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- FoodTech Weekly #128 by Daniel S. Ruben
FoodTech Weekly #128 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
December 23, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #128
Hi there,
Well, that's a wrap. Another intense year over. While the final numbers are not yet in, we know that global investment into FoodTech and AgTech is likely down quite a bit (i.e. many billions of dollars) compared to 2021, and company valuations have fallen pretty dramatically. Some sectors have been especially hard hit, including quick commerce/delivery, alternative protein, food robotics, and vertical farming. Some VCs have turned nervous and even destructive towards their own portfolio companies. Some people spell the end of e.g. alternative protein products.
Should we be concerned? I always think of the Turkish proverb it ürür, kervan yürür, which means 'the dogs bark, but the caravan goes on.'
The challenges we're facing in the food system -- from environmental destruction leading to massive biodiversity loss, to poor dietary habits which kill millions of people prematurely, to factory farming which leads to unnecessary harm to billions of sentient animals — are so big that we will need technology and innovation to help solve them.
The future doesn't exist, but is being created as we speak by countless brilliant scientists and entrepreneurs out there right now, trying to fix the abovementioned problems. So I'm an optimist and think we're winning. Change just takes time. It remains Day 1 for FoodTech.
On a personal level, I put out 45+ issues of FoodTech Weekly, growing the readership to about 3,000 subscribers (and starting a Premium tier). I pitched cheese on stage to 100s of investors, and had the regular startup rollercoaster life with Stockeld Dreamery. I procrastinated a lot (sorry Sandra M!) but still managed to publish 3 podcast episodes. I traveled to Paris, Boston, Tel Aviv, Helsinki, London, and Lausanne for business and pleasure (always carbon offsetting flights via Trine). I supported scores of startups directly, and indirectly via some accelerators and VCs I'm engaged with. I angel invested in a bunch of cool companies via the FoodHack Syndicate (HackCapital).
It's impossible to pick a single highlight of the year, but co-hosting the FoodHack Summit in Lausanne back in May -- which Sifted later ranked as one of the best tech conferences in Europe this year -- was definitely one of them. Let's meet at the Hack Summit 2023?
FoodHack Summit 2022
In 2022, I achieved work-life balance by making my personal life more stressful.
Jokes aside, I'm still trying to figure life out. How to eat right, and find time for enough exercise, sleep, and meditation/reflection. To be present for those that matter to me.
I try to spend my time building things that have a meaning and make a difference in the world.
I try to learn as much as possible from experiences that I've desired the least.
I try to minimize the use of social media, as it's often built to addict and intensify negative emotions, destroying people's emotional health. At the very least, I try to avoid reading the comment sections.
I try to be a giver, and not a taker. To create value for everyone I interact with. To help others become better people.
I try to laugh a lot.
And I try to leave the world a bit better.
As always, I'm grateful that you read this newsletter, and wish you good health, much happiness, and lots of success in 2023. FoodTech Weekly will be back in January.
This week's rundown:
The EIB to provide $50M venture debt into RE:OCEAN, which will build a big land-based salmon farm in Sweden
Cultivated meat has vastly lower environmental impacts, new LCA shows
New report shows Swedish supermarkets aggressively promotes unhealthy foods to consumers
Let's go!
Conversations
New conversations coming up in 2023!
Noteworthy
EvodiaBio of Denmark, which was founded just 18 months ago, has bagged $6.4M in funding; the company uses precision fermentation to produce aromas for the food and beverage industries. The round was led by Nordic FoodTech VC (disclosure: I'm an advisor) and joined by the BioInnovation Institute, Symrise, PINC, Thia Ventures, and Newtree Impact. EvodiaBio says its first aroma product will improve the taste of non-alcoholic beer, while helping brewers reduce water and CO2 emissions by more than 90%.
Swedish scaleup Moving Floor, which develops automated cleaning solutions for animal stables, has secured SEK 40M (appr. $3.8M) from local investors Bjäre Invest and FAM AB. Here's a 1 min video of the solution in action.
Quebec, Canada-based vertical farming company Winter Farm has harvested CAD $46M in fresh funding. Backers include e.g. the Quebec Government, Investissement Québec, Desjardins, and Financière Agricole du Québec. Winter Farm will now expand with more farms, and higher output of its strawberry production.
A new LCA on cultivated meat burgers found that the burger generated 87% lower GHGs, required 39% less energy, had 90% less impact on land use, and required 96% less water, than a comparable animal-based beef patty.
Belgian startup Those Vegan Cowboys announced that they've managed to produce cheese, by making dairy-identical casein through precision fermentation.
Image source: Those Vegan Cowboys
U.K. plant-based dog food startup THE PACK has fetched £835K (appr. $1M) in new funding. The round took place through equity crowdfunding platform Vevolution, and also saw participation from e.g. Veg Capital and Kale United, as well as angels such as e.g. Alicia Robb, Simon Day, and Leo Groenewegen.
The European Investment Bank has agreed on a SEK 530M (appr. $50M) venture debt investment into RE:OCEAN, which will build a land-based salmon farm in Sweden that eventually will produce 10,000 tons of fish annually.
BASF of Germany has developed an AI technology that boosts rice yields in Japan and helps compensate for farmers' labor shortages. The solution incorporates real-time analysis based on satellite and weather information, and then can flag issues with fungal diseases or how much fertilizer should be applied to a section of the field.
Great thread (including pics) by Michael Grunwald on his visits to West Coast-based FoodTech startups like EVERY, JUST, Wildtype, Eclipse, and many more.
A new report by the Questionmark Foundation on Swedish supermarkets shows that e.g. almost half of their online food promotions are for products high in saturated fat, sugar, and salt. In addition, 80% of unhealthy food promotions are for multi-buys (e.g. 'buy one, get one free'), nudging consumers to buy multiple units.
Source: https://www.thequestionmark.org/en/page/superlist-zweden-health-2022
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
MeliBio (U.S.) is hiring a Director of Sales, Foodservice... Michroma (Argentina) is recruiting an Organic Chemistry Scientist... Nordic SeaFarm (Sweden) is looking for a Marketing Manager... GreenBiz (U.S./remote) is bringing on a Food Systems Analyst... Project Eaden (Germany) has a number of open roles... The Rockefeller Foundation (U.S.) is hiring Summer Associates for the Food Initiative.
VC J12 has updated their Seed pitch deck template, so if you're about to raise a funding round, you might find it helpful.
FoodHack put out a report on the most active VCs in FoodTech and updated its database on the 100+ most active VCs in 2022. Check it out.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
A guy ordered a nothing burger from McDonald's. This is what happened.
Forget about ridesharing, in the year 1900 horsesharing was the isht:
Image source: https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1595119878398251010
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Mama, I'm Coming Home by Ozzy Osbourne. 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.