FoodTech Weekly #215 by Daniel S. Ruben

FoodTech Weekly #215

Hi there,

Friday last week I was at Harwell Science Campus (south of Oxford) in the U.K. for climatetech festival 🔥THE HEAT; some cool pictures and my takeaways here!

This week I’ve spent in Dubai for Gulfood Green and its Food for Future Summit, where I had the honor of giving the opening keynote, and judge the Grand Final of a pitch competition where the winner bagged $50K. Here’s some of my reflections and highlights of the events and of Dubai.

This week's rundown:

🥛 Helaina of NYC drums up $45M in funding to bring its lactoferrin product to market
💵 Notpla closes £20M (appr. $27M) round for seaweed-based sustainable packaging
🐻 Bears with serious cravings raid donut truck (we’ve all been there)

Let's go!

💬 Conversation with David Cerami of REST

Coffee is a universally beloved product, and demand is increasing. But coffee cultivation is under pressure, says David Cerami: ‘Simply put, our love of coffee and the demand we're placing on a diminishing supply due to climate change and deforestation is straining the industry, squeezing margins, making coffee more expensive than it's been before for consumers, and creating pressure on an industry we rely upon daily.’

David and REST — the company he is leading — is working toward a future where coffee can continue to thrive without compromising taste and cost using shelf-stable ingredients that are good for you, and good for the planet. Read my conversation with David here.

💰 Funding

🇺🇸 NYC-based precision fermentation startup Helaina has secured $45M in Series B funding led by Avidity Partners to help commercialize its lactoferrin product (a breast milk equivalent protein) in the U.S. later this year. Helaina has raised $83M in total.

🇳🇱 Meatable, which develops cultivated pork and sausage dumplings, was just fois gras’d with a €7.6M (appr. $8.5M) grant from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency.

🇪🇪 ÄIO, which develops alternatives to animal fats, palm, and coconut oil, has raised €6.1M in Series A funding from 2C Ventures, Nordic FoodTech VC, SmartCap, and Voima Ventures. I met and interviewed Petri-Jaan Lahtvee and Nemailla Bonturi, the founders of ÄIO, back in Feb 2023; check it out, it has some fun quotes!

🇺🇸 Ecovative of NYC, which uses mycelium to make e.g. a plant based bacon called MyBacon as well as e.g. mushroom packaging and sustainable leather, has pulled in $28M in new funding; the company has now raised $145M in total since 2019.

🇬🇧 Notpla, which makes plastic-free packaging such as the Ooho edible bubble made from seaweed, has scored £20M (appr. $27M) in fresh funding led by United Bankers and joined by Temasek’s Catalytic Capital for Climate & Health (C3H) fund as well as existing investors Astanor and Horizons Ventures. Notpla now aims to expand in the U.S. (Notpla was actually one of half a dozen or so exciting FoodTech / sustainable packaging startups that we had exhibit at 🔥THE HEAT last week — see some pics below).

🇳🇿 Lucidome Bio, which develops a cattle vaccine to block methane emissions, has received NZ$ 13.5M (appr. $8.5M) from AgriZero and the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre.

🇮🇱 Plant-based seafood startup Oshi has reeled in a ILS 2M (appr. $550K) grant from the Israel Innovation Authority.

🇬🇧 Biotech startup Fermtech of Oxford has exceeded its £325k (appr. $435K) crowdfunding target on Crowdcube. The company develops a clean-label protein by growing fungi from food waste (spent grain from a local brewery); the ingredient can then be used in alternative protein products (Fermtech, btw, was also part of the future of food exhibition I curated at 🔥THE HEAT last week).

🇸🇪 Pea milk startup Sproud International has bagged SEK 14.4M (appr. $1.4M) in new funding at a pre-money valuation of SEK 60.3M (appr. $6M). The company raised SEK 10M (appr. $1M) back in March this year.

🇩🇪 Pork alternatives startup Raging Pig has filled the piggy bank by closing its Seed funding round. Investors included Sprout & About Ventures, Livian, Solvable Syndicate, and a number of select business angels. The company will use the funding for product development of its plant-based sausages. (Full disclosure, I’m Founding Partner of Solvable Syndicate which joined the round).

🧐 Noteworthy

🥬 Spanish researchers have developed a ‘super golden lettuce’ that’s increasing beta-carotene levels by 30x without disrupting photosynthesis. Beta-carotene is the main pre-cursor to vitamin A, which supports e.g. healthy vision, a strong immune system, and cell growth (h/t Better Bioeconomy).

🍔 Protein transition initiative Nectar has done a comprehensive survey about blended meat, which shows that Americans prefer half-meat, half-plant burgers and nuggets more than the market-leading fully animal-derived products, Green Queen reports. Visual one-pager from Nectar here.

📈 Extreme weather is driving up the price of food, this report claims.

🐄 The University of Kentucky has been awarded a $910K USDA grant to explore how drones can be used in herding beef cattle in a safe and effective way. The drones will adjust operations based on the behavior or movement of animals.

🌹 Geneticists recently discovered the gene that accounts for thorns and prickles in e.g. roses. They believe gene edited, smooth-stemmed plants may eventually arrive at garden centers for purchase.

🌍 News from the FoodTech Weekly community

🔖 Cellular Agriculture Australia has released a new report, “Impact Metrics and Claims: Considerations for the Cellular Agriculture Industry” which highlights key considerations for the industry concerning the measurement, reporting, and communication of its impact. Access it here.

🧑‍💻 Phytoform (U.K.) is hiring a Senior Technician.

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

🎲 Random Stuff

🟡 Swedish company Sanitation360 turns urinal pee from festivals to fertilizer (1 min video) (h/t AGFO).

🧀 If you’re into aged cheese, researchers dug up a 3,600 year old cheese in Xinjiang, China — it was found together with mummified human remains.

🍩 A few bears were caught on camera raiding a Krispy Kreme donut van in Alaska. Says store manager Shelly Deano of JMM Express: ‘I was beating on the van and they're not moving. I could hear them breaking open the packages and everything’ […] They don't even care.'

​I love you.
Daniel

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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, HackGroup, 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.