FoodTech Weekly #134 by Daniel S. Ruben

FoodTech Weekly #134

Hi there,

A few years ago I spoke with Omar Alshogre for FoodTech Weekly. Don't miss my follow-up conversation with him below.

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Thanks to Riccardo Astolfi for the shoutout of FoodTech Weekly in his newsletter. Italian is arguably one of the most beautiful languages out there. I mean, just look at this sentence from Riccardo's newsletter: 'Uomini in giacca e cravatta, discorsi vuoti e frasi fatte, aria di testosterone e Suv, profumo di inflazione latente e crisi di mezza età.'

He actually talks about a private label food conference and exhibition in Italy he attended, and the sentence roughly translates to: 'Men in suits and ties, empty speeches and cliches, an air of testosterone and SUVs, the scent of latent inflation and midlife crisis.'

Slightly depressing, yes. But if you don't know what it means, the language itself is very pretty!

This week's rundown:

• Greek farmer marketplace Wikifarmer bags €5M Seed round to help farmers with know-how, credit, and sales

• Plenty builds 'worlds-largest' vertical farming research center, powered by $20M grant

• U.K. Kelpi scores £3M for seaweed-based recyclable and compostable alternative to single-use plastic

Let's go!

Conversations

In November 2020, I met with Omar Alshogre, and wrote about it here (you should really read his story — it's incredibly powerful).

Back then, he had just been accepted into Georgetown University. I recently had a chance to catch up with him in person. Long story short, Omar has thrived in Washington, D.C.. He's been successful in his studies. He's made many friends and relationships. And he's continued his work with the Syrian Emergency Task Force, to hold perpetrators accountable. Omar has testified in front of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, at the U.N. Security Council (twice!) and in the European Parliament. He has given TedX speeches, started supporting a man on death row in San Quentin who was likely wrongfully convicted, has been recognized by the King of Sweden for his leadership in human rights advocacy, and earned hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.

While he was doing all of this (and more), I barely managed to grow my newsletter from 1k to 3k subscribers, and failed all my New Year's Resolutions. It's fascinating to see the different paths people take in life.

Omar has now co-founded Atrocities Tracker, an independent human rights project that monitors and documents human rights violations, exposing the perpetrators of these violations in preparation of holding these people accountable. If you want to show your support for Omar, visit Atrocities Tracker, join their mailing list, and follow them on social media. And if you have an idea, want to contribute, or just want to learn more, you can get in touch with Omar via LinkedIn.

To me, Omar is a testament of human resilience. That, despite going through unthinkable darkness, it is possible to regain your spark, stay dignified, and fight to create a better future for all. That's inspiring.

Noteworthy

• Rebellyous Foods of Seattle, U.S. has bagged a $9.5M funding round. The company produces plant-based meat alternatives, and has initially focused on a plant-based version of chicken. Rebellyous is developing a novel manufacturing process that it claims will cut production costs, and thus the product price.

• Athens, Greece-startup Wikifarmer has harvested a €5M Seed round, led by Point Nine VC, and joined by angels such as e.g. Sophia Bendz and Mathias Kamprad (son of the IKEA founder). Wikifarmer provides advice and content -- as well as credit facilities -- for farmers, and also provides a marketplace where farmers can sell their produce.

• ÄIO of Estonia has brought home a €1M round led by Nordic FoodTech VC (full disclosure: I'm an advisor); the company has developed a fermentation process that turns side streams from agriculture, as well as the food and forest industries into high-quality microbial oils and fats, that can help replace e.g. coconut and palm oils.

• Meala FoodTech from Israel has closed a $1.9M pre-seed round, led by The Kitchen FoodTech Hub and DSM Venturing, and joined by Milk & Honey Ventures. The startup develops functional proteins to be used as e.g. binding and gelling agents in alt protein products, which 'vastly improves' the texture and flavor of e.g. meat alternatives, and improves nutritional value.

• Plant-based egg startup UMAMI UNITED of Japan has raised €500K in pre-seed funding in a round led by Big Idea Ventures and ProVeg International.

• French startup Caats, a D2C brand which sells personalized meals for cats through a subscription, raised a €4M round (h/t: DigitalFoodLab)

• Fable Food of Australia has scooped up an $8.5M Series round. The funding was led by K3 Ventures, and joined by e.g. Professor Peter Singer of Princeton University. Fable Food produces alternative meat products from mushrooms.

• U.K. startup Kelpi, which makes a single-use plastic alternative from seaweed (recyclable, and home- and industrially compostable), has secured £3M (appr. $3.65M) in funding, which includes a £665K grant from Innovate UK's Combined Investor Partnership. The round was led by Green Angel Syndicate and Science Creates Ventures.

• U.S. vertical farming company Plenty, which recently announced they'd close their South San Francisco farm, will build what they claim is the world's largest vertical farming research center, in Laramie, Wyoming. The project is supported by a $20M grant from the State of Wyoming.

• A compilation video (2 min) of machines that make agriculture production more effective:

News from the FoodTech Weekly community

• Cultivated Biosciences (Switzerland) has a number of open roles... MeliBio (USA) is also recruiting for several positions, and so is Michroma (Argentina)... Fable Foods (Australia) is looking to fill several global jobs... Novameat (Spain) is hiring a Sales Manager, UK... BIOMILQ (USA) is recruiting a Bioprocess Associate and a Purification Scientist.

• Dealroom and Five Seasons Ventures have released their 'State of European FoodTech 2023' report.

• The Norrsken Accelerator is now open for 2023 applications. Every year, they hand-pick 20 of the world’s most promising early-stage impact teams and invite them to an intense 8-week sprint at Norrsken House in Stockholm, Sweden, designed to scale their growth and impact world-wide. Benefits include: $125k up-front investment, unicorn founder mentors (as well as non-unicorn founder mentors like yours truly) and introductions to top investors. Apply now, or share this link with a founder who should.

Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.

Random Stuff

• A new study on the environmental impact of foods available in French supermarkets says that no French supermarket allows consumers to have sustainable food.

• In the 'Reactive Plants' project, food designer Marta Bocos gives three plants water and light according to stock market values (for Apple, Sony, and Motorola respectively). This helps illustrate the economic health of these companies in real time (h/t Chef Club). Is it weird that I somehow feel sorry for the 'Sony' plant?

• For the first time, the EU has generated more electricity from wind and solar than from gas, and more than half of new U.S. electric-generating capacity in 2023 will be solar.

• ChatGPT + 3D printer = handwritten homework. Nice 20 sec video.

• Long but fascinating read on social media platform 'enshittification': 'Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.'

• Tim Urban: 'Every citrus fruit you eat is the product of a long line of human experimentation and cross-breeding. They share three primary ancestors (the citron, the pomelo, and the mandarin), all native to South and East Asia.'

​I love you.

Daniel

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This issue was produced while listening to Calleth You, Cometh I by The Ark. 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.

Disclosures: I'm Head of Strategy and Special Projects at Stockeld Dreamery. I'm an operating advisor to VC/investment firms Nordic FoodTech VC, Trellis Road, and Blume Equity. I'm a mentor at accelerators Katapult Ocean, Big Idea Ventures, and Norrsken Impact Accelerator. I'm an advisor to BIOMILQ, FoodHack, Hooked, Ignitia, Improvin, IRRIOT, Juicy Marbles, Lupinta, NitroCapt, Oceanium, petgood, Rootically, Transship, VEAT, and Volta Greentech; in some of these startups, I have equity.

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