FoodTech Weekly #195 by Daniel S. Ruben

FoodTech Weekly #195

Hi there,

I’ll be the future-food curator at 🔥THE HEAT on Sep 20, 2024, a ClimateTech festival near Oxford (Harwell Science Campus) organized by the non-for-profit VOYAGERS community (which is led by David Rowan, founding editor-in-chief of WIRED UK and much more).

This is not a conference. It’s a festival of product demonstrations, future food tastings, musical performances, art installations, a startup pitch competition, speed networking, an evening party, and more. Come meet 400 people in FoodTech and ClimateTech (e.g. Hoxton Farms, one.five, Carbo Culture, Formo, Regrow Ag, Pale Blue Dot, Zero Carbon Capital, Manta Ray, Financial Times, GQ, Innovate UK, EIT InnoEnergy, and the European Innovation Council). Use code FOODTECHFRIEND for a 10% discount as you register (prices will rise on June 5).

Also — what food startups should be there, given the climate theme? Maybe some within alt protein, alt chocolate, or alt coffee? Novel ingredients like algae, fungi, or insects? Or perhaps something around food waste or sustainable packaging? Should your startup (or its products) be there? Let me know!

This week's rundown:

• Solar Foods grabs €8M in funding for protein made from CO2 and electricity

• Betagro Ventures of Thailand launch $30M fund for early stage foodtech/agtech investing

• An emotional support alligator has gone missing in Georgia

Let's go!

Conversations

Recently I finally had the chance to speak with Grant Gordon about his journey with Essential. Grant got a Ph.D. in Political Science at Columbia, and has spent 15 years working across the UN and INGO space bringing new innovations to humanitarian crises. He decided to launch Essential two years ago (‘with my amazing co-founder and CTO Fre Tachea’) for three reasons: 

1. He believes next gen breakthroughs will come from startups, not big bureaucracies

2. He wants to address climate change, malnutrition, and food systems simultaneously 

3. He thinks there is an opportunity to leverage fermentation and biomanufacturing to tackle malnutrition and transform food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa 

Grant elaborates: ‘A lot of the R&D I did in my career felt like 10% incremental improvements. I wanted to launch a moonshot, something that could generate a breakthrough and deliver impact at scale.’

He knew that most households in low- and middle-income countries don’t get enough high-quality protein in their diets. ‘We’re talking about a billion people lacking sufficient access, and this has a negative impact on morbidity, mortality, wages, and so much more’, Grant explains and continues: ‘There is a lack of low-cost, high-quality proteins in low- and middle-income countries. Animal-sourced proteins are nutritious but unaffordable — and livestock supply chains will be hit by climate change; plant-based proteins are affordable but have partial amino acid profiles.’

Essential is solving this by using biomass fermentation to convert agricultural byproducts into proteins in semi stirred tank bioreactors. Fermentation is ‘uniquely powerful’, Grant points out, because it can generate large yields of protein 365 days per year, 24 hours per day, irrespective of the climate or climatic shocks that often destroy agricultural yields and kill livestock. Moreover, the protein they are producing has a 0.9 score using PDCAAS (which goes from 0 to 1), which is better than many animal-based and plant-based proteins. Essential dries and grinds the proteins they make into a powder, which can be integrated into foods and products to tackle malnutrition. They aim to create protein that’s cost competitive with soy.

‘Our goal is to catalyze commercial scale biomanufacturing in Sub Saharan Africa in the next 5 years, building in Kenya. We will generate enough protein to feed  ~3.5M+ children with the protein energy that they need annually. It’s a drop in the bucket, and we aim to pursue impact far greater than this. ’, Grant says.

Essential is building a pilot plant in Nairobi right now, which will produce a protein powder which will be sold B2B to food companies and institutional buyers. ‘Kenya is a great location for many reasons: the size of the problem in Kenya and the region, excellent infrastructure and talent, and a commitment from the Government to focus on climate-smart innovations’, Grant notes.

The company will have 15 FTEs by the end of 2024, and will grow to 25 next year. Essential has so far raised grant capital from various funders, and is planning to add private capital providers going forward.

Essential is looking for three things: (1) Dilutive and non-dilutive capital, (2) Partnerships with e.g. buyers and ecosystem players, and (3) advisory support from people who are great and smart, for formal or informal roles. Grant can be reached via email.

Noteworthy

• Solar Foods of Finland has bagged an additional €8M (appr. $8.5M) via Finnish investment organizer Springvest Oyj, bringing its total Series B raise to €16M (appr. $17M). The company produces protein using carbon dioxide and electricity.
  

• Farm to Feed of Nairobi, Kenya has fetched an investment from Renew Capital. The startup runs an online marketplace for imperfect but edible produce, and says it has rescued almost 2M lbs (0.9M kgs) of fresh produce from 800 farmers. Farm to Feed is also backed by BFA Global’s Catalyst Fund and philanthropic funders.

• California company Shinkei has reeled in $6M in Seed funding in a round led by Cantos and joined by e.g. 8VC, Impatient Ventures, and Susa/Humba Ventures. Shinkey has developed a technology with machine learning and robotics that it says is killing fish more humanely, while improving quality, taste, and shelf life.

• Jooules of New Zealand, which turns CO2 into protein ingredients, has scooped up NZ$1M (appr. $600K) in a preseed round led by Sprout Agritech.

• PheroSyn of the UK has received an investment (undisclosed sum) from Rockstart Agrifood. I interviewed Mary Ellis, Ph.D., CEO of PheroSyn, for FoodTech Weekly #162.

• Swedish mung bean based alt meat startup Oh Mungood has secured an undisclosed sum of investment.

• Edonia of Paris, France has scored €2M in pre-seed funding led by Asterion Ventures and joined by Bpifrance. The company creates plant-based meat ingredients using microalgae.

• Thai FoodTech company Betagro has launched Betagro Ventures, which comes with a $30M venture fund focused on early-stage FoodTech and AgTech startups.

• U.S. food retailer chains like Kroger, Walmart, and Albertsons as well as Aramark, Sodexo and others who signed the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment have managed to cut 24.8% in food waste between 2019 and 2022, equal to 190K tons. It has resulted in a 30% reduction in carbon footprints and a 37% lower water footprint.

• Nestlé adds sugar to infant milk sold in poorer countries, a new report says:

• Meridia of the Netherlands has raised €5.2M in Series A funding from e.g. Regeneration.VC, Edaphon, and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) to help companies detect and fix erroneous, fraudulent, and non-compliant agri data in real time.

• Quick commerce delivery company Getir has announced it’s retreating from all markets except from its founding country, Turkey. The delivery guys for quick commerce companies often don’t make much money, either.

• Black soldier fly producer Protix of the Netherlands has conducted an LCA showing that its insect meal reduces CO2 emissions by 78% vs conventional poultry meal (which is often used in pet food and livestock feed).

• Before They Hatch by Robert Yaman — interesting long-read in Asimov Press on how tech like in-ovo sexing can help improve welfare in the poultry sector.

• California startup Shiru has launched what it says is a first-of-its-kind discovery platform and marketplace for proteins called ProteinDiscovery.ai to help companies identify and test various types of proteins. The database contains 33M+ molecules that can be filtered by protein sequence, functional use, and successful expression.

News from the FoodTech Weekly community

• Nosh.bio (Germany) is looking for a Business Development Associate… Nutropy (France) is recruiting a Chief of Staff… Ecorobotix (USA) is on the hunt for a CEO, North America… FAIRR (UK) has an open role for a Senior Manager, Food Technology… Nūmi (France) is hiring for several positions incl. Lab Manager and Bioprocess Engineer.

• How important is a warm introduction when reaching out to a VC looking for investment? Steve Molino of Clear Current Capital dug through their data in a transparent post, and was blown away by what he found.

• Techstars Future of Food Accelerator Powered by Ecolab is working with entrepreneurs who are addressing critical challenges within the FoodTech ecosystem. This year, the program is focusing on five key areas: Restaurant and Retail Technology, Food Production, Labor, Supply Chain and Logistics, and Sustainability. Apply by May 22, 2024.

• I’ll join a panel at the Unleashed Pet Tech MeetUp in Stockholm on May 14, 2024. Want to attend the event (and meet up?). Investors can apply here, and startups apply here.

• VITO4STARTERS invites European startups focused on sustainability to participate and grow their ideas with technological support and infrastructure access. The winner receives €50,000 worth of expertise support from VITO. More info here.

• Are you working in R&D focused on alt proteins? Apply for GFI’s 2024 research grant. Proposals should target one of their three priority topic areas: (1) Upcycled plant proteins, (2) Next-gen fermentation downstream processing, (3) Optimization of hydrolysate production to enable lower-cost media. Deadline May 23, 2024 — apply here.

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

Random Stuff

• Danish butter magnate Lars Emil Bruun specified in his will that his 20,000-piece coin collection should remain intact and stored away for 100 years. The descendants have had to patiently wait. Now the time has come, and the $72M inheritance is up for sale.

• Speaking about gold, an active volcano in Antarctica is spewing tiny crystals of gold worth $6,000 every day.

• Someone put a dog costume on a Boston Dynamics robot dog and I now have new material for my nightmares:

• We’ll all seen the live action version of The Simpsons, but here’s the AI generated 1950s Simpsons (1 min video):

• Forget the Brooklyn hipsters and their upcycled bread to make artisanal beer; an ancient (well 6,000 year old) Sumerian recipe of turning old bread crusts into beer has been found.

• Some pranksters put on t-shirts with pictures of 🛑 STOP signs, and got WAYMO’s robot taxis to actually stop.

• Wally the emotional support alligator (!) is missing after a vacation with its owner Joie Henney in Georgia. Henney says he just wants his gator back, no questions asked (I have so many questions).

​I love you.
Daniel

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This issue was produced while listening to Wear Sunscreen by Mau Kilauea. 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.