About Isabel Hoffmann

Hoffmann is an entrepreneur who has successfully founded eight companies over the last 26 years in the fields of preventative medicine, software, education, and more recently in digital health and food tech. Her natural ability to lead and inspire has resulted in numerous awards and honors throughout her career. As CEO and Founder of Tellspec, the company behind the world’s first food sensor, she leads a team of computational biologists, food scientists, mathematicians, software developers, and data analysts towards their mission to re-build trust in food by empowering the food chain with real-time portable food analysis.

Hoffmann is a mathematician with extensive business experience. She has founded eight successful companies, taking companies from $0 to $75 million, and has negotiated strategic investments with groups such as CBS Corporation and Mitsubishi Capital Corporation.

Hoffmann has raised equity investment and convertible notes in Wall Street, New York City, and Bay Street, Toronto. She was also the main strategic negotiator on several business acquisitions, including a US$28M acquisition of Corel Multimedia business division. More recently, she has shared her experiences as an entrepreneur and as knowledge on commercializing technologies by teaching MBA-level entrepreneurism courses at the University of Porto in partnership with the London Business School and the University of North Carolina.

As a sought-after keynote speaker, she’s presented at conferences around the world. Her presentations have covered topics including: Rapid, portable and affordable fish sensors for improving trust in the fish chain, at the Europe Aquaculture 2019, in Berlin, Germany, 2019; Fish Supply-chain: Building Traceability and Transparency, at the High Tech Summit 2018 in the Denmark Technical University (DTU), Copenhagen, Denmark 2018; Rebuilding Trust in the Fish Supply Chain, at ASSET Summit 2018, Queen’s University Belfast, N. Ireland, 2018; The future of Food Safety, at Food Camp Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, 2018; Bringing Chemical Detection to Everyday Life while helping Reduce Food Waste at The Sutainology Summit in New York, USA, 2017; The Future of Food: at Sonae Portugal, Porto, Portugal, 2017; The Power of Big Data in Food: at Seeds & Chips, Milan, Italy, 2017; Consumer Food Security: at the invitation of the Inter-American Development Bank, Demand Solutions, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2016; The Digitalization of Food: at South Summit, Madrid, Spain, 2016; The Internet of Food: at Seeds & Chips, Milan, Italy, 2016; Local Food and Health: at TEDX Zwolle, Zwolle, The Netherlands, 2015; Uncovering the Newest Piece of the Puzzle: Tracking your Food at the Digital Health Summit CES 2015 in Las Vegas, USA 2015; Food Technology at TED Global 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2014.

Her awards in the technology and entrepreneurial field include The 2018 EIT Women in Innovation award presented by European institute of Innovation and Technology; The Women in Technology Award presented by Bell Canada and the Toronto Sun; Canada‘s National IWAY Award for Leadership in the Application of Technology presented by CANARIE Inc. and the Royal Bank; Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award presented by the University of Toronto, Canada; Top 40 Under 40 award presented by the Financial Post, CIBC and Caldwell Partners, Canada; Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award presented by Ernst & Young; and MacLean’s Honor Roll for Canadian Excellence presented by MacLean’s Magazine.

Tellspec is a winner of the following awards: The 2018 EIT Innovation Award, awarded in third place by the European institute of Innovation and Technology, October 2918, Budapest; European Commission H2020 Food Scanner Prize awarded as one of the three winners of this prize, March 2017, CeBIT Hannover; The Humanitarian Water Air and Food Award (WAF Award) awarded in the category of food safety, WAF Awards is signatory of the United Nations, Global Compact and of The Brussels’s Declaration “Pledge to Peace”, November 2016, Copenhagen; Seeds & Chips award for Best Diet Solution, April 2016, Milan; The Innovation Prize, category Health, MedPi May 2016, Monaco; The European Food Venture Forum for best pitch, Sept. 2016, Denmark.