Freshii, with locations in 40 cities and eight countries, and Toronto-based innovation firm Kinetic Café, have partnered to launch a vertically focused startup program to assist the growth of young companies trying to solve problems in the space of health, food, and fitness.   

“Our mission at Freshii is to help people to live better lives by making it convenient and affordable to maintain a healthy lifestyle,” says Matthew Corrin, founder and CEO of Freshii. “We are excited to launch the Fresh Startups program with our partner, Kinetic Café. By mentoring and seeding health and wellness–focused technology companies, we will create more value for our existing Freshii customers, while providing passionate entrepreneurs mentoring, growth capital, and access to a global retail brand.” 

The Fresh Startups program will be led by Canadian startup veteran Saul Colt, who, with his team, will work directly with the accepted applicants through a program based on business/service model, customer identification, product development and marketing, and sales acceleration.

“Launching the Fresh Startups program with our partner Freshii is very exciting because it gives me an opportunity to share the things I’ve learned over my career with some exciting new startups, as well as fix the things that I feel are broken in the current accelerator models,” Colt, a principal at Kinetic Café, says.

All companies applying a technological spin to the areas of health, food, or fitness are encouraged to apply for the Fresh Startups program now at www.freshstartups.is,with the deadline for submissions being October 4, 2013.