FoodTech Weekly #196 by Daniel S. Ruben

FoodTech Weekly #196

Hi there,

On the one hand, Q1 2024 venture funding across all sectors declined to its lowest levels since Q2 2019. In FoodTech, we’ve seen the same story play out, not least in alternative proteins.

One the other hand, U.S. mycelium-meat scaleup Meati has just banked a $100M Series C1 round, marking the largest investment in an alt protein company since 2022. And Voyage Foods just announced a $52M round. And Insempra a $20M round. And so on, and so on.

So are we back? I don’t think so. But maybe we’ve hit the bottom, and the funding market has at least stabilized.

This week's rundown:

• Methane emission vaccine for cows scores $25M+ funding

• NitroCapt signs 15 LOIs for fossil free fertilizer factories

• There’s a new baguette king in Paris

Let's go!

Conversations

Got to know Dafna Gabbay, CEO and Co-Founder of Finally Foods, through a call recently. Dafna grew up in Tel Aviv, where she got to know the startup world by working at E&Y. She moved to New York and worked a number of years for ad agencies like Young & Rubicam, before returning to Israel where she started and ran a medical device company for almost a decade.

Last year, she was headhunted by (FoodTech/AgTech company builder) The Kitchen Hub to start and run Finally Foods together with Dr. Basia J. Vinocur, CTO. The company is tackling a tough challenge — how to deliver casein without animals (given the environmental and animal welfare issues) — and not just any casein, but functional casein with all 4 subunits (alpha S-1, alpha S-2, beta, and kappa).

Finally Foods edits the potato plant genome, giving it the same sequence that a mammal needs to produce protein. The potato plant is then grown in the field, and the functional casein is extracted from it, so that it can be used for different dairy applications, like cheese and yoghurt.

The company uses the AI engine of Evogene, which helps Finally Foods to pinpoint the desired sequences — to analyze the protein and visualize the genomic data: ‘This is our key differentiator’, Dafna explains, and continues:

‘We’re not trying to replace cows. They’re here to stay. But humanity needs to find additional sources for the proteins we need. Our company can be a significant B2B ingredient supplier of these proteins to various industries. Casein is just our first product.’

Dafna hopes that Finally Foods will be able to start supplying meaningful quantities in the coming years — and for regulatory reasons, the company first targets the Americas, as the crop will be genetically modified.

Finally Foods, which soon is adding its fourth team member, just closed a pre-seed round with The Kitchen Hub, and the company is planning to do a Seed round in the next few months.

Dafna mentions that beyond running an impact company, she finds an even deeper meaning in her work:

‘We’re two female founders. I have a clear agenda — I want to show the world that a mother of four (two sets of grown twins!) can also achieve her professional dreams, while still being a great mom. We’re the startup nation, and still have too few women founders. I hope that 50 years from now the world will be gender agnostic; until then we have more work to do to get to full equality.’

Finally Foods is interested in talking to investors, as well as with companies that can grow GM crops, especially in the Americas. Dafna can be reached via LinkedIn and email.

Noteworthy

• Meati of Colorado, which produces mycelium-based meat, has raised a $100M Series C1 funding round led by Grosvenor Food & AgTech, taking its total funding to $365M. The company is selling at 6,000 U.S. retail outlets.

• Voyage Foods of California has bagged $52M in fresh funding, co-led by Level One Fund and Horizons Ventures. The company is recreating popular products and flavors without the top nine allergens. It has e.g. developed peanut-free and hazelnut-free spreads, as well as bean-free coffee and cocoa-free chocolate (the latter two to combat deforestation).

• ArkeaBio of Boston, MA has hauled in $26.5M in Series A financing, led by current investor Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and joined by e.g. Rabo Ventures and AgriZeroNZ. The company develops a vaccine to reduce livestock methane emissions.

• CroBio of the U.K. has pulled in €1.45M ($1.6 million) in seed funding led by the Grantham Foundation for its technology that uses microbes that express a sponge-like material around crop roots, which boost root water retention capability, regenerates the soil, and also can combat GHG emissions.

• U.S. vertical farming startup Oishii has secured $15M in USDA loans to convert an old building into a vertical farm to produce its super premium Japanese strawberries.

• Insempra of Germany has drummed up $20M in Series A funding led by EQT Ventures. The company plans to produce lipids (fats and oils used in e.g. food and fashion) using yeast fermentation factories.

• SaaS startup KaryonFood of Dijon, France has harvested €1.3M (appr. $1.4M). The company facilitates data exchanges between AgriFood companies of all sizes, e.g. allowing food manufacturers to check out data from their own distributors to better manage their commercial activity. (h/t: DigitalFoodLab).

• Maia Farms of Vancouver, Canada has scooped up CAD $2.3M (appr. US $1.7M). The company produces CanPro, a mix of mushroom and plant protein, through biomass fermentation. The CanPro can then be used to create e.g. meatballs and burgers. Maia Farms’ round was led by Joyful Ventures, PIC Group, and Koan Capital.

• California-based startup Martie, which is selling overstock of shelf-stable products online, is raising a $3M to $4M extension.

• Alt dairy company Sproud of Malmö, Sweden has netted SEK 10M (appr. $0.9M) in funding from its current owners.

• Piracicaba, Brazil-based AgTech startup Smartbreeder has raised $2.9M from EcoEnterprises Fund. The company runs an AI-based crop yield platform that help big ag companies boost yields and become more environmentally sustainable.

• Poshn in India has harvested $4M in equity and $2M in pre-Series A funding from Prime Venture Partners and Zephyr Peacock India. The company helps organize the fragmented Indian food value chain, connecting buyers and suppliers.

• CULT Food Science of Canada has secured CAD$800K in new funding; the company owns Further Foods which sells dog food with a freeze-dried yeast protein to help replace factory-farmed chicken or beef.

• Uppsala-Sweden based NitroCapt has announced via press release that it has signed LOIs for 15 factories that will produce green fertilizer, saving 450K tons of CO2 of annual emissions. The factories represent over SEK 5.2B (appr. $480M) in commercial value (full disclosure: I have equity in NitroCapt).

News from the FoodTech Weekly community

• Proteme (France) is hiring a Sales/Business Developer… Vow (Australia) has a number of open roles… New School Foods (Canada) is recruiting a Food & Flavor Reaction Scientist… EIT Food (Belgium) is welcoming Investment Analyst Trainees… Improvin’ (Sweden) is recruiting a Full-stack engineer… Michroma (Argentina) is on the hunt for a Lab Technician.

• UPSIDE Foods has created a petition for people who want to show that they disagree with the brand new cultivated meat bans in Florida and Alabama. Click here to learn more and sign.

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

Random Stuff

• Where can you go by train in e.g. 1, 2, 4, or 8 hours? Use this smart interactive map to find out:

• Why you can’t get a restaurant reservation.

• 😱 ‘A little girl said monsters were in her bedroom. It was 60,000 bees.’

• More bees: A swarm delayed a baseball game, but a beekeeper came to the rescue.

• These coffee plants can alert farmers if they’re dry or diseases:

• Texas is adding 35% more solar capacity year over year.

• Paris has crowned a new king of baguettes in its annual Grand Prix de la baguette” prize. Winner Xavier Netry, a baker for 25 years, said the secrets of his success is a good sourdough starter, a good long fermentation, careful cooking, and ‘some love and some passion, of course.’

​I love you.
Daniel

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This issue was produced while listening to Glasshouses by Maribou State. 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.