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FoodTech Weekly #123 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
November 18, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #123
Hi there,
Greetings from Lausanne, Switzerland, where I'm at for work. It's very pretty here.
Spent Wednesday in London (flight CO2e offset via Trine) for the Houlihan Lokey '2022 European Consumer, Food & Retail Conference'. Enjoyed some exciting new foods, and high-caliber panels like this one, with founders/SVPs from plant-based meat companies aspiring to be the European or even global category leaders: Andy Shovel (THIS), Edwin Bark (Redefine Meat), Marc Coloma (Heura Foods), and Christoph Jenny (Planted).
In terms of diversity, the panel was very representative of the conference at large that day. Congrats to the 6 women that were allowed on stage during the various sessions (out of 85 speakers in total). That’s a whopping 7%.
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I was thrilled to see this week that ColdHubs of Nigeria, that I'm an advisor to, was awarded the world's largest environmental prize, The Food Planet Prize. The award came with a $2M prize sum.
Image: Food Planet Prize
ColdHubs, which was founded in 2015, is a social business that designs, installs and commissions 100% solar powered walk-in cold rooms in farms and markets, to enable smallholder farmers, retailers and wholesalers to store and preserve fresh fruits, vegetables and other perishable food (increasing shelf life from 2 to 21 days). The company runs 50+ cold rooms (that are all operated by women) serving 5,250 farmers, retailers and wholesalers. Last year, ColdHubs saved 50,700 tons of food from spoilage. Beyond cutting food waste, the solution improves food security and nutrition, creates jobs, and is powered by renewable energy. I spoke with the Founder/CEO of ColdHubs, Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, for FoodTech Weekly #21 in Oct 2020 (before I became an advisor to ColdHubs). He's worked incredibly hard to build and expand ColdHubs, and what's also inspiring is that he's been providing mentorship and advice to entrepreneurs starting similar companies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nnaemeka has shown how FoodTech can help drive transformative positive outcomes for humans and the environment alike. (Sad fact: Total funding for African AgTech/FoodTech startups was just $75M in 2021, although the number is up from $10M in 2020).
ColdHubs. Image: CNN
This week's rundown:
UPSIDE Foods receives regulatory clearance from the FDA for cultivated meat; now awaits USDA approval
Vow Foods of Australia clinches $49.8M Series A to bring cultivated quail product to market later this year
Ultraprocessed foods as addictive as tobacco, new research from the U.S. shows
Let's go!
Conversations
Busy week, but exciting convos coming up very soon!
Noteworthy
California-based cultivated meat company UPSIDE Foods (formerly known as Memphis Meats) received regulatory approval from the FDA for its cultivated chicken meat, marking the first-ever such approval for cultivated meat in the U.S. The decision means that the FDA accepts UPSIDE Foods' conclusion that cultivated chicken grown directly from animal cells is safe to eat. Once UPSIDE Foods also receives regulatory approvals from the USDA, the company may start to sell its products on the U.S. market.
Australian cultivated meat company Vow Foods has scored a $49.8M Series A round. The company now expects to start selling its first product, cultured umami quail, in Singapore towards the end of this year. This year has seen a major slow-down in funding for cell ag companies, according to CellAgri. In the second half of 2021, through 23 deals, cell ag companies raised about $1.4B. In the second half of 2022, through 15 deals, companies have raised about $172M.
French startup Standing Ovation has exclusively partnered with cheese corporation Bel (selling brands like Babybel, The Laughing Cow, and Boursin) to bring its precision fermentation casein into select future Bel products.
Calysseo, a joint venture between U.S. firm Calysta and Chinese-owned Adisseo, plans to build a 100,000 metric ton capacity production facility in Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with local firm Food Caravan. Calysseo uses carbon and energy to produce single-cell proteins that are used as animal feed in markets like fish, livestock, and pets. The company recently opened a 20,000 metric ton production facility in Chongqinq, China.
Juicy Marbles (full disclosure: I'm an advisor) has launched a plant-based whole-cut loin, which it calls 'the largest, most insulting piece of plant-muscle.'
Image: Juicy Marbles
Norwegian startup Nofence has bagged NOK 130M (€12.5M) in new funding from Ferd and Sandwater (article in Norwegian). The company provides virtual fencing that allows for more sustainable grazing patterns. When an animal is about to hit a virtual border, its collar starts playing an audio warming, which rises gradually as the animal moves through the boundary zone. If the animal keeps moving forward, a mild electric pulse is given, making the animal turn back (30 sec video on how it works). Nofence now plans to expand in the U.S., U.K., and Spain.
Startup Perfekto from Mexico, which sources imperfect fruits and vegetables from farmers and sells the produce to consumers, has clinched $1.1M in fresh funding. Launched in 2021, the company has already rescued almost half a million kilos from going to waste. Similar actors to watch in this space include Nilus and Misfit Market (which recently acquired Imperfect Foods).
Mexican AgTech company Sistema.bio, which develops and sells biodigesters that recycle farm waste such as manure into biogas and fertilizer, has secured $10M from impact investor Native. This follows a $15.6M investment earlier this year from KawiSafi Ventures and others. With the most recent funding, Sistema.bio will be able to provide its solution to smallholder farmers in East Africa. The company is already active in Mexico, Colombia, Kenya, and India.
German startup Cultimate has closed a $700K pre-seed round backed by Big Idea Ventures, ProVeg International, and Realum.cloud; the company cultivates real animal fat, which can be added to plant-based meat alternatives to make them more realistic. In related news, Dealroom just published a list of 100 alternative protein startups to watch.
Swedish AgTech startup Volta Greentech (full disclosure: I'm an advisor) which produces an algae feed additive which reduce cow enteric methane emissions by as much as 80-90%, has received an investment of €2M from Novax (Axel Johnson Group), Konsumentföreningen Stockholm, and Swedish food company Protos. Founded in 2019, Volta Greentech has raised over €5M thus far, and now plans to build a large-scale production facility which will go live in 2024. The methane emissions from 15 of the world's largest meat and dairy companies equate to more than 80% of the EUs methane footprint.
Fredrik Åkerman and Angelo Demeter of Volta Greentech
There were 55% more field robots in operation in 2022 than 2021; harvest robots grew the fastest.
Stable Foods of Kenya, a portfolio company of AgriFoodTech venture studio Pyramidia Ventures, has raised $600K in funding from Acumen and Mercy Corp Ventures. The company develops a climate-smart smallholder food production system which includes e.g. Irrigation-as-a-Service, the provision of ag inputs and offtake contracts, and training on regenerative agriculture best practices.
Danish Novo Nordisk Foundation is investing €27M over the next five years into a new open innovation hub for researchers and companies to develop plant-based foods. The hub will create an open-access library of fundamental knowledge about the properties of plants, and how they can replace environmentally intensive resources such as certain animal-sourced foods. Partners of the hub include e.g. Aarhus University, The University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, Wageningen University & Research, and the Food & Bio Cluster of Denmark.
Ultraprocessed foods such as cookies, French fries, ice cream and potato chips, are as addictive as tobacco according to a new article in Addiction Journal by American researchers.
Vertical farming company Infarm announced that they have successfully produced wheat in an indoor farm, using no soil, chemical pesticides, and much less water compared to open field farming. Infarm also said the trials equaled a productivity of 11.7 kg per m2 (26 lbs per 10.7 sq. ft), equivalent to 117 tons per hectare per year - a yield which is 26 times that of open field farming.
Infarm wheat trial. Image: Infarm
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Mzansi Meat (South Africa) is hiring for several roles, including Senior Bioprocess Engineer, Senior Scientist, and Junior Bioprocess Engineer... UPSIDE Foods (U.S.) is looking for a Chief of Staff to the CEO... EVERY (U.S.) is recruiting a Research Associate.
Mira Korulski-Rosenthal is open to take on new clients, e.g. by putting scientific articles together, providing go-to-market advice or providing fermentation expertise. Her expertise in traditional fermentation and precision fermentation is based on doing her Ph.D. working on yeast for 4 years. Fun fact, she used to brew her own beer in the lab, as the perfect temp controlled rooms gave the best results. Mira can be reached via her website or LinkedIn.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
If you haven't yet bought me gifts for the holidays, LEGO is launching a 10,001 piece Eiffel Tower set, which at 149 cm / 59 in. will be the company's tallest set ever
U.K. plant-based meat brand THIS just pranked the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and it's pretty epic.
Japanese scientists have found that rats rhythmically bob their heads when listening to a beat (such as Mozart, Lady Gaga, or Queen).
Giraffe transport in South Africa (7 sec video)
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Get Lucky by Daft Punk (feat. Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers). 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.