The Midwest Dairy Accelerator, in partnership with VentureFuel, reflects Midwest Dairy’s long-term commitment to driving growth through entrepreneurship and real dairy applications.
St. Paul, MN (July 15, 2025) — Midwest Dairy, in partnership with VentureFuel, today announced the four companies selected for the inaugural cohort for the Midwest Dairy Accelerator—an intensive 8-week virtual initiative designed to accelerate the next generation of dairy-forward food and beverage entrepreneurs in the Midwest.
Kicking off this week, participants will take part in workshops, one-on-one mentorship, and collaborative sessions with experts across the dairy value chain. The curriculum will span consumer insights, ingredients & innovation, co-packing & manufacturing, distribution & retail, marketing, and business pitching. Contributors include leaders from top brands, co-ops, universities, and more.
The program will culminate in a live pitch event on September 3, 2025, at The Hatchery, a non-profit food and beverage business incubator in Chicago. Finalists will pitch to a panel of industry experts and judges, with a $20,000 prize awarded to the winner and $10,000 to the runner-up.
Chosen from a highly competitive applicant pool across the Midwest, the four selected startups for the cohort include:
- Lorenzo’s Frozen Pudding (Chicago, IL) - Gourmet, locally-sourced frozen pudding offering various flavors and the only frozen banana pudding CPG product worldwide.
- RoseBud Ice Cream (Glen Ellyn, IL) - Delicious premium soft serve ice cream pouches offering mess-free indulgence designed to be enjoyed from anywhere.
- Sugarwitch (St. Louis, MO) - Small batch, from-scratch ice cream sandwiches featuring premium ingredients and innovative flavors. Sugarwitch ‘witches are precise "squares" cut from batch-size, individually-wrapped and ready-to-go.
- Zoguri (Omaha, NE) - The first-ever yogurt-based probiotic supplement that restores critically important gut bacteria with two science-backed keystone strains of L. reuteri.
This new initiative builds on Midwest Dairy’s three years of successful pitch competition programming with The Hatchery and No More Empty Pots, evolving that momentum into a structured accelerator experience with greater support and long-term impact for participating founders.
“At Midwest Dairy, we believe that true innovation comes from entrepreneurs who challenge the status quo—and who harness the nutritional power and delicious indulgence of real dairy,” said Beth Bruck-Upton, Midwest Dairy Vice President of Research and Innovation. By supporting food and beverage startups, we’re not only championing new products—we’re advancing an industry that has nourished communities for generations and has untapped potential to do more.”
Midwest Dairy’s ongoing commitment to innovation supports the continued evolution of dairy in the U.S.—with research and pilot initiatives driving economic, environmental, and social sustainability. The Accelerator aims to help early-stage entrepreneurs meet rising consumer demand for dairy-based products that deliver on flavor, function, and convenience.
“Innovation fuels growth, and startups bring the fresh thinking needed to meet evolving consumer demands,” said Fred Schonenberg, Founder and CEO of VentureFuel. “We’re excited to partner with Midwest Dairy on this accelerator to help visionary founders rapidly turn their bold ideas into tangible, market-ready solutions that scale.”
For more information or to stay updated on the Accelerator journey, visit midwestdairyaccelerator.com.
About Midwest Dairy
Midwest Dairy represents 3,600 dairy farm families and works on their behalf to build dairy demand by inspiring consumer confidence in our products and production practices. We are committed to Bringing Dairy to Life! by giving Consumers an Excellent Dairy Experience and are funded by farmers across a 10-state region, including Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. For more information, visit MidwestDairy.com, and follow us on Facebook and YouTube.
About VentureFuel
VentureFuel is an independent innovation advisory firm that helps the world's best organizations commercialize innovation to ignite change by working with startups. Its innovation programs help enterprise organizations learn, test, build and invest in emerging technology to solve their biggest problems today and unlock new sources of growth. VentureFuel provides organizations like Hershey's, Comcast, Dick's Sporting Goods, AARP Foundation and the State of California the tools to drive transformative change with less risk, more speed, and greater proximity to the consumer than traditional innovation models. Learn more at: www.venturefuel.net, LinkedIn, X, and Instagram. You can listen to The VentureFuel Visionaries podcast on Apple, Spotify, Simplecast or wherever you get your podcasts.
