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FoodTech Weekly #132 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
January 27, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #132
Hi there,
HackSummit ticket sales for May 11-12 just opened up. Sifted ranked last year's FoodHack Summit as one of the best tech events in Europe. This year, the theme has expanded from 'just' FoodTech to ClimateTech more broadly (which includes FoodTech). I will be in Lausanne for the event in May, and hope to see many of you there.
In totally unrelated news, I came across the below image online, meaning it must be true. Still, I just find these visuals fascinating.
This week's rundown:
Rumin8 gets funding from Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures to reduce livestock enteric emissions
GFI and Technion establishes $20M alt protein research center in Israel
Wasted from Vermont closes $7.5M round to turn porta potty waste into fertilizer
Let's go!
Conversations
Actually I have had many fascinating convos recently, I just haven't hadn't had the time to summarize them in a coherent way. Stay tuned, but for now...
Noteworthy
Meati Foods has bagged a $22M extension round of its 2022 $150M Series C round. The company, which produces whole-food protein made from mycelium (the structural fibers of mushroom) will open a 100K sq. ft (10k sq. m) facility in Colorado, capable of eventually producing 45M lbs (20M kgs) of product.
Ecozen of India has raised $25M Series C round led by Nuveen and Dare Ventures. The company offers solar-powered irrigation and cold-chain solutions, and will use the funding injection to expand across Southeast Asia and Africa. Since its founding in 2010, Ecozen has e.g. deployed 100K irrigation systems that have reduced over 1M tons of GHG emissions.
Vermont-based startup Wasted has scooped up $7.5M for its portable toilets that help convert waste into fertilizer. Joining the round was e.g. the Collaborative Fund, Divergent Capital, and Gratitude Railroad.
Rumin8 of Australia has secured a "phase 2" of its Seed round, at $12M. The new investment was led by Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures and joined by Harvest Road. Rumin8 synthetically replicates an active ingredient in seaweed that, when fed to livestock, can cut their enteric methane emissions by 95%. Here's a good WSJ article on different approaches in trying to curb cow burps.
Source: WSJ
A Netherlands-based startup called OneThird has built spectral scanners that can determine the freshness of avocado. This will stop the need of customers and consumers to squeeze the avocados, which damages the fruit.
The Good Food Institute together with Technion in Israel, one of the world's leading science and tech universities, is establishing a Sustainable Protein Research Center to advance fundamental and applied research in the alt protein field. The first 5-year budget is $20M.
Milltrust Ventures from London and Earth First Food Ventures from Ireland are launching a £242m Smart Protein fund focused on alternative proteins.
Israel's Chief Rabbi has issued a ruling that cultivated steak from Aleph Farms is kosher. The ruling opens the door for a full kosher certification when the company launches its thin-cut beef steak later this year. In fact, the Rabbi considered the production method to be 'Kosher pareve', meaning the products will not be seen as meat and thus they can be consumed together with dairy products.
Scientists ran a large-scale nudging experiment at 136 fast-food MAX Burgers restaurants in Sweden, promoting vegetarian food purchases by e.g. changing the menu position of vegetarian foods, using descriptive social norms, and aligning vegetarian food with a 'hedonistic', taste-focused nudge. Making the 'green category' more accessible on the self-service order screens made more customers order those types of foods. In particular, the hedonistic/taste nudging in particular drove increased purchases. The researchers believe that using nudging more broadly could translate into 140K more sales of vegetarian options at MAX over a full year (based on 7.8M sales each year, excluding weekends).
Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cb.2129
(The message-based nudges. “Många här väljer grönt!” (descriptive norm) translates to “Many here choose green!”; “Det gröna valet smakar bra!” (hedonic) translates to “The green option tastes good!”; “Det gröna valet känns bra!” (warm-glow) translates to “The green option feels good!”) Source.
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Foodnest (Sweden) is hiring Swift and React devs... Nucleus Capital (Germany) is recruiting an Investment Associate... Tailored Food (remote) is looking for a Communications Manager and a Fundraising Manager... Nilus (Argentina) wants to bring on a Sr Growth Manager... Arkeon (Austria) has an open role for a Grants Writer.
Grey Silo Ventures have written a position paper on fats and the coming fat revolution.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
A guy in NYC has logged every slice of pizza he's eaten there since 2014 (some 464 slices), finding that the average price of plain slice of pizza has increased from $2.52 to $3, while the amount of sauce put on slices has declined -- which he believes is a cost-saving measure from the restaurants.
Scientists have genetically modified ants to have fluorescing antennae, which helps the researchers understand how insects process scents.
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me: Rotterdam, the Netherlands hosts a floating dairy farm, with 40 Maas-Rijn-Ijssel cows, called the Floating Farm.
What's the lowest-carbon protein? Good read from the BBC (h/t: Elizabeth P).
A field in Córdoba province, Argentina has been sown using an algorithm that made sure the corn that grew there created a huge image of Lionel Messi:
Messi
Finally (and this tweet actually happened), seeing 'the French' included on this list is sort of hilarious:
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Lean on You - Old School Remix by Nikonn. 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.