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FoodTech Weekly #105 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
July 01, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #105
Hi there,
What gives me optimism, despite all the noise and negativity in media and politics, is that (some) entrepreneurs and companies are working tirelessly to solve some of the biggest challenges of our time, such as climate change.
Two recent examples:
The world's first methane-reduced beef is now sold in Sweden under the brand LOME( 'Low on Methane'); by feeding cows a tiny bit of seaweed daily, Swedish company Volta Greentech say livestock farmers can reduce cow methane emissions by 80-90% (full disclosure: I'm an advisor to Volta since a few years). The solution can also be used for dairy cows, and Volta is now aiming to expand production. Volta has industry peers; just last week, Symbrosia of the U.S. announced a $7M round to bring a similar solution to market.
Image: Volta Greentech
Another approach is of course to find other ways than cows to provide us with the products that we love. This week, plant-based cheese startup Stockeld Dreamery (where I work) announced it has run a detailed carbon footprint (CO2e) analysis of its plant-based cream cheese, Spread. It turns out that Spread has an appr. 68% lower carbon footprint, than conventional dairy-based neutral flavor cream cheese in Sweden.
People online were quick to attack Volta's methane-reduced meat as greenwashing, and others have similarly strong opinions against plant-based alternatives to animal-sourced foods.
All I know is that we're facing a climate crisis. Code red for humanity. And if the world's 1+ billion cows were a country, they'd be one of the top 3 greenhouse gas emitters. Each cow in the world can burp 100 kg / 220 lbs of methane per year, equal in emissions to burning 3,400 liters / 900 gallons of car fuel. And methane has 86x more global warming potential than CO2, over a 20-year period. Solving this issue is urgent.
So I actually get excited by seeing solutions like the ones from Volta Greentech, Symbrosia, and Stockeld Dreamery.
I'm eagerly awaiting your hate mail about the above.
This week's rundown:
Eclipse Foods scoops up $40M to expand beyond plant-based ice-cream to other categories
Renewable nitrogen fertilizer company Nitricity secures $20M investment
Global use of antibiotics in animal declined by almost 1/3 between 2016 and 2018
Let's go!
Conversations
Back in November, I spoke with Tanja Bogumil, CEO and co-founder of German plant-based egg startup Perfeggt. She was in Stockholm this week, so we met at Chouchou restaurant over some super tasty dishes made using Perfeggt's plant-based egg. Since we last spoke, Perfeggt has made its plant-based egg product even more versatile in terms of e.g. flavor, binding, gelling, and water holding capacity, so you can now use it for e.g. baking, fluffy pancakes, pasta, toast, and much more. Tanja says they're now on par with factory farmed egg, but they aim to be on par with farm fresh eggs. The key ingredient is pea, and Perfeggt's egg now has all essential amino acids too. The company, which since November has grown to 13 people, has started to sell in foodservice in the DACH countries (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) and plans to launch in retail soon. Perfeggt is still building its Innovation Hub in Berlin, and is looking for scientists and product developers; they welcome international FoodTech talent. To get in touch with Tanja, you can email her.
Dishes cooked using Perfeggt's product
Noteworthy
Project Eaden of Germany has banked €8M in fresh funding, in a round led by Creandum and backed by Magnetic, Food Labs, Shio Capital, and Trellis Road VC. While Eaden is a bit secretive, they say they're "reinventing plant-based meat from the fiber up", and the company is recruiting tissue engineers.
Brussel-based FoodTech startup Paleo came out of stealth, announcing that they will release six new non-GMO heme varieties -- beef, chicken, pork, lamb, tuna, and wooly mammoth (!). Heme gives alternative meat a more realistic flavor; Impossible Foods was the first startup to leverage leghemoglobin in a big way. Paleo claims they've created a non-GMO, bioidentical heme through precision fermentation, that will give ultra realistic flavor. The company, which has raised a few million USD, expects to have market-ready products by next year.
Image: Paleo
Eclipse Foods, which is based in the U.S., scored a $40M Series B round. The company develops plant-based dairy products (based on e.g. cassava, potato, and corn), and started with icecream. Eclipse says it wants to expand into other categories like cheese, milk, and cream.
U.S.-based renewable nitrogen fertilizer producer Nitricity raised $20M to expand its product portfolio.
New York-based BioLumic has secured $13.5M in Series B funding. The company, which was founded in 2013, uses UV light to improve plant productivity (e.g. yield and disease resistance).
Agtech startup Seed-X of Israel/the U.S. closed a $10M Series A round earlier in June. The company develops an AI- and machine vision powered sorting technology that can sort seed and grain at the single seed and grain level.
Pure Harvest Smart Farms of the UAE has clinched $180.5M in new funding. The company, which runs controlled environment agriculture (CEA) farms in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, will now expand across the Middle East and Asia. Also recently, Canadian vertical farming startup Vision Green announced $7M round. The startup expects to be able to grow 700,000 lbs (317 metric tons) of produce annually. To put that number in perspective, Canada imports 559 million lbs (253M kgs) of lettuce each year.
Current Foods of San Francisco, which used to be called Kuleana, has raked in $18M in seed funding; the company develops plant-based seafood.
Image: Current Foods
Pitchbook says AgTech funding activity was up in Q1 2022 by 15.5% compared to the previous quarter, to $3.3B across 222 deals.
U.K. alternative meat producer THIS raised £5.9M at £150M valuation, via crowdfunding site Seedrs.
Genetically modified salmon from AquaBounty, that grows twice as fast as conventional salmon in their early stages (and require less feed), is now soldon the U.S. market, after years of regulatory battles -- but the company is not saying who is buying.
The global use of antibiotics in animal farming went down 27% between 2016 and 2018, according to data from the World Organisation for Animal Health. Overuse and misuse of antimicrobials in animal agriculture is a main cause of increasing levels of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Beta Hatch of Washington state, U.S., just did the official ribbon cutting for its new mealworm farm, which will produce animal feed (from mealworms) 5,000x the acre yield of soy, with just 2% of the water use. The company raised a $10M round in August last year.
Image: Dr. Virginia Emery cutting the ribbon. Source: LinkedIn
Calysseo, a JV between Calysta and Adisseo, says its new single-cell protein production facility in China will produce 20,000 tons of protein annually, to be used in aquafeed. The company feeds methane to microbes that are then turned into animal feed.
Lobster shells left over from processing have been used to create a biopolymer that can be integrated into packaging with antimicrobial properties, which helps reduce food waste, a Canadian project shows. And speaking about sustainable packaging, U.K. startup Magical Mushroom nabbed €3.4M; the company combines agricultural waste with mycelium to create a biodegradable, durable, and affordable packaging material.
U.S. researchers have developed artificial photosynthesis, which can produce food without sunshine. The process converts carbon dioxide, electricity and water into acetate, which food-producing organisms then consume (in the dark!) to grow. The scientists hope their findings can mitigate future threats to future food security, and even enable food production for future space explorers.
About 30% of food in high-income regions like Europe is wasted -- and yet only about 0.6% of FoodTech investment in Europe went to startups trying to solve food waste. Interesting analysis by DigitalFoodLab. Speaking about food waste, it's now being turned into jet fuel.
Scientists at Rutgers and Harvard have developed a biodegradable, non-toxic plant-based coating that can be sprayed on foods such as fruits and vegetables, to guard against pathogens, microorganisms, and transportation damage. The coating can be removed by rinsing it off with water.
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Marina Schmidt of Red to Green just released the fifth season of her well-researched podcast. The latest season takes a deep dive into food history (and feels like a must-listen this summer). Available on Spotify, Apple, and all leading podcast platforms.
Dr. Hannah Lester of AmGen Regulatory Consulting has prepared a report on precision fermentation, looking at the regulatory requirements in the EU and the U.S. The report can be downloaded for free here.
CPT Capital (UK) is hiring an Investment Associate.
The Nordic-US Food Summit (Nov 1-4, 2022) in the SF Bay Area is open for applications.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
Plastic recycling doesn't work and will never work. Good reminder by The Atlantic. Meanwhile in Canada, the manufacturing and importation of single-use plastic items like bags, straws, and cutlery will be banned across the country by December 2023.
A lot of tech companies are just adult daycare:
As towns in Italy struggle with an acute drought, the mayor of Castenaso near Bologna has decided on a unique water conservation measure: No hair salon may longer double-shampoo a client's hair (thereby using extra water to rinse), or else they'll face a fine of up to 500 euros. Says a hairdresser: 'It's difficult not to be able to wash and rinse twice [...] especially if the customer's hair is quite dirty.'
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Young and Beautiful (Kaskade Mix) by Lana Del Rey. 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.