Massachusetts, CoverRight from Brooklyn, and Rarebird from San Francisco.