Empowering Women in Agrifood 2025: Interview with Nadica Desanova Co-founder of MIMIC TECH

Editor’s Note: This article was produced in partnership with and with financial backing from EIT Food.

On 20 November 2025 wrapped up the six-month Empowering Women in Agrifood (EWA) program wrapped up with Trial Day in North Macedonia. The occasion showcased the cutting-edge concepts of females business owners that obtained assistance, training, mentorship, and sponsorship to create their agrifood developments.

Currently in its 6th version, EWA 2025 is a six-month business program developed to sustain hopeful and early-stage women business owners throughout 13 nations: Albania, Estonia, Greece, Italy, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Türkiye, and Ukraine.

Backed by EIT Food and the European Institute of Advancement and Innovation (EIT), a body of the European Union, EWA assists individuals develop the abilities, self-confidence and networks required to create and scale their concepts. Although females play an essential duty in farming and country technology, their job frequently goes underrecognised. The program assists resolve this void by providing sensible assistance, customized training and accessibility to a solid, lasting area.

Previously in this meeting collection, we talked to Anabel Millán Leiva, Founder of Cucare Diagnostics, whose science-based method highlights the duty of research study and biotechnology beforehand lasting farming. Today, we proceed the collection with yet an additional amazing lady business owner, whose job attracts motivation from all-natural procedures to create naturally degradable options to traditional plastics and products.

Meeting with Nadica Desanova, Founder of MIMIC TECHNOLOGY

Can you begin by sharing the motivation behind Mimic Technology and exactly how your trip right into establishing biomaterials from kombucha-based microbial cellulose started?

The motivation behind Mimic Technology is extremely individual and extremely natural. We originate from a family members where kombucha becomes part of daily life; it is something we have actually been making and consuming alcohol for many years. Someday, my founder Bisera Popovska’s grandma took the SCOBY out of the container and left it apart. As it dried out, it changed right into something totally unforeseen. It came to be leather-like in appearance, versatile, thick, and solid.

That minute stimulated our interest. What we were seeing was not simply a byproduct of fermentation, yet microbial cellulose with genuine product possibility. From there, our trip moved from the kitchen area to the laboratory. We started trying out, looking into, and screening exactly how this all-natural framework might be become a scalable, lasting biomaterial.

What encouraged you to concentrate on naturally degradable options to plastic and natural leather, and exactly how do you see these products adding to an extra lasting and round food and products system?

Seeing the void in between sustainability insurance claims and fact. Standard plastics and pet natural leather both include high ecological expenses: plastic lingers for centuries and launches microplastics, while natural leather counts on resource-intensive procedures and hazardous chemicals. At the very same time, we became aware that a number of these products are made use of for temporary items, that makes their influence also harder to validate.

In a round food and products economic situation, waste ends up being a source. We see these biomaterials as a bridge in between the food system and product manufacturing, shutting loopholes, lowering waste, and allowing markets to relocate in the direction of absolutely lasting, round remedies.

Mimic Technology creates both bioleather and bioplastic remedies utilizing kombucha-grown microbial cellulose. Can you stroll us with this procedure and describe what makes your products various from traditional plastics and various other bio-based options?

We expand our products utilizing kombucha fermentation. Throughout this procedure, germs normally generate cellulose, creating a solid, versatile sheet. We gather this sheet and afterwards procedure it in various means depending upon the end product.

For bioleather, we completely dry and deal with the product to make it soft, resilient, and leather-like, without utilizing pets or hazardous chemicals. For bioplastics, we refine the cellulose right into slim movies or forms that can be made use of for product packaging and various other daily items.

What makes our products various is that they are expanded, not made from oil or greatly refined chemicals. Unlike traditional plastics, they are totally bio-based and naturally degradable, and they do not leave microplastics behind. Contrasted to various other “bioplastics”, which frequently still consist of artificial parts, our products originate from an all-natural fermentation procedure

What were a few of the largest difficulties you encountered while establishing Mimic Technology, specifically when relocating from testing and research study to real-world applications?

At first, among the major difficulties was just getting to a laboratory. Our job rests in between food biotechnology and products scientific research, so it was difficult to locate the ideal area and devices to relocate past tiny experiments and begin examining the product correctly.

The 2nd significant difficulty was moneying. Transforming research study right into an actual item needs cash for products, screening, devices, and time. At a beginning, we needed to count on tiny gives, competitors, and a great deal of individual initiative to maintain moving on.

These difficulties required us to be extremely clever, to explore what we had, relate to lots of programs, and develop detailed. While it reduced us down sometimes, it additionally assisted us much better recognize our product and develop a solid structure for bringing Mimic Technology from research study right into real-world applications.

When did you initially become aware of the EWA program, and what encouraged you to use and participate in it?

I initially located the EWA program on F6S and used practically instantly. What determined me was exactly how well it matched what we were constructing, a science-based, lasting service in the agrifood and biomaterials area.

EWA stuck out since it used hands-on mentoring, service assistance, and accessibility to a worldwide network, which is specifically what we required at that phase. As a lady owner operating at the crossway of biotech and products, it seemed like a terrific chance to enhance our service side and take Mimic Technology closer to genuine market applications.

Just how did the mentorship and training throughout the EWA program affect the growth of Mimic Technology? What would certainly you determine as the 3 most beneficial lessons you drew from the program?

It had a solid influence on the growth of Mimic Technology. I was privileged to collaborate with a terrific advisor, Despina Popovska Stojanov, that assisted me change from thinking about Mimic Technology totally as a study concept to constructing it as an actual and scalable service.

Among one of the most beneficial lessons was finding out exactly how to concentrate and prioritise, and plainly specify our very first item and target audience, as opposed to attempting to do whatever simultaneously. One more essential takeaway was the significance of verifying our concepts with genuine client requirements, not presumptions. Lastly, the program assisted me boost exactly how we connect our job, training me exactly how to describe intricate clinical principles plainly and compellingly to financiers, companions, and clients.

Sustainability is main to Resemble Technology’s goal. Just how do you make certain that your products continue to be naturally degradable, microplastic-free and appropriate for real-world usage throughout various markets?

Sustainability is developed right into our product from the very start. We collaborate with microbial cellulose expanded with fermentation, which is an all-natural, pure polymer and not a mix with artificial plastics. By maintaining the product totally bio-based and fossil-free, we guarantee it continues to be naturally degradable and does not damage down right into microplastics.

Throughout growth, we are extremely cautious with any kind of handling or ending up actions, picking techniques and ingredients that do not endanger biodegradability. At the very same time, we evaluate and adjust the product depending upon its designated usage, so it can satisfy real-world demands like stamina, versatility, and sturdiness for various markets.

Just how do you see biomaterials and nature-inspired production forming the future of product packaging, style and food-related markets over the following years?

Business like MycoWorks have actually been a huge motivation for us, revealing that bio-grown products can get to commercial high quality, costs efficiency, and market approval. This verifies that biomaterials are not simply speculative which they can take on traditional products at range.

In product packaging, this will certainly suggest absolutely naturally degradable, microplastic-free options changing single-use plastics. In vogue, we will certainly see a relocation in the direction of animal-free, low-impact products that do not count on hazardous procedures. In food-related markets, biomaterials will progressively originate from fermentation and side streams, linking food manufacturing with product production in a round method.

In conclusion, what guidance would certainly you provide to various other females business owners that want constructing scientific research- or engineering-driven start-ups in the agrifood and sustainability area?

My largest guidance is to never ever attempt to do it alone. Assistance is unbelievably vital, whether it originates from coaches, programs like EWA, peers, or your very own area. Having individuals that count on you, test you, and overview you makes a significant distinction, specifically in scientific research- and engineering-driven start-ups, where the trip can be lengthy and complicated.

I would certainly additionally state: do not surrender. There will certainly be minutes when progression really feels sluggish, when financing is challenging, or when your concept is examined. Perseverance issues. If you count on the trouble you are fixing and remain devoted to finding out and boosting, those difficulties enter into the procedure instead of completion of the roadway.

Science-based technology requires time, yet with the ideal assistance and strength, it can cause significant and enduring influence.

Extra on the program

As component of EWA 2025, Nadica signed up with an expanding #EWAProgramme area of greater than 600 alumnae throughout Europe. This network remains to sustain and open the possibility of early-stage women creators well past the period of the program.

She additionally had the chance to pitch her concept at the Next Bite Satellite occasion, Speeding up Advancement With Female Management, hung on 4 December in Warsaw. The occasion united virtually 350 trendsetters, creators, and financiers to reconsider the future of food and emphasize women-led technology throughout the agrifood ecological community.

Enrollment for EWA 2026 opens up quickly! Remain tuned and assist develop a future of food powered by females. More information is available here

Concerning EIT Food

EIT Food is the globe’s biggest and most vibrant food technology area. Backed by the European Institute of Advancement and Innovation, it functions throughout the food worth chain to increase technology and entrepreneurship, outfitting changemakers with the abilities, devices, and assistance they require to improve the future of food.

EIT Food is just one of 9 technology areas developed by the European Institute of Advancement and Innovation (EIT), an independent EU body established in 2008 to drive technology and entrepreneurship throughout Europe.

Discover More at EIT Food or comply with EIT Food on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram

The article Empowering Women in Agrifood 2025: Interview with Nadica Desanova Co-founder of MIMIC TECH showed up initially on EU-Startups.