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FoodTech Weekly #103 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
June 17, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #103
Hi there,
I've had an intense week, so I'll keep this brief.
This week's rundown:
South Korean vegan cheese startup Armored Fresh picks up $23M to enter the U.S. market
New Zealand will start taxing methane emissions from livestock in effort to shift farming practices
Why French employees are forbidden from eating lunch at the workplace
Let's go!
Conversations
Maybe next week :)
Noteworthy
Philadelphia-based FoodTech startup Strella Biotechnology, which develops a produce sensor technology that can help reduce food waste and improve quality, bagged $8M in Series A funding. Strella's novel biosensors can measure and monitor the freshness (ripeness!) of fruit in real time, from harvest to grocery store shelves. The round was led by Millennium New Horizons with participation from e.g. Google Ventures, Mark Cuban, Yamaha Motor Ventures and Union Labs.
German Agtech company crop.zone, which manufactures the volt.fuel Electrical Weeding System, announced an almost $11M funding round. Participants included Nufarm Limited, Demeter Investment Managers, and Madaus Capital Partners. crop.zone offers an alternative to broad application synthetic herbicides, such as Glyphosate and Diquat. The company will use the capital infusion to expand to new markets
REDUCED of Denmark has snapped up €2.9M; the company takes surplus produce and uses bioreactors to turn the waste into umami flavors used in e.g. alternative meat products. Investors in the round included e.g. Rockstart, VÅR Ventures, Pollen Capital and Vaekstfonden.
Scientists from the University of São Paolo have developed a glove for rapid detection of pesticide residues on food, able to perform an analysis in a few minutes.
Image: YouTube
Armored Fresh of South Korea has scooped up $23M in Series B funding; the company produces vegan cheese, and will now enter the U.S. market.
Agtech startup Wiliot, based in Israel, has started to place $0.10 tracking tags the size of postage stamps on Israeli produce crates, from the time they are picked at farms to when they reach store shelves. The aim is to reduce food waste, improve traceability, and safeguard against theft.
Solena Ag, a Mexican soil microbiome startup, announced an undisclosed amount of funding from CerraCap Ventures. Solena's solution analyzes the soil biome and recommends custom microbial inoculants to help farmers maximize their crop quality and profitability.
Little Leaf Farms of the U.S., which does controlled environment farming (e.g. greenhouses) nabbed $300M in fresh funding from TPG's The Rise Fundand BoA.
Magic Spoon, a D2C (direct to consumer) cereal/muesli startup that is healthier than conventional alternatives, has banked $85M in a Series B round
Image: Magic Spoon
Brown Foods, which is based in the U.S. and India, raked in $2.3M from investors including Y Combinator, AgFunder, SRI Capital, Amino Capital, and Collaborative Fund. The company is producing what it calls UnReal Milk via cell culture technology.
Indonesian AgTech Eratani startup has announced a $1.6M pre-seed raise, led by Trihill Capital. The company helps farmers to e.g. acquire farming supplies, manage their harvest, and access loans.
New Zealand has unveiled a plan that will tax burps and farts (i.e. methane emissions) from sheep and cows, starting in 2025. Almost half of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions comes from agriculture, and its mainly methane. The Kiwi government hopes the new legislation will nudge farmers toward e.g. feed additives that reduce methane emissions. In related news, a new report says it'll be very difficult, if not impossible, for the EU to meet its commitments under the Global Methane Pledge without more action from the meat and dairy industries.
Researchers with Washington State University have developed a system where cameras spot pest birds in e.g. vineyards and orchards, and then automatically launches drones to drive off the birds. The researchers claim they can reduce the amount of damaged fruits by up to 50%.
Image: WSU Agricultural Automation and Robotics Lab
The McWin FoodTech Fund has been launched; it will deploy €250M into 15-20 companies across the entire food value chain.
Data from the Food Waste Capital Tracker shows that private investment into food waste solutions has amounted to almost $8B since 2011, including a record $2B in 2021. Investors are betting on startups working on enhanced demand planning, upcycling, markdown alert applications, and recyclers converting waste streams into biomaterials.
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
The Nordic-US Food Summit will be organized on Nov 1-4, 2022 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Participants get a full week immersion program of networking, site visits, and visibility to Silicon Valley's leading investors, corporates, and scientists. Nordic FoodTech and AgTech companies can apply here, by June 30. Follow the Summit on LinkedIn
Applications are now open for the next cohort of CDL (the Creative Destruction Lab). CDL is a mentorship program for preseed and seed stage, science and deeptech startups. CDL-Oxford has a specialized climate stream for startups with innovations that preserve and protect our planet. More information here, and in this LinkedIn post.
The THRIVE Global Impact Challenge is seeking innovative startups advancing a netzero future for agriculture. Launched by SVG Ventures|THRIVE and ICL Planet Start-up Hub, the challenge will focus on soil health and biodiversity, increasing food security, and reducing and offsetting GHG emissions. Applications are now open and will be accepted through September 15, 2022.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
Chickens can now take selfies that are automatically uploaded, tweeted, (and sometimes minted into NFTs). (h/t: Jossi S).
How South Korea went from recycling 2% of its food waste in 1995, to recycling 95% today.
Two men were rescued from a vat of chocolate at a Mars, Inc facility in Pennsylvania after having fallen in (I guess it was sort of like Augustus Gloop in the Willy Wonka factory.
Forget about scissors; using a hungry turtle is how ribbons should be cut (8 sec video)
About 200 years ago, the world started getting rich. Vox explains why.
The Mettigel is a hedgehog that Germans sculpture...from meat.
Image source: Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0 Like_the_Grand_Canyon
In France, it's prohibited for employees to eat lunch at the workplace, since 1894.
Actual video of me vs. any free buffet (23 sec video):
Canada and Denmark put to rest an almost 50-year border dispute this week, when they agreed to split Hans Island (which sits equidistant from the coasts of Canada and Greenland) roughly down the middle. The rock led to the so-called Whiskey War, where soldiers from Canada and Denmark would visit the island, plant flags, and leave bottles of liquor (as gifts to the opposing side). Says Mélanie Joly, Foreign Minister of Canada: 'I think it was the friendliest of all wars.'
I love you.
Daniel
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