- FoodTech Weekly
- Posts
- FoodTech Weekly #115 by Daniel S. Ruben
FoodTech Weekly #115 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on food, FoodTech, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
September 23, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #115
Hi there,
I spent Wednesday this week at The Drop, a climatetech conference in Malmo, Sweden, together with 500+ folks (VCs, startup founders, policymakers, scientists, students, and activists). I moderated an Agtech panel (on the topic of 'outpacing crop failure') with Jean-Christophe Girondin-Pompiere of AgroLeague and William Pelton of Phytoform, gave out hundreds of samples of Stockeld Dreamery's Spread cream cheese, and met tons of interesting people.
Some takeaways: While we're approaching certain nasty climate tipping points, and there are numerous barriers to taking action, the problems we face are still solvable -- and innovation will play a crucial part. We need, can, and will move from a linear fossil-based economy to a circular, renewable economy. It's not about stopping, but shifting. And the food system is a climate change culprit but also a major opportunity. So we need to increase our efforts. Hope comes from action, and we need more action than ever.
This week's rundown:
Massive investments in insects-as-animal feed, with Innovafeed and Nutrition Technologies raising $260M and $20M, respectively
Innerplant secures $16M A round to let plants send color signals via their leaves to express how they feel
African AgTech and FoodTech investment is up with $482M or 250% year-over-year, says new AgFunder report
Let's go!
Conversations
I've been busy. New conversations coming soon, hopefully.
Noteworthy
French insect breeding company Innovafeed has raised a massive $260M Series D round, in what is said to be the largest ever Agtech funding round outside of the U.S. The Series D was led by Qatar Investment Authority. Innovafeed, which turns black soldier fly larvae into protein meal and oil, has now raised more than local French competitor Ÿnsect. The company aims to build production facilities at almost 20 locations in the U.S. and Asia. In related news, Singapore-based insect-for-feed company Nutrition Technologies secured $20M in equity funding; the company has a production facility in Malaysia and now plans to ramp up.
German FoodTech startup MicroHarvest has brought home a €8.5M Series A round, led by Astanor Ventures. The company has developed a precision fermentation technology for single-cell proteins that they claim is the world's fastest, bringing production time down from months to a single day. They hope their solution can be used for applications ranging from human food and animal feed to pet food.
Netherlands-based Rival Foods, a spinoff from Wageningen University & Research (the #1 ranked ag university in the world) has banked a €6M Series A round. Rival Foods has developed technology that alllow them to produce plant-based whole cuts of e.g. chicken breasts, pork chops, and salmon fillets. Also in plant-based food funding, RIP Foods of Spain closed a €625K pre-seed round. Here's a great interview with alt protein investors on how they see the space evolving.
Dutch company Koppert Machines has launched a robot that can harvest 4,000 bunches of radish per hour, reducing costs by 50% for farmers.
Israeli startup Anina upcycles ugly vegetables into a meal-in-a-pod. Each such pod contains 40% of an adult's daily nutritional requirements. The inside of the pod hides a full meal -- check this 30 sec video to get what I mean.
Anina / Yasmin & Arye Photographers
Innerplant of Davis, California has landed a $16M Series A round led by John Deere. The company essentially recoded plant DNA so that the leaves of a plant 'light up' when there's a problem. Different colored lights indicate different issues (e.g. pests, nutrient deficiencies, water stress etc). The lights are invisible to the human eye but can be detected by e.g. drones and even satellites. The company aims to launch its first soybean product in 2024.
African agtech and FoodTech startups raised $1.1B between 2016 and 2021, according to a new AgFunder report. 2021 was a record breaking year, as investments soared to $482M (across 150 deals), a 250% y/o/y increase. Yet, African agtech and FoodTech investment represents just under 1% of global incestment in the space. Here's a good Quartz piece on how tech is changing agriculture in Egypt.
Fun fact: In 1970, there were almost 650,000 dairy farms in the U.S.; today only 40,000 remain.
Prime Movers Lab has raised a $500M early-growth fund to invest in companies tackling challenges in several areas including agriculture.
Global angel investment in FoodTech amounted to $6.2B in 2021, and the number of angel rounds doubled between 2016 and 2021, according to data from Dealroom.
Angel investor funding rounds in foodtech 2010 - 2022(YTD)
Dealroom
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Agronod (Sweden) is hiring a Head of Strategy.
Norrsken has built a useful searchable database on impact VCs in the Nordics.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management has renamed the invasive 'Sea vomit' specie (latin name: Didemnum vexillum) to..."Lake carpet scrotum". Obviously much more appealing. Which reminds me of this great article on changed fish names.
Didemnum vexillum
After the Queen passed away in the U.K., the Royal beekeper (in line with ancient tradition) informed each of her beehives that the Queen had died, by placing black ribbons on on the hives, knocking on each one, and saying: 'The mistress is dead, but don't you go. Your master will be a good master to you.'
That's what's buzzing
I love you.
Daniel
- - -
This issue was produced while listening to Best Day Of My Life by Tom Odell. 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.