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- FoodTech Weekly #111 by Daniel S. Ruben
FoodTech Weekly #111 by Daniel S. Ruben
Daniel S. Ruben
August 26, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #111
Hi there,
OK, I left Tinyletter for beehiiv (as a newsletter platform), and you're all coming with me. So stay calm, and nobody gets hurt.
Just have some patience as I finetune the design etc. My hope is that beehiiv will enable some new and exciting things over time. Look, I can add buttons now, OK?
Anyways - there's almost 3,000 of you subscribing now, and I'm grateful for each and every one.
This week's rundown:
SoFresh of Wisconsin bags $13.4M for anti-food waste solution.
Indian startup Loopworm secures $3.4M in Seed funding for insect-based feed venture:
Are vending machines cool again?
Let's go!
Conversations
New convo coming up next week!
Noteworthy
Wisconsin startup SoFresh has scooped up $13M; the company has developed an active packaging technology that inhibits food spoilage.
Groundwork BioAg of Israel has raised a $18M Series B round. The company produces a mycorrhrizal fungi which can enhance the growth of fruits, vegetables, and plants in a sustaianble way. Groundwork says its solution can help reduce fertilizer use, increase crop yields, restore soil health, and sequester carbon. The company scored a $11M Series A round just last year.
Bangalore, India agtech startup Loopworm has landed $3.4M in fresh capital, backed by Omnivore, WaterBridge, and Titan Capital. The company works with smallholder farmers that raise insects which are turned into animal feed, pet feed, and oil. Loopworm says they help reduce food waste, increase farmer income, and increase the supply of high-protein feeds. The company hopes to produce 300K tons of insect-based animal feed per year by 2027.
Atarraya of Mexico City, which develops Shrimpbox, a plug-and-play shrimp farming system, has raked in $3.9M in Series A.
Canadian agtech company Vive Crop Protection has clinched CAD 34M in Series C funding. The scaleup helps farmers use pesticides, biostimulants, and fertilizers more effectively, thereby reducing costs and minimizing environmental impact.
Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0 NRCS Oregon
Utrecht, Netherlands watertech startup Sensoterra has bagged €1M in Seed funding. Sensoterra develops IoT-based soil moisture measurement systems, and has 12,000 active sensors in e.g. agriculture and horticulture, globally.
Norway has started to invest in cell-based / fermentation-based production of e.g. meat, dairy, and egg.
Since 2016, the FoodTech ecosystem in Latin America has grown 12x, data from Dealroom shows; local FoodTech startups have raised $4.6B since 2010. This is however many times lower than in Europe and the U.S. The LATAM FoodTech ecosystem is valued at $21B.
iProcure of Kenya has secured a $10.2M Series B round. The company connects manufacturers and agrodealers with 1 million farmers (so that they can access e.g. necessary seeds and fertilizers).
Are vending machines cool again?
Big in Japan
Global warming will reduce milk production in cows, researchers say. Heat stress can lower milk production in cows by up to 70%. Hot weather also lead to higher insulin-levels in cows, and cows eating and drinking less.
Scientists have developed a DNA-based system to better trace fish populations. Pretty fascinating.
Researchers in Brazil have found that ants can be more effective at pest control than pesticidies. Farmers may soon be able to enlist ants as nature-friendly pest control.
'Are vertical farms really future-proofing agriculture?' Interesting piece in the Guardian.
Israeli agtech startup Greeneye says their precision spraying system can reduce herbicide use by up to 87%.
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Nutropy (France) is hiring a Senior Strain Engineer... Volta Greentech (Sweden) is recruiting a R&D Director as well as a Research Scientist... BIOMILQ (U.S.) is looking for a Bioprocess Associate, and a Senior Engineer... Peptobiotics (Singapore) wants to bring on an Upstream Bioprocess Engineer... GFI (U.S./remote) is recruiting a Senior Advisor to the CEO... Course Corrected VC has an opening for an Investment Intern.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
Some mushroom music for you.
Tired of those strange stories on LinkedIn (a.k.a. Broetry)? Here's a nice generator for you to create your own viral posts, with just the right level of cringe.
Meanwhile, at the sheep human contest in France:
The French sheep says beeee
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Blinding Lights by The Weeknd. 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.