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FoodTech Weekly #225 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
December 06, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #225
Hi there,
I attended a food policy & future of food event the other night at Norrsken House in Stockholm, with keynotes by Dr. Gunhild A. Stordalen (EAT Forum) and Line Gordon, Ph.D. (Stockholm Resilience Centre). While many things around global food systems are depressing, one thing to look forward to is the EAT-Lancet 2.0 report, slated to be released at the Oct 2025 EAT Stockholm Food Policy Forum. Yes, the forum is back, and it will even feature a global prize competition for startups — hosted by EAT, Antler, Katapult, and Norrsken. Keep an eye out on their SoMe channels for updates, or reach out to competition manager Lykke Westgren for more info.
Line Gordon of SRC at Norrsken House (yeah, I had a bad seat)
As a reminder, the first EAT-Lancet report was launched 5 years ago and was groundbreaking as it was the first evidence-based comprehensive framework to assess what food systems should look like to promote both human health and to stay within planetary boundaries (i.e. be environmentally sustainable). Summary reports in 12 languages can be found here. The report was criticized by e.g. the meat industry for advocating for reduced meat intake in many countries; others claimed EAT-Lancet advocated for unrealistic ‘one size fits all’-solutions. EAT-Lancet 2.0 aims to be even more nuanced and granular. It will be exciting to follow.
That same night (Wednesday this week) I also attended a high-level dinner with 50+ senior folks working on food system transformation; top chefs, farmers, retailers, investors, startups, academics, corporations, and ecosystem people. A few takeaways from the evening discussions:
The food system transformation is going way too slowly; everything is silofied and systems thinking is missing
Change needs to be evidence-based
Collaboration is key
Farmers and consumers are unable to absorb the transformation cost (and consumers don’t have the mental bandwidth either); large companies need to step up
The necessary technologies and solutions exist; funding doesn’t
Ultimately, politicians need to take responsibility; listen to the science, provide the necessary funding, and shape regulations to boost food systems that advance healthy people and a healthy planet (but, as ex-President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker once noted, ‘We all know what to do, but we don’t know how to get re-elected once we have done it.’).
See you at HackSummit NYC next week?
This week's rundown:
🍫 Endless Food Co nabs €1M for cocoa-free chocolate
🧮 Why the economics of vertical farming don’t work
👦 John Deere now has a Chief Tractor Kid
Let's go!
💰 Funding
🇳🇱 Cradle Bio has secured $73M in Series B funding led by IVP. The company helps scientists speed up protein development for e.g. food and ag, which cuts costs.
🇫🇷 Kapsera has closed a €4.2M (appr. $4.4M) Series A for microbial-based biofertilizers and biopesticides. New and existing investors included e.g. The Yield Lab, Banque des Territoires, Demeter, Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Bpifrance.
🇨🇭 Kitro has raised a Series A round (sum undisclosed) from Zintinus and Pymwymic. The startup offers an automated food waste data collection and analysis solution for foodservice / hospitality actors, and is already present in 20+ countries. The solution tracks and records all discarded items in professional kitchens, helping chefs and managers point food waste issues and take action, which saves costs and cuts food waste.
🇳🇴 Biotech firm Vestland Pharma has reeled in NOK 12M (appr. $1.1M) from Sarsia and Coast Seafood. The startup has developed a natural compound which combats salmon lice, a massive challenge that costs the seafood industry around NOK 18B (appr. $1.6B) annually. Vestland has also received a NOK 10.6 (appr. $1M) grant from Innovation Norway’s Environmental Technology Scheme.
🇩🇰 Endless Food Co has bagged a €1M (appr. $1.05M) pre-seed round led by Nordic FoodTech VC and backed by EIFO and Rockstart, and announced a ‘major commercial partnership’ with 7-Eleven Denmark to launch products with Endless’ chocolate alternative THIC, made from upcycled brewer’s spent grain. I met Max and Christian of Endless and interviewed them for FoodTech Weekly earlier this year.
Endless Food Co
🎙️ Investment Climate: Laurel Orley of Daily Crunch shares how to get funded in 2024
This week, Alex Shandrovsky spoke to Lauren Orley, CEO/Co-Founder of Daily Crunch Snacks, a women-owned certified and mental health mission-driven company bringing innovation to a trusty but dusty nut snack category via its sprouted nuts. Daily Crunch raised $4M in Series A earlier this fall. The episode is available on Spotify and Apple.
Top three findings from this conversation:
Daily Crunch positions itself firmly in the nut category instead of trying to compete across multiple categories. ‘You cannot be everything to everyone, or you're nothing to nobody. The nut is a massive multi billion dollar category in the U.S. Right now, our share in the category is 0.1%. Which means we have a lot of opportunity for growth in this category before even considering going into another category.’
The team carefully selected investors aligned with the brand's vision and said no to those who didn’t feel like a good fit: ‘If your gut is telling you that they're the wrong people, they're the wrong people, and you should not let them in.’
Using a structured, phased fundraising process and regular updates kept potential investors engaged and encouraged participation. ‘We did a three-wave close. Once we closed wave one, I’d send out an email: “Here are the updates, and we just launched in Target.” All of a sudden, people would say, “Oh yeah, shoot, I missed wave one, but count me in for wave two.”’
🧐 Noteworthy
📉 The economics of vertical farming just don’t work, Hannah Ritchie argues, but notes that cheaper LED lights and electricity systems may change the prospects — although that could take decades.
🐟 Singapore-based startup BioDefense has developed a ‘tasteless, odorless, and invisible’ coating that can boost shelf life of fish by 2-3x.
💹 FoodTech funding in Japan has jumped 58% year-over-year to $280M across 93 deals, AgFunder reports. The real figure is higher since another 53 investments occurred with an unknown funding amount.
🌐 Investors representing $6.5T (yes, trillion) in assets have engaged with seven seafood companies to improve supply-chain traceability in an effort to stop overfishing.
💧NASA satellites reveal an ‘abrupt drop’ in global freshwater levels starting in May 2014 (agriculture uses around 70% of all freshwater globally).
🌍 News from the FoodTech Weekly community
👨🏻💻 Planetary (🇨🇭) is hiring a Industrial Fermentation Plant Manager.
💰 Call for Agri/Food Tech founders: Abu Dhabi is launching a new edition of FoodTech Challenge with non-dilutive capital deployment for finalists, and a straightforward and simple application. Deadline Dec 12, 2024; more info here.
🆓 US-based pitch deck building service Deck Doctors is launching in Europe and is offering free pitch deck advice to founders over email until end of this year. They’ve helped 250+ clients build winning pitch decks, and specialize in storytelling, brand positioning, and design — not one or the other. Reach out to Yorán Meijers with your deck.
🧑🏽🔬 In need of lab space in Stockholm (🇸🇪)? Lab space for rent — more info here, or contact Sebastian Ahlskog.
👩🔬 In need of office space in London (🇬🇧)? Win-Win has space at Rubber Studios at Hackney Wick.
🤝 Shannon Dobbs is looking for collaborators: ‘We're building a revolutionary food system pilot in Colorado that turns urban food waste into rural prosperity through biodigestion, regenerative agriculture, and improved healthy food access - with millions in federal and private investor funding available to prove the model. My ultimate goal is creating a network of independent, locally-owned hubs worldwide, and we're seeking knowledge partners (global experts), implementation partners (local leaders), and strategic collaborators (complementary innovators) to help refine and scale this transformative approach. Join our growing ecosystem of climate impact leaders - whether you're an expert, local changemaker, or strategic innovator - by reaching out.’
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
🎲 Random Stuff
🏠 Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is unable to sell his £10M beachfront mansion, because an admin error means he’s not the actual owner (h/t Nordic9)
🐻 A bear in Japan attacked a supermarket employee, hid in the store for 3 days, and ate ‘large quantities’ of meat; authorities were forced to euthanize it. Experts say a ‘steady fall in the number of children, whose noisier behaviour helps keeps bears away, is another factor behind the rise in incidents in country towns and villages.’ [note to self: Where is Lisa Simpons’s tiger-repellent rock when you need it?]
🥚 Cracking the recipe for perfect plant-based eggs.
🤖 Me reading a headline, vs. how my mind wanders off:
🧀 The Mad Cheese Scientists Fighting to Save the Dairy Industry; good read in Bloomberg.
🚜 John Deere has announced a (nine-year-old) Chief Tractor Kid who will help create content for their social media channels and it’s pretty wholesome:
I love you.
Daniel
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🎵 This issue was produced while listening to You’ll Never Walk Alone by Marcus Mumford.
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