PROVIDENCE – With backing in “the seven figures” from Johnson & Wales University, a new startup, Food Innovation Nexus, has opened its doors at 1 Park Row. The three cofounders are Kenneth Levy, senior vice president at Johnson & Wales University, Stephen Lane, co-founder and chief venture officer at Ximedica, and Providence business strategist Michael Allio.

The new endeavor is being set up as both a nonprofit research enterprise as well as a for-profit, limited liability corporation, according to Levy, who spoke recently with ConvergenceRI.

The number-one target of the new venture, Levy told ConvergenceRI, is discovery: to research, identify and explore unclaimed territory, the “white space” at the intersection of food and medicine.

“For both food companies and pharma companies, this is new space,” Levy said. “We’re interested in exploring the white space where food and medicine converge and meet.”

Although the nonprofit operation is the first to be set up and running, the for-profit LLC is being organized “as we speak,” Levy said.

The for-profit division will conduct strategic research and development for pharma and food companies, Levy explained. The goal will be to accelerate the introduction of new innovative products in the marketplace.

“If you’re company X, and you wanted us to do some applied research on a new product or opportunity, and it was something planned to be launched as a commercial product, that [work] would be done under the LLC.” Levy said.

Kernel of the idea
The launch of Food Innovation Nexus was announced by Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, at the group’s annual meeting on Nov. 24, perhaps a bit prematurely, according to Levy. Initial news coverage did not correctly identify that the venture was to be both a nonprofit research enterprise and a for-profit strategic product development firm.

“For a number of years, I’ve been wondering and thinking about how we can leverage our base at Johnson & Wales University and develop new opportunities and new directions, leveraging food and science,” Levy said.

About 10 months ago, Lane and Levy began to talk about possibilities, following a meeting of Innovation Providence, an offshoot of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. “We started talking,” Levy continued, “and that was how the idea was born.”

Projects in the pipeline
In the next four or five weeks, Food Innovation Nexus has scheduled some preliminary meetings “at very high levels” with food companies and pharma companies, Levy told ConvergenceRI.

“I’m not at liberty to disclose who they are,” Levy said. “I can tell you that the conversation with these companies [focuses on] the need to integrate on the continuum between food and medicine. It’s a space that many large, prestigious companies are very interested in.”

The issue of GMO and non-GMO foods has come up in discussions, Levy continued. “It’s something that we have not fully developed our policy on yet,” he said.

The question revolves around deciding on policies about the implications of working on non-GMO products for a company that is also involved with GMOs. “It’s a big issue, and we’re being thoughtful about it. We will develop and design a policy as to exactly what we’re going to do,” Levy said.

Levy drew the distinction about the kinds of work that Food Innovation Nexus was not going to be involved with. “We’re not involved in developing recipes for food,” he explained, such as developing recipes that are gluten-free or for lactose-intolerant people.

Additional funding for the venture is being sought from some of the corporations Food Innovation Nexus is meeting with in the next few weeks, Levy said. “We will also be seeking funding from foundations, and from groups working in this space,” he said.

Levy emphasized that rather than focusing on specific products already in the pipeline, the new venture will be looking at future technologies, at what’s going to be happening in 10 years.

Rhode Island as home
There were many reasons for locating the new startup in Providence, Levy said. “Number one, it’s obvious, all of us are located here, we live here. Number two, there is a group of colleges and universities and hospitals that we all know, that we have all done work with in one way or another. Number three, they offer a set of competencies that do not exist in the same way in other places, their approach – the way that look at things is different, and that differentiation we think is going to give us some advantage as we begin our work.”