FoodTech Weekly #21 by Daniel S. Ruben

FoodTech Weekly #21

Hi there,

There's a lot of noise and negativity in media and politics, but I'm a strong believer that the best days of humanity are still ahead of us. Sadly, as Morgan Housel notes (in this excellent quick read that you should check out!),'pessimism is intellectually seductive in a way optimism only wishes it could be.'

The media company Warp News is built on fact-based optimism, focusing on the possibilities with new technology, ideas, and collaboration. They've convened a group of six experts (including Sweden's first astronaut Christer Fuglesang) to provide commentary on science- and tech-related news and breakthroughs, for Warp News' Premium Subscribers. And I'm one of these six experts; I'll focus on FoodTech and innovation in the food ecosystem.

So make sure to sign up for the free Warp News newsletter, and consider becoming a Premium Subscriber. Just trust your gut on this (because why not allow millions of bacteria to collectively make a crucial decision for you?).

Onwards.

Highlights

• Conversations: Nnaemeka Ikegwuono (ColdHubs) and Larsen Mettler (S2G Ventures)

• Noteworthy: Vertical farm startup Plenty raises $140M; non-browning apples hits convenience store market; X (Google's moonshot lab) announces ag robot startup Mineral; Danish Agrointelli raises €14.5M for smart ag robots

• The Profile: Analisa Winther

• Random Stuff: Bear-proofing coolers; BIV call for alternative protein startups; cow masks. And more.

Conversations

• Spoke with Nnaemeka Ikegwuono at ColdHubs in Nigeria this week. Nnaemeka is a farmer, innovator, a social entrepreneur, the Founder/CEO of the Smallholder Foundation (and much more - he has received 23 awards, e.g. Ashoka Fellow, Rolex Awardee, Nigeria's Young Person of the Year, Nigeria International Food Prize Laureate, etc). He got the idea for ColdHubs when he was a radio broadcaster in 2003, educating people about agriculture via radio. He interviewed a man in a market, who had a van full of cabbage. The next day, Nnaemeka found the same man, with another van of cabbage; the man explained that it was cheaper to just throw out the unsold cabbage at the end of the day than to bring it back home. This market vendor said that there should be some way to store produce at the marketplace. Nnaemeka realized there was no dry or cold storage at the market. In 2014, he built the first cold room -- farmers and market vendors loved it, allowing them to rent space in a cold room when needed. ColdHubs had been born, and the company took in investment from Factor[e]. Today, ColdHubs has 24 solar-powered cold rooms across Nigeria, each run by 2 women -- and the company has thousands of customers. By the end of 2020, there'll be many more cold rooms up and running, and next year the company is planning to add refrigerated vehicles. This whole revolution is being enabled by dramatically lower costs for solar panels and batteries, allowing ColdHubs to cut the cost of delivering a cold room almost by half. The company plans to increase the storage space from 3 to 10 tons, and expand to deprived coastal communities that would benefit from ice blocks for the keeping of fish, shrimp, and crab (that spoil quickly without refrigeration). In 2021, ColdHubs plans to raise a $3M to $5M Series A to continue its expansion. If you'd like to get in touch with Nnaemeka, he can be reached here.

• Chicago-based FoodTech VC firm S2G Ventures recently announced the establishment of a new oceans and seafood investment team, with a $100M mandate. I was excited to see this; it's a complex and fragmented industry, with very few dedicated VCs. I had the chance to chat with Larsen Mettler, who helps lead the new S2G oceans/seafood team. Larsen has previously been the CFO of Silver Bay Seafoods (a fishermen-owned seafood processor in Alaska and California) for several years, and prior to that, he was an investment banker for 12 years. So he knows seafood, and he knows finance. S2G will be investing across the entire ocean/seafood value chain, from pre-seed to Series C. Larsen is interested in e.g. algae, seaweed, carbon sequestration, plant-based proteins, sensors, things that can help acquire data about the ocean, things that shorten the cold chain or reduce cost (e.g. more automation), and aquaculture, just to give a few examples. To get hold of Larsen, you can email him here.

Noteworthy​

• U.S. vertical farming company Plenty has raised an additional $140M (taking total funding north of $500M), led by existing investor SoftBank; one new investor is berry giant Driscoll's. Plenty and Driscoll's also announced that they've agreed to start growing strawberries together. This is big news, as the vertical indoor farming industry so far mainly has managed to profitably produce leafy greens and herbs (and marijuana). Plenty and Driscoll's hopes they'll be able to grow strawberries locally in regions that currently lack access to this berry.

• Canadian company Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSF) is launching the Arctic Apple into the convenience store market, in two varieties; Arctic Golden, and Arctic Granny. OSF has silenced the PPO enzyme in apples, that make apples go brown when cut or bruised. This means a longer shelf life and long fresh appearance of sliced apples, meaning food waste is reduced. OSF is also working on other products, like non-browning raspberries and avocados. I tried some Arctic Apples at New Harvest conference 2017 in New York; they were good (pictures below), and they don't go brown.

  

  The Arctic Apple

• Israeli startup Zero Egg has entered the U.S. market, initially going for B2B -- going head to head with the JUST Egg. Zero egg produces a plant-based egg using ingredients such as e.g. soy protein, pea flour, chickpea protein, and potato protein. The company has raised about $3M to date.

• X, the moonshot lab of Alphabet (parent company of Google), has announcedMineral, an electrically-powered ag robot that can navigate fields and gather tons of data. By combining imagery and data with other data sets such as satellite imagery, weather data, and soil information, the farmer gets a more full picture of what's happening in the field. This can help farmers reduce the use of fertilizers, chemicals, and precious resources like water, and increase productivity. Speaking about robots, this week Danish startup Agrointelli took in €14.5M in fresh capital. The company's robot Robotti can be used for things like tilling, seeding, weeding, and precision spraying.

  

  Image: Mineral

• California startup Bespoken Spirits has raised $2.6M, which they hopefully will enjoy responsibly; the company claims it can accelerate whiskey aging. By using machine learning to actively control processes and chemical reactions, Bespoken says it can create aged whiskey in just a few days. Despite concerns from critics, the company has won awards at competitions for its whiskey.

The Profile

Analisa Winther is an ecosystem developer with a focus on FoodTech, sharing her time between Scandinavia and New York (at least before the pandemic). She works for Gro Intelligence, a super cool ag data platform company. She runs the Nordic FoodTech podcast (where I was interviewed back in September). She's building a coaching practice focused on working with high growth leaders. And in a previous life, she was a venture scout for a large Nordic FMCG (CPG) company in the food space. In short, she's connected to everyone, everywhere -- helping to build the FoodTech ecosystem by breaking down silos, matchmaking, and facilitating partnerships. As such, she's instrumental in advancing the entire FoodTech ecosystem.
 

Random Stuff

• XPRIZE is seeking leaders and organizations -- e.g. FoodTech experts, innovative chefs, resource provides, institutions, and amplification partners -- to reimagine tomorrow's proteins. More info here.

• These 12 organizations are turning food waste into new products like soups, sauces, beer, ingredients, and more.

• Alternative proteins accelerator Big Idea Ventures (BIV), where I'm a mentor, is open for applications for its accelerator's third cohort. Startups accepted into BIV (which is located in New York and Singapore) receive a $125K cash investment plus $75K in in-kind services and products, plus much more. Apply by October 20.

• U.K. startup Zelp, Zero Emissions Livestock Project, has developed a wearable device for cows, weighing less than 100 grams (3.5 oz), that sits above the cow's nostrils (so it's not looking fully like Bane in Batman). When the cow burps, the methane is sucked into a methane-absorbing filter. The company, which has taken in $1.2M in funding thus far, claims it can reduce the daily cow methane emissions by about 1/3.

  

  Image: Zelp

• The Grizzle and Wolf Discovery Center(GWDC) in West Yellowstone, Montana, uses bears to test coolers and containers, to see if these products are worthy of bear-proof certification. The goal is to have the container last 60 minutes. Bears, just like humans, crave calorie-dense food and will do a lot to get to it.

​I love you.
Daniel
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Disclosures: I'm a consultant to the Rockefeller Foundation Food Team. I'm a mentor at accelerators Katapult Ocean, Big Idea Ventures, and Bloomer. I'm an advisor to Noquo Foods, BIOMILQ, Volta Greentech, Veat, IRRIOT, Rootically, Holistal, Vultus, and Ignitia; 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 as regards to any investment, divestment or retention decision taken by readers of this newsletter content.