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- FoodTech Weekly #114 by Daniel S. Ruben
FoodTech Weekly #114 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
September 16, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #114
Hi there,
If you're in Stockholm on Sep 27-28, we're running a consumer tasting of cheese at Stockeld Dreamery HQ. Come join, and bring your friends.
On Sep 21, I'll be in Malmo, Sweden for the climatetech conference The Drop, moderating a panel on how we outpace crop failure via agtech, with William Pelton of Phytoform and Jean-Cristophe Girondin-Pompiere of AgroLeague. If you're there, let's meet. If not, I'll try to report relevant FoodTech takeaways for next week's issue. The food system accounts for at least 25% of total greenhouse gas emissions, so decarbonizing the food system is essential.
By the way, I'm starting a Premium tier of this newsletter, to help cover the cost. Stay tuned for more info.
This week's rundown:
French precision fermentation dairy startups Standing Ovation and Nutropy raise big rounds (and South African industry peer De Novo Dairy did too).
German FoodTech startups raise funding rounds for plant-based eggs, food waste combat platforms, and personalized nutrition solutions
A boy who really loves corn has gone viral
Let's go!
Conversations
I’ve known the Paradiset founders for several years now. Paradiset started out by running four organic food retail stores in Stockholm, but due to a lack of profitability they folded in 2020. The original founder, Johannes Cullberg (a serial entrepreneur within health and sustainability, with 100k+ followers), regrouped and brought on additional founding team members, namely Isabella Argiriou and Martin Tengelin. This summer, the team was part of Norrsken’s Impact Accelerator Program, with a new digital platform to help people take control of their health journey through smart AI coaching. ‘Our mission is to democratize public health, and we start by simplifying healthy eating’, Johannes says. The solution will help consumers navigate through the grocery jungle with health scores, as well as smart and tailored recommendations, sort of like Netflix. ‘Eating healthy is a lot about WHAT you eat, but even more about WHY you eat. That’s why we need to tackle the psychological aspects of eating’, Johannes points out. Therefore, Paradiset's app helps users break unhealthy habits and create and maintain healthier ones, one step at the time. They also ensure long term motivation through community peer groups that cheer you on (peer pressure works, I guess...). Paradiset is currently raising a pre-seed round and are looking for investors within AI/tech, healthtech and foodtech. To get in touch with the team, email Martin at [email protected].
Founding team: Johannes Cullberg, Co-Founder & Chair, Isabella Argiriou Co-Founder and CCO, Martin Tengelin Co-Founder & CEO
Noteworthy
Standing Ovation of France, which uses precision fermentation to produce casein for cheese, has announced a €12M Series A round led by Astanor Ventures. Also in France, Nutropy secured a €2M pre-seed round to achieve the same thing; the round was backed by e.g. Big Idea Ventures, Beast, Trellis Road VC, and FoodHack. Finally, De Novo Dairy of South Africa, which also makes dairy proteins using precision fermentation, received an investment from Moroccan UM6P Ventures.
American vertical farming startup Plenty says it will invest $300M over the next six years to build what it claims will be the world's largest vertical farming facility, in Richmond, Virginia. The new facility will be able to produce 20M lbs (9M kgs) of leafy greens, strawberries, tomatoes, and other crops each year. Plenty's competitor Gotham Greens meanwhile announced a $310M Series E round, to build new production facilities and enable acquisitions. For example, the company just bought FresH2O Growers, Inc in Virginia (which came with a 540K sq. ft / 54K sq. m) hydroponic greenhouse facility). Gotham Greens says it's profitable. On the other side of the Atlantic however, European vertical farming scaleup Infarm announced staff layoffs in the wake of e.g. rising energy prices; 50 of 1,000 people will be let go.
U.S. biotech startup Prolific Machines emerged out of stealth with a $42M combined Seed + Series A round. The startup aims to slash the cost of manufacturing cultivated meat. Prolific will build a 25k sq ft (2,500 sq m) facility in Emeryville, CA, expand the team and prepare for $170M Series B round in Q1 2023. Over in Israel, Profuse Technology this week said they had raised a $2.5M round to - also - lower the cost of cultivated meat.
Lykon of Germany banked a €10M Series A round. The company develops a personalized nutrition platform that have consumers do DNA tests to understand what foods work best for them (h/t DigitalFoodLab).
German startup Neggst, which devlops a plant-based egg (featuring the yolk, white, and a biodegradable shell) has landed a €5M Seed round led by the Green Generation Fund. The company claims their product is indistinguishable from real egg in terms of taste, functionality, and nutrition. In Finland, biotech startup Onego Bio recently received a €4.5M government grant for its precision fermentation tech that can produce ovalbumin, the most abundant egg white protein.
Image source: Neggst
More news out of Germany: Local startup Delicious Data nabbed €2.5M in Series A funding; the company has built a smart forecasting platform that enable customers to avoid food waste. The company says it's active in 1,000 locations and has reduced food waste by about 30 percent. Here's a good primer on food waste from ForwardFooding.
A shocking 90-99% of all deforestation in the tropics is directly or indirectly driven by agriculture, a new study published in Science claims. Well over half of the deforestation is linked to pasture, soy, and palm oil.
London-based fund manager Ocean 14 Capital has raised a €150M fund, which will make growth-stage tech investments in sustainable fish and aquaculture, alternative proteins, and ocean health and conservation. The fund aims to grow its portfolio to 20-25 companies within three years.
Great article by Shane Thomas on regenerative agriculture, and how conventional farmers can adopt many of these practices (and already do).
Purple tomatoes are coming to U.S. grocery stores. Developed by the company Norfolk Plant Sciences, they are genetically modified to produce high levels of anthocyanin, an anti-oxidant rich pigment that have health benefits. The purple tomatoes also don't soften and spoil as quickly as other tomatoes.
Image: Norfolk Plant Sciences
U.S. company Albedo has raked in $48M backed by e.g. Breakhrough Energy Ventures, to develop low-flying satellites that can collect imagery for e.g. precision agriculture.
U.S./Brazilian ag robotics startup Solinftec has unveiled a robot that can automatically detect and target spray weeds in the field. This helps reduce on-farm chemical use.
Pivot Bio has launched gene-editing tech that enable microbes to convert atmospheric nitrogen to enrich the soil organically rather than applying nitrogen-based fertilizer broadly. These microbes are applied directly on the seeds during planting. This week, Aqua-Yield raked in a $23M Series A round to deploy its nanoliquid technology that can help reduce the use of synthethic fertilizer; Here's btw a nice 5 min read on fertilizer that will make you look like the smartest person in the room.
Sahyadri Farms has harvested almost $40M to help digitalize India's smallholder farmers. The company works with over 18K farmers in India; the company platform providers farmers info on farm inputs, sustainable farming practices, and real-time climate and market conditions. Investors in Sahyadri's recent funding injection included e.g. European development banks and institutions FMO, Incofin, Korys, and Proparco.
Image: Sahyadri Farms
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Oceanium (UK) is hiring a Process Engineer... BIOMILQ (U.S.) is recruiting a Bioprocess Associate... Good Food U (U.S.) is looking for a Sr. Program Manager.
Don't forget to sign up for FoodTechIL, the Israeli FoodTech event of the year, taking place on November 7, 2022 in Tel Aviv. For a 10% ticket discount, use the code FoodTechWeekly10
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
Snoop Dogg narrating 'Planet Earth' is pretty hilarious (video, 1.5 mins)
A food delivery robot ignored the police tape and forced its way across a crime scene in L.A.
This song is mildly addictive. Now have some corn, and enjoy your weekend!
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to You've Got The Love by Florence + The Machine. 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.