- FoodTech Weekly
- Posts
- FoodTech Weekly #26 by Daniel S. Ruben
FoodTech Weekly #26 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
November 20, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 13 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #26
Hi there,
Next week there'll be a small change to the newsletter; I thought about ways of amplifying all the cool things you're up to. So - we'll start a section called 'Community updates' (or something like that). If you're e.g. looking for a foodtech co-founder or to do a key recruitment, plan to raise a round for your startup, have published an interesting report or blog post, gave an interesting speech or will be hosting an interesting event -- anything foodtech related, then send me a note, and I'll try to include it. To make sure the newsletter remains a quick and fun read, I'll remove the 'Profile' section.
OK, what else is new? Arman Anatürk and I are continuing our series of mapping FoodTech startups, that could be impactful in terms of sustainability, nutrition, and market share capture. This week, we did Israeli FoodTech startups:
🍬 DouxMatok- Developing sugar reduction solutions (up to 40% less in food applications)
🥩 SuperMeat- Cell-based chicken meat producer
🌲 SeaTree- Insights and actionable analytics that helps farmers optimize tree health and production
🥜 Ukko- Designing proteins that do not trigger allergic responses
📱 Lumen- Measures metabolism in real-time through a device and app, enabling daily personalized nutrition
🥛 Innovopro- Chickpea protein used in food productions such as e.g. non-dairy milk beverages
📦 TIPA- Biodegradable packages for e.g. the food and beverage sectors
🥚 Zero Egg- Plant-based eggs
🌾 CropX- Ag analytics startup powered by Big Data and machine learning, which can help optimize irrigation
🚜 Taranis- Precision ag solution allowing farmers to monitor fields and make better-informed decisions
The full list of 60 startups can be foundhere on FoodHack. What country should we do next?Comment here!
On with the show.
Highlights
Conversations: Gastón Paladini and Catalina Jones (Moolec Sciences)
Noteworthy: InnovaFeed builds the world's largest insect-as-feed plant; record-breaking $8.7B invested in FoodTech Jan-Sep 2020; the U.K. prepares total ban on online junk food ads; vertical farming startup Urban Oasis raises $1.2M
The Profile: Melissa Ho (WWF)
Random Stuff: Hyperventilation may stop alcohol poisoning; how the imperiled American ginseng could be saved; why the Italian police took a kidney for a ride in a Lamborghini. And more.
Conversations
Spoke with Gastón Paladini and Catalina Jones of Argentine/UK molecular farming company Moolec Science this week. While alternative protein companies typically use either plant-based or cell-based technologies, Moolec uses a combination of the two; using plant cells to produce large quantities of a substance from proteins. The ultimate goal is to produce meat alternatives, by using plants as bioreactors. Gastón has a background in the meat industry; his family has operated a business there for generations in Argentina (the Paladini Group). In the last few years, Gastón started thinking whether it'd be possible to produce meat in a different way. Eventually, that led him to Moolec. The startup, which is backed by Bioceres Ventures and Union Group and has currently 8 employees, is doing molecular engineering in plants, that can express e.g. pork or beef proteins, to create a plant/cell-based hybrid. Moolec is interested in collaborating with other parts of the alternative protein ecosystem. They're also hiring and will raise a Seed round in Q1 2021. If anything of this sounds interesting, please get in touch with Gastón and Catalina.
Plants and cells. Image: Moolec
Noteworthy
A new report from Finistere Ventures says that $8.37B was invested in FoodTech for the first three quarters of 2020 -- this is more than the $7B that the sector raised during all of 2019. Finistere's Co-Founder Arama Kukutai said that while he doesn't expect the valuation of these FoodTech startups to collapse anytime soon, in 2021 more startups will be 'forced to prove both their ability to scale to profitability and deliver return on investment.'
Some alternative protein news: Japanese plant-based meat firm Next Meats has developed a plant-based yakiniku; Indian cell-based meat firm Clear Meat is developing cell-based chicken mince; Aleph Farms has unveiled a prototype of its first commercial cultivated steak product; new startup Jellatech which just launched will produce cell-based collagen and gelatin; Unilever plans for €1B in annual sales of plant-based meat and dairy products by 2027, and a new report from Michal Klar and Sonalie Figueiras estimates that more than $230M was invested in alternative protein startups in the Asia Pacific region during the last 12 months:
Insects-as-feed producer InnovaFeed has closed a new €140M round. The company claims that its production facility in Nesle, France is the world's largest operating plant for insect-as-feed. It can produce 15,000 tons of insect protein per year when at full capacity, enough to feed 400,000 fish, poultry, and pigs per year. Meanwhile, a group of researchers led by the University of California, Santa Cruz say they have developed a new aqua feed made of two sources of marine algae. The novel feed can replace fishmeal and fish oil (ingredients that reached its peak production many years ago), and is more nutritious and has a lower cost.
Startups and scientists are working to make livestock production less environmentally harmful and more future-proof. Some recent examples: An indoor vertical farm from Grōv Technologies that grows cow feed, to reduce the land-use (41% of the contiguous U.S. is used to grow feed for farm animals); CRISPR'ed cows that are more heat tolerant; and the seaweed grown and fed to cows by Volta Greentech, that reduces cow methane emissions by up to 80-90%. (Speaking about seaweed, this week the Bezos Earth Fund announced $100M in awards to projects including scaling up sustainable seaweed farming).
The U.K. government has made public its plans to implement a total ban on online junk food advertising (a.k.a. doof). The proposal, which would affect foods deemed too high in fat, salt, and sugar, is now subject to a six-week consultation. The ban aims to the obesity epidemic in the U.K -- 1 out of 3 children leaving primary school are overweight or obese; as are two-thirds of all U.K. adults.
Some vertical farming news coming out of Sweden: Agtech firm Swegreen has secured $1M in funding from Sweden's innovation agency Vinnova. The funds will be used to provide proof of concept for autonomous vertical farming facilities, developing an AI-based platform for precision farming, and more. And vertical farming startup Urban Oasis has announceda $1.2M raise. The company already produces leafy greens like kale, bok choi, and lettuce in its Stockholm vertical farm for major Swedish food retailers. The new funds will be used to e.g. build a bigger farm which will expand production capacity 15-20x. Says Albert Payaró Llisterri, CEO and Co-Founder of Urban Oasis: “We are rethinking the way food is produced and consumed. Today Sweden imports more than €2.4B worth of greens and vegetables from abroad. Growing produce where people live not only decreases transportation and climate impact, it also increases the freshness, taste, and nutrition of the greens and vegetables. By leveraging the latest technology, we are building the food production platform for the 21st century.”
The Urban Oasis team
The Rising Tide Collective was launched Thursday this week by a group of European investors. Any founder or aspiring entrepreneur with an idea that looks to address humanity's greatest challenges is welcome to start a conversation with the investors, who will then try to help the budding entrepreneurs by helping to navigate the funding ecosystem, providing advice, giving feedback on pitch decks, brainstorming around business strategy, or just being there to bounce ideas with. Founders can request a conversation with the investors on the website. While the Rising Tide Collective doesn't have an explicit focus on food, the group consists of some of Europe's leading Foodech investors, such as Astanor Ventures, Blue Horizon Capital, Anterra Capital, and Atlantic (Food) Labs (in addition to some other well-known investors, such as Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Inventors, World Fund (Ecosia) and M-ventures. So if you're an aspiring FoodTech entrepreneur, this is a fantastic opportunity to engage with some of the brightest minds out there.
The Profile
Melissa Ho got her Ph.D. in Plant Physiology at Penn State. In her career, she's worked on agricultural development at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, been an ag policy specialist at the Congressional Research Service, held senior roles in the USAID Bureau for Food Security (where she helped develop, launch and implement the Feed the Future program), and been the Managing Director, Africa for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (overseeing a $1.5B portfolio of infrastructure investments). Today, she's Senior Vice President for Freshwater and Food at the WWF-US. She knows everyone and everything worth knowing about ag systems and water management/conservation.
Random Stuff
Netherlands-based plant-based cheese company Willicroft launched a crowdfunding campaign (info in English, crowdfunding site in Dutch, video in English here).
Fondue. Image: Willicroft
Some various tips: FT has a new special report out on sustainable food and agriculture; Katapult Ocean published The Blue World Perspective, a data-heavy report on ocean startups; WWF launched a new website and report on plant-based diets -- all of these are worth checking out.
Italian police used its own Lamborghini to transport a donor kidney 300 miles (480km) in less than two hours, because why not.
American ginseng is imperiled by overharvesting. Can it be saved? Long but fascinating read.
Canadian researchers say hyperventilating may help combat alcohol poisoning. There's currently no treatment for alcohol intoxication, and there is no way to speed up the rate at which the liver clears alcohol for the body. The researchers emphasize people shouldn't try to hyperventilate on their own; the treatment relies on a device the size of a small briefcase, that contains a valve system, tubes, a mask, and a small tank with compressed carbon dioxide. The study which proved that the concept works involved five male volunteers. Anything for science ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I love you.
Daniel
- - -
Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter. Did your brilliant friend forward this to you? Subscribe here.