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FoodTech Weekly #151 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
June 09, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #151
Hi there,
There’s this L.M. Montgomery quote that I love: ‘I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.’
June may be my favorite month, and I hope you all have had a good start to your summers.
Famous economist Robert Lucas (creator of e.g. the theory of rational expectations) passed away last month, at age 85. While some may remember him for his Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, I will never forget the story of his 1989 divorce settlement, which stipulated that his then-wife Rita Lucas would be entitled to half of any Nobel Prize winnings, if the prize were to be awarded to Robert Lucas before Oct 31, 1995. Just weeks before that date, Bob Lucas was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Rational expectations indeed.
Speaking about humans and rationality, last week I asked the following question:
Some of you also left comments; sharing a few of them below:
P.J. wrote: Most people (including me) have very little self control about sugar (thanks, evolution) and therefore will find any reason to rationalize excess consumption. Sugar reduction tech will serve as an awesome rationalization for people to consume more more more, unless it's way more expensive
A.M. commented: ‘Food companies that add sugar for no reason other than to increase the addiction should be made to bear the cost to society, much like the tobacco or oil industries already do.’
O.C. believed: ‘It may probably not go up as much as 2x, but the actual sugar saving will probably be much smaller than intended.’
Finally, Markus O pointed out that in line with Jevon’s paradox, there will always be unexpected and perhaps unintended consequences when trying to shift the food system.
This week's rundown:
MyForest Foods secures $15M for mycelium bacon
Bene Bono and etepetete raise rounds to rescue ugly fruits and vegs
When, and why, Japanese vending machines will offer free food
Let's go!
Conversations
Met Vladimir Kaverin, CEO and Founder of SpawnX. He grew up in Russia, working as a serial entrepreneur, starting and running everything from design studios for hearing aids, to bicycle and automotive workshops, and consulting agencies. A few years ago, he discovered the mushroom farming space, and realized that the existing farms were very low tech. ‘The industry is run like it was 100 years ago. It’s a tough business, especially on a small scale, because mushrooms have 4-6 month growing cycles — then you need to harvest, package, and deliver from the farm in one day, and you only have 10 days of shelf-life. The longer the supply chains, the lower the quality.’ Vladimir and some partners started a mushroom farming business with farms in and close to Moscow, that produced 10-12 tons of mushroom per month (such as shiitake, eringi, and oyster). The farms had a controlled climate, with precise temperature, CO2, and humidity irrespective of ambient conditions, and ran on advanced software. The business was going good. Orders were increasing, and the company was about to close a Seed round.
‘Then we woke up one morning and war had broken out. Russia had invaded Ukraine. All our customer orders vanished, and the investors left the country so the Seed round was cancelled. From a business perspective as well as political perspective, we had to leave Russia. Things became awful. We closed and sold the business. It took us almost a year to relocate the full team to Austria — some via third countries like Georgia and Armenia.’
Vladimir and the team got accepted into the Science Park Graz incubation program in Austria, and are up and running again. ‘Some of our team members got personal conscription notices last fall; if they go back, they’ll be mobilized by force to join Russia’s war,’ Vladimir states.
SpawnX is developing turnkey mushroom city farms, which will be built and sold to e.g. local conventional farmers, which then can grow mushrooms in a predictable, profitable way. Then, SpawnX will supply the consumables such as mycelium and substrate on a monthly basis.
The company is currently raising a €300K Seed round (which will be topped up by a €350K Austrian public grant). SpawnX is also interested in talking to potential mushroom farmers, as well as food retailers and distributors in the DACHLI region. Vladimir can be reached via mailto:[email protected]
Vladimir Kaverin / SpawnX
Noteworthy
U.S. mycelium company MyForest Foods has bagged $15M in Series A-2 funding to scale its flagship product launched in 2020, MyBacon and expand sales on the U.S. East Coast. The round was led by Ecovative Design.
Netherlands-based startup Source.ag, which develops AI-powered greenhouse management software that can help optimize resource use and boost yields, has scored another $4M in its Series A round, bringing the round total to $27M. The A round has been backed by Astanor Ventures, Acre Venture Partners, Hico Capital, and E14, as well as by several Dutch greenhouse operators. The Netherlands, despite its small size, is second only to the U.S. in terms of agricultural exports.
Zume Pizza has ceased operations. The company, which had raised around $450M since its 2015 launch and aimed to automate pizza making, is now planning to sell all its assets. Zume’s concept didn’t gain traction, and pivoted to compostable packaging, but is now closing.
Vertical farming scaleup Infarm, which has raised almost half a billion dollars, is reportedly leaving Europe, potentially to focus on operations in North America and the Gulf countries.
Paris, France startup Bene Bono (which was previously called Hors Normes) has harvested €7M in fresh funding which will help it e.g. expand to Barcelona. The company saves ‘ugly’ organic fruits and vegetables that have been rejected by supermarkets, and sell the produce to consumers.
Image: Bene Bono
U.K. startup Nium which aims to replace Haber-Bosch (chemical, fossil-based fertilizer) through green ammonia has secured a $3M funding round, led by AgFunder and joined by e.g. DCVC and Carbon13. Nium’s industry peer from Sweden, NitroCapt, also just announced it has received a €2.1M ($2.2M) grant from the European Commission LIFE Program.
The level of Norway’s proposed new salmon tax has been lowered from 40% to 25%. The new tax is expected to bring in about $500M annually to the state coffers. In somewhat related fish news, new research suggest that climate change may make some fish less nutritious, e.g. with lower levels of omega-3.
Canadian Black soldier fly producer Entosystem has opened what it claims is the facility with the highest production capacity in North America, designed to produce 5k tons of BSF larvae (which will be sold as a pet food ingredient) and 15k tons of organic fertilizer annually.
Spanish startup Oscillum, which develops a smart labelling solution that monitors product quality using a color system, recently fetched €1.5M from Spain’s Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI). The solution can be used to show the real expiration date of products, as well as alert people to bacterial growth.
Swedish Volta Greentech and local meat company Protos have launched ‘methane reduced’ beef brand Lome (short for Low Methane) in Swedish supermarkets. Volta grows algae that is fed to cows, reducing cow methane emissions by 70%-90% (full disclosure: I’m an advisor to Volta).
Image: Volta Greentech
Investments in cellular agriculture have slowed down drastically during the first half of 2023, new figures from CellAgri show. During H1 2022, some $883M was invested across 39 deals; this year (Jan-May), just $113M has been invested across 18 deals.
New research published by GAVI shows, for the first time, that antibiotic consumption in animals can drive antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in people, and vice versa. Experts and organizations such as the WHO are calling for reduced overuse of antibiotics in animal farming.
Ottonomy, which makes autonomous delivery robots called Ottobots, has scooped up an undisclosed funding round from ADR Ventures. Ottonomy has raised $5.6M in total.
Canadian AgTech startup Picketa has drummed up a $1.4M Seed round led by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. The company makes hardware and software that can analyze plant tissue in real time (h/t: Shane Thomas).
French startup Bocoloco has clinched €1.4M in fresh funding for its network of smart machines that collect reusable glass containers for reuse (h/t: DigitalFoodLab).
Image: Bocoloco
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Improvin’ (Sweden) is hiring for a number of roles, across engineering, business dev, and sales… Cirkulär (Sweden) is recruiting a Head of Fermentation… Melt&Marble (Sweden) is looking for a CTO.
Applications are now open for the third annual Seeding The Future Global Food System Challenge, which provides $1M each year (in checks ranging from $25K to $250K) to promising food supply innovations.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
Swedish preschoolers learning about bees and beehives in Stockholm:
A multimillionaire on Åland Island in Finland has been fined a $130K speeding ticket, after driving 30 km/h (18.6 mph) over the limit. In Finland, the size of a speeding ticket is determined by 50% of the driver’s daily net income. ‘“I had just started slowing down, but I guess that didn’t happen fast enough. It’s how it goes.’ the regretful speeding driver Anders Wiklof said, adding that he hoped that the government would spend the money on improving healthcare in Finland.
This data point (from GFI) really stood out to me: Plant-based and cultivated meat have received less than $11 billion in public and private investment (all in the past 10 years), while renewable energy received over $1 trillion in investment in 2022 alone. Cultivated meat has received less than $3B in investment (across about 100 companies), which can be compared to a single battery plant for EVs, which may cost $4B or more. It’s clear that plenty more investment is needed in the alt protein space.
Vending machines in Japan will automatically offer free food if an earthquake hits.
The Mediterranean Diet is still going strong:
U.K. doubledecker bus racing (35 sec video):
The Polaroid 3D printing candy pen (h/t Marie Dollé).
A burglar that broke into a Vancouver, Canada pastry shop to steal six cupcakes, called the owner just days later to apologize and pay around $850 to fix the store’s front door. He also praised the taste of the cupcakes. Says the store owner, Emma Irvine: ‘One decision does not make a person [… ] I think he just wanted some delicious cupcakes.’
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Spending My Time by Roxette. 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.