FoodTech Weekly #190 by Daniel S. Ruben

FoodTech Weekly #190

Hi there,

I mentioned a few weeks ago how I often talk about FoodTech Weekly as a community, but that it is perhaps more of an audience — because you don’t really have a platform to network and discuss. In fact, I feel there isn’t really a good online forum to connect with others who are excited about, and are building, the future of food.

Well, that’s changing today. I just launched the FoodTech Weekly Community on Discord (Discord is like Slack but more relaxed). On it, you can e.g.:

📋 Post jobs (or let people know you’re looking for a new gig!)
📣 Announce exciting news about your startup / organization
🤝 Share info on upcoming events and connect with other folks attending
💬 Discuss news and trends
📚 Share tips for great reads and podcasts
🙈 Make fun of my newsletter writing (yelp!)
…and much more.

I also created some country specific channels to help strengthen local communities.

Going forward, I hope to highlight content from the FoodTech Weekly Community Discord in the weekly newsletter. Happy for your feedback on all of the above.

I’m passionate about supporting the FoodTech/AgTech ecosystem (that’s e.g. why I built the Ultimate FoodTech Resource Guide and the Guide/Database on How to Pitch AgriFoodTech Media). I hope the Discord will be another useful tool for the community.

Please join today (yes, it’s free)!

One more thing: I’m doing some spring cleaning to make sure FoodTech Weekly is actually only sent to people who want to read it (because I’d hate to be a distraction in your inbox) — so I put in place an automation that will automatically unsubscribe anyone who hasn’t opened/clicked on FoodTech Weekly for 45 days. If you somehow accidentally get unsubscribed, let me know.

This week's rundown:

• Arevo raises €6.6M for environmentally friendly nitrogen solution

• Agteria nabs €1.4M for molecule blocking livestock methane emissions

• The $4.8M Brazilian record-selling cow

Let's go!

Conversations

Sometimes you come across someone who starts talking and offers so many insights and perspectives that you feel ‘oh boy, how am I ever going to summarize this person and what they do?’ (this tends to happen when you speak with philosophy graduates, as is the case here).

But let’s try. I recently met Mario Ubiali when he was in Stockholm with parts of his team at Thimus. You might have seen him and his solution in the first few minutes of Ep 4 of the Netflix documentary ‘You Are What You Eat’.

Mario describes himself as ‘an old dog’, born into a multi-generational family business in the metal industry. He founded a startup called Zinco in 2002 for the hot dip galvanizing industry (don’t ask me what it means exactly, but it’s not the kind of hot dip that makes your snacks taste better) which was acquired in 2014. He explored various crazy ideas to pursue next, and ended up in neuroscience, eventually founding Thimus. The company integrates neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, ethnographic research and epigenetics to accurately understand the emotions and experiences people have in association to the foods they eat. This helps Thimus, and their clients, gain actionable insights that help advance a better food system.

Thimus’ platform, a hardware and software system called T-Box, was launched last fall after for years of development. T-Box is a portable, scalable, automated hub that allows operators to put EEG sensors on a person’s head, capturing brain activity which indicates things such as likeability, familiarity, engagement, and perceived emotional wellbeing, when that person is consuming a food or beverage. It’s sensory testing taken to a whole other level. ‘It gives you reliable and scientifically backed answers. For example it tells what products — and the various parts of the products like smell, taste, and texture — that people like and dislike’, Mario explains, and continues:

‘When looking at our larger global pool of data, for example, we can say that the likability level of a plant-based product among young men in the U.S. is lower than similar demographics in Spain and Singapore.’

T-Box is used by companies like Givaudan, Motif, Barilla (and many more) as well as by a few of the classic consumer research agencies. ‘Corporates know super well, through experience, that emotions impact consumer purchase decisions’, Mario claims, and goes on:

‘A lot of CPG companies come to us with big pain points. They no longer understand what their consumers need and want. Generations are volatile. So on a practical business level, we help companies become smarter and more data-driven as they improve products.’

But Mario has deeper plans than that, thinking that his solution can bring food systems closer to human needs. ‘We live in an age where tech obsession has diverted our attention from human to product. We want to induce the food system to reorganize itself around humans, not products’, he says.

‘The real revolution happens when people open their eyes to the fact that we can read, and understand, human emotions. This is happening’, Mario concludes.

Thimus is busy raising a Seed round. Mario is also looking for people who can open relevant doors. He can be reached via LinkedIn and email.

Noteworthy

• Umeå, Sweden-based Arevo has bagged €6.6M (appr $7.1M) in fresh funding. The company develops precision nutrition products that improve the nitrogen uptake in plants, reducing the need for environmentally damaging mineral fertilizers. The round was joined by Industrifonden, Navigare Ventures, Fort Knox, Stora Enso, and Kempestiftelserna.

• New York-based food-as-medicine startup Chiyo has fetched $3M in funding; the company offers nutrition advice and meals (through a meal delivery service) to women from fertility through postpartum, and has served 100K meals since launching in 2021. The round was led by Bread & Butter Ventures.

• Agteria Biotech of Stockholm, Sweden has raised €1.4M (appr. $1.5M) in Pre-Seed funding in a round led by Norrsken Launcher. The startup has developed an enzyme-blocking molecule that it says can help cut cow methane emissions by 70%. Agteria hopes to start commercial sales in 2026. A recent report from e.g. Harvard researchers says that global emissions from livestock must drop by 61% by 2036 to align with the Paris Agreement.

• The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) says, in its new Food Waste Index Report, that the world wasted 1.05B tons of food in 2022, equal to 19% of food available to consumers. In addition, 13% of the world’s food is lost in the supply chain.

• Proxy Foods of Washington D.C., U.S. has scooped up $2.3M in Seed funding for its AI platform that it says can accelerate recipe formulation for the food and beverage industry, solving for complex challenges such as flavor, nutrition, and sustainability.

• Perfat Technologies of Helsinki, Finland has banked €1M in Seed funding in a round led by Nordic Science Investments and backed by Helsinki University Funds. The company aims to replace or reduce the use of unhealthy saturated fats in the food industry. In related news, Clean Food Group of London announced a £2.5M (appr. $3.1M) raise; the startup develops sustainable oil and fat alternatives.

• Insect-for-food startup Legendary Foods of Kumasi, Ghana has received an investment (undisclosed sum) from CRAF (Climate Resilient Africa Fund).

• The Government of Québec is investing $42M in a new AgTech innovation center.

• Innocent Meat of Rostock, Germany has raked in €3M (appr. $3.2M) in funding, anchored by a €500K investment from Venture Capital Fonds MV. The company will offer food producers an automated plug-and-produce solution for cultivated meat, providing the growth media, cell lines, scaffolding, bioreactors etc.

• The spread of organic farms may prompt growers to use more pesticide, a new study shows.

• Techponics of Switzerland has closed a CHF 500K round (appr. $552K); the company’s technology helps automate hydroponic production in greenhouses.

• Elevate Foods of Singapore has netted $525K in funding from Wavemaker Impact; the company empowers small-scale food processors in India to comply with high quality standards, and access global markets.

• French startup W Platform has closed a €2M (appr. $2.2M) funding round; the company captures and valorizes CO2 emitted during winemaking (h/t DigitalFoodLab).

• New Pitchbook data shows that FoodTech investments were down 40% in Q4 vs Q3.

News from the FoodTech Weekly community

• Don’t forget to register for Sweden FoodTech Big Meet, April 9-11. Use code DSR20 for 20% off (startups can use the code Startup50 for 50% off)

• Attending F&A Next on May 22-23 in Wageningen, Netherlands? Use code aSTL24-d for a 15% discount.

• Swan Neck Bio (Denmark) is hiring a Commercial Manager — Microbial Fermentation… Pherosyn (U.K.) is recruiting a Head of Sales

• The $2M Food Planet Prize is calling for nominations for the 2025 award. Deadline May 10, 2024.

• Nathan Paumier has written an excellent post with his 8 takeaways from Future Food Tech in SF.

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

Random Stuff

• A cow called Viatina-19 FIV Mara Imóveis was just sold for the record-breaking sum of $4.8M at an auction in Brazil. The Nelore cow is said to have superior genetic qualities and reproductive value (I’m not sure what a glass of milk from Mara Imóveis would cost).

• The city of Bergen, Norway has built an underground pneumatic waste transport system with connected trash receptacles that have made garbage trucks redundant. Cool 5 min video (h/t Nordic9).

• Neuralink is helping a patient play chess using a brain-chip implant.

• Black bears riding a swan pedalo:

• Bats are crucial for human food systems; they do natural pest control, provide seed dispersal, and even pollinate certain species like bananas and avocado. Fascinating read.

• Canada has tapped into its emergency reserves of maple syrup, releasing 22M kilos. Oh, Canada.

• LEGO has asked a California police department to stop using LEGO heads to mask identities of suspects:

• Australian chicken chain Red Rooster has developed a t-shirt with a built-in device that listens for rumblings of hunger in the tummy (h/t Marie Dollé). When a rumbling is detected, the shirt sends an order to the restaurant app (sizing the order based on the intensity of the rumbling), prompting the user to approve. Says Chad Mackenzie of the agency that helped develop the tech: ‘You can bypass the normal decision-making process and let your stomach do the ordering for you.’

I love you.
Daniel

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This issue was produced while listening to Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good) by Skunk Anansie. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter. Did your brilliant friend forward this to you? Subscribe here.

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

Boring disclaimer: The newsletter content is intended only to provide general and preliminary information to folks interested in FoodTech, and shall not be construed as the basis for any investment decision or strategy. I assume no liability in regards to any investment, divestment, or retention decision taken by readers of this newsletter content.