FoodTech Weekly #1 by Daniel S. Ruben

FoodTech Weekly #1

*tap*tap*tap. Is this thing on? 

Welcome to FoodTech Weekly -- a newsletter covering some select interesting conversations I've had, some great things I've read or experienced, and sometimes also some projects I'm currently working on. I'll try to be transparent, but for certain things, I don't kiss and tell.

I've seen the email addresses of the 300+ people who have already subscribed to this newsletter, and it's really humbling / intimidating, because you are all so smart, and I'd hate to waste your time. So please have patience - it'll take some time before I nail this newsletter in terms of content and design, so don't unsubscribe just yet. Instead, hit 'reply' and tell me what should be improved.

Highlights

• Conversations with Einar Bodström and Dr. Ram Nair

• Noteworthy: IntegriCulture and Apeel Sciences raise $$$

• The Profile: Elsa Bernadotte at Karma

• Random Stuff: How to stop cows from farting -- and more

A Bit About Me
Since you might not know me, a few lines on who I am. I hold degrees from Copenhagen Business School, Stockholm University's Faculty of Law, and Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service (where Rasheed Hamdan snapped the pic of me featured here - he's a great photographer). 

I ran an e-commerce startup. I worked 5 years (based in Stockholm and New York) for the Trade Council of Denmark,helping Danish tech companies to internationalize. I spent some time at the World Bank in D.C., working on issues like tech, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Now I'm a consultant to the Rockefeller Foundation Food Team. I'm a mentor to a couple of strong accelerators; Katapult Ocean, Big Idea Ventures, and Bloomer. And I'm an advisor to some pretty exciting FoodTech startups.

In the last five years or so, I've done deep dives on various FoodTech topics, trying to understand how the food system will be impacted; e.g. vertical indoor farming, gene editing/CRISPR-Cas9, crop science, machine learning, AI, Big Data, drones/autonomous vehicles, plant-based and cell-based ('lab-grown') foods, sustainable animal feeds (e.g. insects, algae and single cell proteins), aquaculture, and so on. And yet I still have much, much more to learn.

Together, let's build a better food system.
 

Conversations

• Had lunch with Einar Bodström this week. Pretty amazing guy. Used to make documentaries etc - check out e.g. this beautiful 25 min video he made on food waste (at 09:45, top chef Dan Barber makes a cameo; as does many other cool folks too). Now Einar is the co-founder of ClimateView - they built a very cool visual tool, Panorama, to help the Swedish government understand where CO2 emissions happen, and how to take action. ClimateView just raised $2.5M to supercharge their growth. Einar is working with countries, regions, and city governments all over the world, to help measure and reduce CO2 (see Transition Targets). If you know senior folks who work on climate issues in a national/regional/city government somewhere, consider pinging Einar.

• Caught up with Dr. Ram Nair, founder and CEO of Mycorena. Here's the long version of their technology, but the Cliff Note is that they can capture nutrients from industrial side-streams (e.g. water from a bread factory) and turn it into fungi-based meat substitutes (they use standard ingredients too, and turn it into tasty, novel products). Look at these imitation Swedish meat balls they made; haven't tasted them yet, but really looking forward to! Mycorena has raised €3.7M, and they're hiring. Ram is looking for a CFO (full-time or consultant basis) - someone who can do financial modeling - maybe even an entrepreneur who scaled her/his company in the past and is really strong with numbers. Know anyone? Let Ram know.

Noteworthy

• Tokyo-based IntegriCulture announced a ¥800 ($7.4M) Series A raise, to help them expand their cellular agriculture solution. So called 'lab-grown meat' startups have received lots of investments in recent years, although no products have yet reached consumers. IntegriCulture is run by Dr. Yuki Hanyu; I first met him at New Harvest in New York in 2017, where he gave a fun 15 min presentation.

• Apeel Sciences just raised a $250M Series D; in short, they developed an invisible, edible, organic protective coating, sprayed e.g. vegetables, which extend the produce shelf life by 3x-4x. Apeel's solution is pretty magical - watch this time lapse to get a sense for it. I first met Apeel's Founder and CEO James Rogers in 2016, and was immediately intrigued by what he was building. Food waste is a huge problem; in rich countries, 30% of food bought is wasted, and in many low- and middle-income countries, 30-40% of food grown is lost before even reaching the consumer. Luckily, more and more companies are tacking this issue (and initiatives like YieldWise by the Rockefeller Foundation have really helped move the needle, and elevate this issue on the agenda).

Screengrab from this YouTube clip.

The Profile

• Each week, I thought I'd do a short profile on someone working on food. And since we're already on the topic of food waste, why not start with Elsa Bernadotte? Serial entrepreneur, Forbes 30 Under 30, but perhaps most importantly, she's the Co-Founder and COO of Karma. Karma, which has raised $16.7M, has 1M+ users across Sweden, the UK, and France, who can use the Karma app to buy meals -- at a steep discount -- from restaurants and grocery stores that would otherwise have had to discard the food. Elsa's work has been recognized by lots of people, including President Barack Obama (video here). And she's just getting started.

Elsa Bernadotte and her co-founders.

Random Stuff

• Volta Greentech is on a mission to stop cows from burping and farting methane gas (needless to say, I'm an advisor to Volta - they had me at 'burping cows'). They're hiring folks who knows manufacturing, engineering, and marine biology (sorry, George Costanza - they need real marine biologists)

• Watched the NASA / SpaceX launch last night - goosebumps. We visited the Kennedy Space Center back in February 2020, and it was a fantastic experience - it's worth a visit.

I love you.
Daniel

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Boring disclaimer: The newsletter content is intended only to provide general and preliminary information to folks interested in FoodTech, and shall not be construed as the basis for any investment decision or strategy. I assume no liability as regards to any investment, divestment or retention decision taken by readers of this newsletter content.