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- FoodTech Weekly #104 by Daniel S. Ruben
FoodTech Weekly #104 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
June 24, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #104
Hi there,
If you like what FoodHack has built for the foodtech ecosystem -- e.g. meetups, newsletters, trend reports, startup <> investor matchmaking, the FoodHack Summit and much more -- you'll be excited to know that FoodHack just branched out into climate, by launching ClimateHack. The food system accounts for 25% of total greenhouse gas emissions (some say it's even 34%), so it urgently needs to be decarbonized. Sign up for ClimateHack Weekly, and be part of the solution.
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We did a housewarming this week at the Dreamery. Was fun (1 min video).
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Despite all the buzz, alt meat sales in the U.S.have stagnated. I still believe alt meat will capture market share over time as better products come online.
This week's rundown:
Alt meat startup HappyVore of France scores €35M to expand production and retail footprint
Some $9B was invested into European AgTech and FoodTech startups in 2021, according to AgFunder
Infarm builds its largest-ever vertical farming growing center so far, in Maryland
Let's go!
Conversations
I think this section will take a summer break :)
Noteworthy
Lithuanian vertical farming startup Leafood scored $6.75M in Seed funding. The company now plans to start building a network of vertical farms in the Baltics.
Canadian Chinowa Bioworks secured a $6M Series A round, led by DSM Venturing and Rhapsody Venture Partners. The company upcycles white button mushroom stems into a natural, allergen-free preservative. This helps reduce food waste.
Image: White button mushrooms
Waycool of Chennai, India nabbed $25M in fresh funding, in a round led by the Direct Impact Fund. Waycool started in 2015 aiming to improve farmer livelihoods by connecting them directly to retailers and other buyers. The company today handles 300+ tons of fresh fruits and vegetables daily, supplied by 40K smallholder farmers. Waycool manages everything from sourcing, processing, branding, and marketing, to delivery logistics.
HappyVore of France has announced a €35M (appr. $36.8M) funding round led by Invus. The startup, which was previously called Les Noveaux Fermiers, develops and sells plant-based meat products such as meatballs, kebabs, ground beef, steak, nuggets, and sausages.
London-based B2B supply chain platform startup Opply has bagged $4M in new funding. The company runs a marketplace which connects small and medium-sized food and beverage brands with suppliers. Opply says it can say food producers up to 20% in costs, and up to two months in time, vs. sourcing ingredients the traditional way.
Plant-based cheese company Nuts for Cheese, of Ontario, Canada, has raked in a $5.3M round, to expand production and the team. The company's products are sold at 1,900 retail outlets in Canada, and at 2,000 'doors' in the U.S.
ICYMI, AgFunder released its latest 'European AgriFoodTech Investment Report' earlier this month. More than $9B were invested into European AgTech and FoodTech companies in 2021. But just 16% of all these billions went into technologies that could have a big impact on the food system's climate footprint.
Also, while we're browsing the ICYMI section: Sam Panzer's 'What the hell is happening? And what it means for FoodTech' piece is a must-read.
The Green Generation Fund announced the launch of its first Fund. At €100M, the Fund will make early-stage investments from pre-seed to Series A with a focus on FoodTech, biotech, and ClimateTech.
Vertical farming scaleup Infarm is establishing a new growing center near Baltimore, Maryland on the U.S. East Coast. At 18,600m2 (about 200k sq. ft) it'll be the company's largest facility globally so far, and it will produce up to 45 million crops per year.
Image: Infarm
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
AIGRO (Sweden) is hiring a Co-Founder... The EVERY Company (US) currently has 14 open roles... DigitalFoodLab (France) is recruiting one or more analyst(-s)... Sagana (Europe/India/remote) is seeking an Investment Manager, Ag/Food or Healthcare...
The Spoon is launching the Food Tech Visionary Awards, and is looking for nominations for seven categories such as Food Waste Reduction, Food Robotics, and Agriculture & Farm Tech.
The webinar "Carbon13: Climate Entrepreneurship for Biotech Scientists, Food & Protein Scientists" takes place on June 27, for scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs specializing in food, protein, biotech, bioengineering and similar, who want to launch highly scalable ventures with a significant decarbonization impact. The webinar covers the VC route for science-based ventures, and how to use Carbon13's program to e.g. maximize the climate impact of your venture and to find a committed cofounder. More here.
The World Food Programme's 'Climate Change Innovation Challenge 2022' is looking for innovative solutions to address the climate crisis and hunger. Selected ideas may receive up to $100K in equity-free funding, hands-on support, and mentorship to apply a project in one of WFP's operations in over 120 countries. Application deadline is June 26. More here.
The Seeding The Future Global Food System Challenge, hosted by the IFTand funded by the Seeding the Future Foundation, will award up to $1M to teams that create impactful innovations that can help improve our food system. Application deadline is Aug 1. More here.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
Diving horses used to be a thing.
Scientists have managed to turn plastic waste into vanilla flavoring.
Sri Lanka's government has announced a four-day work week for its one million public sector workers, to encourage people to grow food on Fridays. The country has experienced a food, economic, and political crisis due to a botched experiment to go fully organic.
Germany is facing a significant beer bottle shortage, as consumers haven'treturned bottles in a timely fashion. The country has a reuse system of almost four billion returnable glass bottles.
A new scientific study published in Nature shows that virtual communication (e.g. Zoom) curbs creative idea generation.
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Craftmanship by Mwuana. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter. And here's the Appetizer which I co-host. Did your brilliant friend forward this to you? Subscribe here.