FoodTech Weekly #223 by Daniel S. Ruben

FoodTech Weekly #223

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Had lots of fun at TONIC Food Business Summit in Helsinki (🇫🇮) this week, including joining a panel (pic below) on decarbonizing the food system, which was moderated by Charlie from Rubio Impact Ventures and joined by Adrian of FoodLabs and Silla of Future Food Fund.

I also ate SO much stuff from the startup exhibition (In my defense, I was left unsupervised). Tried e.g. the zero-carb sushi from KING Konjak made from konnyaku potato — very similar to sushi rice, and shelf stable for 6 months in ambient temperatures. I sampled product from SuperGround, the company I interviewed here recently. Had yummy instant pizza from pizza vending machine startup Fizza (quick explainer video here), the Spicy Italian sandwich from Rebl Eats, and more.

There was a pitch competition too, won by Harvest.AI (although I was really intrigued by e.g. Aircohol and Untap). And lots of networking. And yes, Gin and Tonic was served. Juoda perseet olalle, as the Finns say.

Next up? HackSummit NYC on Dec 12-13, which is going to be a blast. I hope to see many of you there 🗽

This week's rundown:

💶 Foodji lands €25M for healthy, fresh vending machine food
🇪🇺 Impossible Foods clears EFSA regulatory hurdle for its heme
🍓 Oishii scores $16M to grow luxury strawberry production

Let's go!

💬 Conversation with Lawrence Pratt of ClearLeaf

“Fungicides are effective, they are off-patent so they are cheap, and are easy to use. The primary problem is the overuse of very, very toxic chemicals that poison farmers, their kids, farm workers, the soils, and ultimately consumers. Fungicides are neurotoxicologic and carcinogenic. They’re the most problematic substances on Earth, and are used in insane quantities, far more than recommended. There are thousands of deaths annually through direct exposure,” says Lawrence Pratt of ClearLeaf in Costa Rica which develops and sells bacterial fungicides, that can be applied pre- and post-harvest, that are effective, and have no detrimental effects to plants, animals, or humans. Read the full conversation here.

💰 Funding

🇺🇸 Plantible Foods has raked in a $30M Series B round co-led by Siddhi Capital and Piva Capital, and backed by Betagro Ventures, Cultivate Next (Chipotle’s VC arm), Nourish Ventures, and Astanor Ventures. The company produces RuBisCo protein from the fast-growing aquatic plant lemna, a.k.a. duckweed.

🇫🇷 Agribiotech scaleup Elicit Plant, which produces phytosterols (a plant-derived sterol similar to animal cholesterol) used as a biostimulant to enhance plant health, has raised €45M (appr. $47M) in Series B funding led by Carbyne Equity Partners and joined by e.g. ECBF, Sofinnova Partners, and Ecotechnologies 2 Fund.

🇧🇪 BiocSol which specializes in sustainable microbial-based crop protection has bagged €5.2M (appr. $5.5M) in a Seed round led by Agri Investment Fund and Vives Inter-University Fund, and joined by e.g. Invest.BW and IMBC Spinnova Sa.

🇫🇷 Innovafeed has been awarded a $11.8M USDA grant to develop its insect-based fertilizer (also known as frass) in the U.S. The firm is planning a large-scale black soldier fly larvae rearing and processing facility in Illinois.

🇩🇪 Foodji, which supplies SMEs with healthy and fresh food through flexible food vending machines, has secured €25M (appr. $26M) in financing from P Capital Partners. The company will now expand in Germany and throughout Europe.

🇬🇷 Ocean 14 Capital has invested in AquaManager, a technology provider for software, IoT, and AI in aquaculture.

🇨🇭 Seaweed-based packaging startup B’ZEOS has closed a €5M+ (appr. $5.2M) Seed round and strategic partnerships with Faber and ICIG Ventures. B’ZEOS solutions are 100% bio-based, home-compostable, and compatible with existing packaging production lines.

🇮🇱 Phytolon, which produces natural food colors via precision fermentation, has secured an undisclosed investment from Rich Product Ventures and other investors incl. EIT Food.

🇳🇱 Cultivated meat startup Meatable has fetched a strategic investment from Betagro Ventures, VC arm of Thai agrifood/meat company Betagro. Meatable had totaled $95M in capital funding before this round. The company now plans to expand its market presence in Asia.

🇺🇸 Oishii has banked another $16M in financing (this time from Resilience Reserve), bringing total funding to $150M. The company runs high-tech indoor production facilities for luxury Koyo and Omakase strawberries, that are then sold for about $10 per 8-count at e.g. Whole Foods and other grocers. Oishii also sells Rubi Tomato products.

🧐 Noteworthy

🌏 So far in 2024, APAC (Asia Pacific) AgriFoodTech startups have raised $4.2B across 616 deals; a 38% year-over-year increase, a new report from AgFunder shows.

💶 Nucleus Capital has launched a new €40M fund (already 90% closed) focused on startups rethinking food production or industrial production using synbio. The fund will back pre-seed and seed stage companies mainly in Europe but also the U.S.

😵 Vegan meal kit startup Allplants has moved to appoint administrators, a step typically taken when a company is about to become insolvent, Sifted reports.

✅ The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) GMO panel has issued a positive opinion on Impossible Foods’ heme protein ingredient (soy leghemoglobin). This opens the path towards the company bringing its products to the EU market.

📉 Cultivated seafood startup Forsea Foods says it has recorded the highest-ever level of cell density (300M cells per ml) in the cultivated meat and seafood industry, allowing it to further cut costs of its eel meat. The company aims to launch a cultivated unagi in Japan in 2026.

🧾 Denmark has adopted the world’s first tax on ag emissions, including cow methane burps, after months of negotiations between political parties, farmers, industry, trade unions, and environmental groups. From 2030 farmers will have to pay a DKK 300 levy ($43) per ton of methane on emissions from livestock, and the amount will rise to DKK 750 ($105) in 2035.

💉 More than 800M people worldwide suffer from diabetes, a new study published in the Lancet finds. Rates of diabetes in adults have doubled from 7% to 14% between 1990 and 2022.

🧀 Why luxury cheese is being targeted by black market criminals.

👅 Can you taste design? Fascinating read on how typography influences and impacts our senses (e.g. how the taste of a jelly bean changes when paired with a different font, or what coffee or wine people will choose simply going off the font being used to present the word ‘coffee’ or ‘wine’).

🇭🇰 Australian cultivated meat startup Vow has received regulatory approval from the Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety, meaning the company will launch its foie gras product (called Forged Gras) made from cultivated quail cells. The dish will be priced at around $49.

🌍 News from the FoodTech Weekly community

🧑‍🌾 Top 50 Farmers, which catalyzes the regenerative agriculture movement, is open for nominations.

🏆 Seeding the Future Global Food System Challenge will award up to $1M to teams that create impactful innovations that can help improve our food system. Applications are open now until Jan 6, 2025.

☕ Cash & Carry Syndicate has shared some insightful observations on the evolving coffee market, showing how rising costs and changing habits are reshaping the industry and driving innovations. Plenty of new exciting startups are listed.

🧑‍💻 Fermify (Austria) is hiring a Food Scientist.

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

🎲 Random Stuff

😧 Brazilians spent 20% of the government’s flagship social programs’ payments on online gambling sites in August.

🤷 Lindt has admitted its chocolate isn’t actually ‘expertly crafted with the finest ingredients’ after a U.S. lawsuit (because frankly, where else?) questioned the presence of heavy metals such as lead in dark chocolate bars from e.g. Lindt.

🦠 Restaurant critic gets food poisoning.

🛰️ Japanese scientists have launched the world’s first wooden satellite, LignoSat, into space; it will now orbit Earth at about 400km above the surface. The researchers believe the wood is more sustainable both in production and when re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. The team now wants to use honoki timber to build houses on the Moon and Mars (h/t Not My Problem).

​I love you.
Daniel

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🎵 This issue was produced while listening to Golden Slumbers by The Beatles.
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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.