Why Chobani yoghurt king Hamdi Ulukaya is giving away cash grants to Aussie food businesses

The founder of billion-dollar yoghurt empire Chobani has extended the brand’s food incubator program Down Under and will offer “no-strings-attached” grants to local food entrepreneurs.

However, experts and businesses say there’s more to do to empower early stage businesses to develop food products ready for the shelves of big supermarkets.

Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya was in Melbourne on Tuesday to launch Monash University’s food incubator facility, outlining plans for a four-month product development program out of the Monash centre, which will include equity-free grants of $10,000 for successful applicants to start developing their food businesses.

“I love what’s happening with food startups here in Australia and want to share what we’ve learned when it comes to scaling and fighting convention, like we’ve done with our other incubator programs,” Ulukaya said in a statement yesterday.