Circular company MaGie Creations
“Impressive how Fastlane empowers scale-ups”
“I want to scale up my business and make it future-proof,” says Madeleine Gielens, founder of MaGie Creations. Her company processes brewer’s grain, a significant byproduct of the beer industry, into ingredients for human consumption. “Through the Fastlane programme, I found help that exceeded my expectations.”
“We are pioneers in circular innovation,” says Madeleine. “For decades now, brewer’s grain has mostly been discarded or used as animal feed. We’re changing that by turning it into valuable ingredients for human food.” One example is an emulsifier MaGie Creations will soon launch, made entirely from this byproduct of the beer industry. “We’re also seeing growing success with ‘PowerFlour,’ a versatile brewer’s grain powder that bakers use in products like crackers, bread, and spiced biscuits.”
Collaboration for innovation
Founded in 2016, MaGie Creations demonstrates the value of circular innovation every day – both for the food chain and for the planet. Or as Madeleine puts it: “Brewer’s grain is a byproduct with immense potential. It’s rich in proteins and fibres. And it not only enhances the taste and nutritional value of food, but also its sustainability. Using it reduces the need for farmland and water in agriculture, and decreases the carbon footprint of food production.”
Thanks to this potential, the food industry is starting to embrace the ingredient. “Not as quickly as we’d like, but these things take time. Especially since the industry works with strict standards and processes that don’t automatically align with brewer’s grain. For instance, they prefer ingredients with consistent composition that don’t perish quickly. In its original wet form, brewer’s grain does spoil quickly and varies in composition depending on the brewery.”
Madeleine tackled this challenge successfully. “To make brewer’s grain suitable for industrial use, we developed a processing method in collaboration with Wageningen University & Research. This turns unstable, wet brewer’s grain into PowerFlour, a stable, shelf-stable powder. Once we overcame this technical hurdle, we could focus on other challenges, like securing funding to scale up.”
“We’re building value chains that are not only circular but also more resilient”
Searching for investors
“I partially funded MaGie Creations myself with proceeds from selling a previous business,” Madeleine explains. “But to scale up, I need additional investments, which are hard to secure. Many investors expect a quicker return on investment than we can deliver.”
Why does this take longer at MaGie Creations? “It’s because we’re investing in creating more sustainable ingredients,” Madeleine says. “To upcycle byproducts like brewer’s grain into valuable food ingredients, we need to stabilise and certify them. While this involves higher upfront costs, it ensures that we deliver consistent, high-quality products that align with the robust standards of the food industry.”
She emphasises that this approach doesn’t just benefit MaGie Creations but strengthens the entire supply chain. “By engaging partners at every step – from breweries to bakeries – we’re building value chains that are not only circular but also more resilient. These partnerships create shared impact by reducing waste, lowering carbon emissions, and introducing innovative food products into the market.”
To establish each small value chain, Madeleine actively engages buyers, such as supermarkets or caterers – often by providing samples of brewer’s grain products. For production, she collaborates with bakeries that use PowerFlour from MaGie Creations, sourced from partner breweries. “This kind of collaboration takes time, but it results in a stronger, more connected supply chain.”
“Few, if any, support programmes have such a strong focus on scale-ups”
Surprised by Fastlane
“When I was looking for partnerships to enable responsible growth, I came across Fastlane. Having participated in several support programmes, I expected this one to be useful but not particularly different. However, soon after starting the year-long programme in 2024, I realised its unique value. Few, if any, support programmes have such a strong focus on scale-ups, offering tailored expertise for the scaling phase.”
Another thing that sets Fastlane apart, according to Madeleine, is its comprehensive and flexible approach. “The 360° company scan, for instance, helped us identify key areas to work on to prepare for scaling. Also, the opportunity to spend quite a few half-days with carefully matched experts was invaluable. These weren’t generic advisors but specialists – either from our own network or Fastlane’s – who truly understood our challenges and goals.”
For example, Fastlane connected MaGie Creations with a patent expert. “This helped us refine the patent application for our new emulsifier,” says Madeleine. She also worked with a marketing specialist who suggested switching from the Dutch term ‘bierbostel’ – which to Dutch consumers sounds like ‘beer brush’ – to the more appealing and less confusing ‘brewer’s grain.’ “Additionally, a financial expert advised us that we were being unnecessarily modest when approaching investors.”
Fastlane also facilitates peer learning, which Madeleine found incredibly useful. “We were part of a small group of six scale-ups, and during expert sessions and follow-up discussions, we not only learned from the speakers – such as Innovation Strategy Professor Murat Tarakci – but also from each other. The combination of tailored guidance, peer support, and access to a network of investors and companies made the programme stand out.”
“I want to prove that what’s seen as waste today can have great value”
Time for circularity
“I look back on my participation in Fastlane with great satisfaction. If you’re a scale-up, I highly recommend this programme. Just the fact that during the sessions with experts and fellow scale-ups, you’re forced to pause and listen – instead of rushing from one meeting to the next or constantly checking emails – makes a big difference. It creates space to not only work in your business but also on your business, which is essential but often neglected.”
Fastlane also introduced Madeleine to Foodvalley’s Upcycle Community. “Extremely valuable. Members share knowledge and experiences and explore opportunities for collaboration. For example, I’m now advocating for collective communication. A joint campaign for circular products could significantly amplify the impact of circular entrepreneurship. I strongly believe that we, as businesses, need to join forces to make the circular market more visible, accessible, and expansive.”
The support from Fastlane and the Upcycle Community makes Madeleine feel extra ready for the next step. Her company is working on a facility capable of processing millions of kilogrammes of brewer’s grain annually into high-quality ingredients. For Madeleine, however, it’s about more than growth: “I want to prove that what’s seen as waste today can have great value – for people, for the planet, and for a sustainable economy. It’s time for circularity to replace the linear economic model. Together, we can make that happen.”