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FoodTech Weekly #143 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
April 14, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #143
Hi there,
FoodHack just dropped the attendee list of the May 11-12 HackSummit in Lausanne, and boy oh boy is it impressive. I'm looking forward to meeting many of you there (as I'm co-hosting the event), and I will of course try to share my key takeaways from HackSummit with all of you (btw, if you read this and don't yet subscribe to FoodTech Weekly, click here to sign up).
This week's rundown:
Alga Biosciences close $4M round for algae-based feed supplement to cut cow methane emissions
Carbon Robotics of Seattle bags $30M for ag robots that zap weeds using laser
Bidra VC, S2G Ventures, and AGRI3 Fund raise a total of $500M+ to invest in e.g. sustainable ag
Let's go!
Conversations
Another packed week. Stay tuned, I hope to bring you some new convos soon :)
Noteworthy
U.S. company Hardee Fresh secured $56M for a new 30k sq. m (340k sq. ft.) vertical farming facility in Americus, Georgia, which will produce 15M heads of lettuce annually. In related news, hydroponic indoor vertical farming company Farm.One announced they have secured long-term funding from DK-Bell, and will therefore reopen their farm in Brooklyn, New York.
Liberation Labs has secured $30M in equipment financing to help build out its first commercial-scale precision fermentation facility in the U.S. It will have 600K liters of capacity and become operational in late 2024. The company will act as a co-manufacturer, allowing startups that want to produce e.g. whey protein or vanillin to do so in Liberation Labs' facility.
Fresh Factory of Indonesia, which offers decentralized cold chain storage facilities, pick-and-pack services, and last-mile deliveries to retailers, has scooped up $4M in funding, in a round led by SBI Ven Capital.
Seattle-based Carbon Robotics, which develops laser weeding robots, has fetched $30M in Series C funding (following a $27M Series B round in 2021), led by Sozo Ventures. The robot uses AI, computer vision, and laser tech to identify and destroy weeds; the company says it has successfully eliminated 500M weeds thus far, while cutting the need for herbicides, and 'without damaging nearby crops or disturbing the soil.'
Alga Biosciences of California has harvested $4M in Seed funding to reduce cow methane emissions using an algae-based feed supplement.
Image: Annabel Slater / ILRI, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
French smart fridge canteen startup Carot has banked €2M in Fresh funding (h/t DigitalFoodLab). The company brands itself as an 'office food court'.
Israeli scientists at Hebrew University have developed a drought-resistant tomato which requires just half the water to grow, compared with a conventional commercial tomato. They hope the new tomato variety will be in the market 2-3 years from now.
Bidra VC, which backs climate focused AgTech/FoodTech startups, has raised another $200M. Meanwhile, Chicago-based AgTech/FoodTech investor S2G Ventures has launched a $300M 'Special Opportunities Fund' focused on CAPEX-heavy industries like agriculture, energy, and ocean. And AGRI3 Fund has secured $13.5M, aiming to catalyze $1B for climate-smart agriculture and reforestation projects in Africa, Asia, and LATAM.
U.K. molecular farming startup Moolec Science has acquired 100% of Argentinian plant-based food ingredient firm ValoraSoy for $6M, using its technology to 'produce and commercialize functional soy proteins'.
Swedish plant-based seafood startup Hooked Foods has reeled in $967K in fresh funding, bringing total funding to date to about €5M (full disclosure: I'm an advisor to Hooked). The company is backed by e.g. Brightly Ventures, Oyster Bay VC, Veg Capital, and Katapult Ocean.
Image: Hooked Foods
ADM and BrightSeed have launched a partnership to explore how the gut microbiome and bioactives impact human health.
Agrinorm of Zurich, Switzerland raised a “7-digit” Seed round to develop their AI-powered software for quality risk management in the fresh produce value chain.
Bel Group (which produces brands like Laughing Cow and Babybel) has invested an undisclosed amount into Climax Foods, which uses AI to develop plant-based cheeses.
Solasta Bio of Glasgow, Scotland has grabbed £4M in pre-Series A funding led by Yield Lab Europe and backed by e.g. Rubio Impact Ventures and Cavallo Ventures. A grant from Innovative UK brings total funding in this round to £5.5M. The company produces environmentally-friendly insect-control products based on neuropeptides that can identify and kill insects harmful to plants, while leaving e.g. pollinators like bumblebees and butterflies unharmed. Solasta hopes to launch commercially in 2027.
German zero waste online grocer Alpakas is insolvent. This follows failures of industry peers like Flying Emma, Glasbote and Mehrwelt (from the Dr. Oetker Group), and Pieter Pot (in the Netherlands) being acquired in lieu of going bankrupt. Florin Kutten provided some helpful reflections on the recent developments here.
Zero waste packaging. Image source: Glasbote
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
petgood (Sweden) is seeking a Senior Social Media Manager... Notpla (U.K.) is hiring a Chief of Staff... Djuce (Sweden) is recruiting a Wine Business Wizard.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
Plants have a built-in coping mechanism to help them better endure cold temperatures (as Swedes, we can relate).
Food photography is (too) being disrupted by AI, where the right prompts now can generate very realistic photos:
Some colleges in China have coordinated their spring breaks to help students fall in love. Liang Guohui, deputy dean of Mianyang Aviation Vocational College, says that they 'hope students can learn to love nature, love life, and enjoy love.' Earlier this year, China reported that its population size had fallen for the first time in 60 years.
Colgate Beef Lasagna -- one of the biggest food failures.
The ozone hole is on track to be healed by mid-century, as almost 99% of ozone-depleting chemicals like CFCs have been successfully phased out.
Every year, the residents of Bessières in southwest France celebrate Easter by cooking up an omelette large enough to feed 2,000. The omelette, which requires 15K eggs, takes half an hour to cook.
Giant shopping car(t). Only in America, of course (15 sec video):
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to There Will Be Time by Mumford & Sons and Baaba Maal. 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.