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FoodTech Weekly #27 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
November 27, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #27
Hi there,
Together with Arman Anatürk of FoodHack, I'm mapping impactful FoodTech / AgTech startups from the Netherlands (and that little country has a lot to offer!) - if you have ideas for startups we should include on that list, please comment here.
I was interviewed by FERI for their new report on the disruption and transformation of global food systems. The report explores things like alternative meat/protein, precision fermentation, and vertical farming.
Swedish no sugar ice-cream brand Nicks has done a limited release of an ice-cream in the U.S. created with whey and casein protein from Perfect Day Foods (h/tGustaf Brandberg). This is essentially cow's milk minus the cow, with the same great taste and nutrition. If I were a dairy farmer, I'd be concerned. But time will tell.
As flagged last week, I've replaced the 'Profile' section with 'News from the community', where I hope to help amplify some of the many exciting things all ofyouare working on -- from recruitments and fundraises, to brand new reports and blog posts, to speeches and events. I hope you'll like this little change.
As always, if you enjoy this newsletter, please share it with your friends (and if you have suggestions for improvements, just let me know). Thanks!
Highlights
Conversations: Dror Tamir, Hargol
Noteworthy: Astanor launches $325M AgTech/FoodTech fund; IKEA aims to go 50% plant-based by 2025; plant-based startup SavorEat raises $13M; Shiok Meats unveils the world's first cell-based lobster prototype
News from the community
Random Stuff: Turning food waste into electricity; 3D-printed drinks; Russian cyberpunk farms. And more.
Conversations
Dror Tamir was born on kibbutz Ma'anit in Israel. Growing up, his family told stories of swarms of locusts flying in from Africa, devouring everything on the fields (at a time in the 1950s when Israel suffered from food insecurity). The kibbutz members would run into the fields and try to scare away the locusts -- but at the same time, recent immigrants from Yemen and Morocco would go into the fields and collect these insects to eat. Dror never forgot about this story. For many years, he worked on nutrition and helping families shift to healthier diets. A couple of years ago, he read about the global protein challenge and decided to do something about it. Hargol FoodTech was born - the world's first commercial grasshopper farm. Grasshoppers are consumed by perhaps 2B people worldwide; they're high in demand in Asia, Africa, Middle East, and Africa, are considered a delicacy, and can cost hundreds of dollars per kg. They're all wild-caught. Unlike companies like Ÿnsect, Protix, and AgriProtein, Dror believes the future is not in insects-as-animal-feed, but as in human food. They are 70% whole protein, with a very low-fat content, and a neutral taste. They also have an FCR (feed conversion ratio) of 1.2:1, which is more efficient than chickens, reach mature weight in 23-29 days, and have very low greenhouse gas emissions. Hargol is developing new lines of grasshoppers that are bigger, stronger, have a higher survival rate, and can feed on dry feed (instead of fresh grass, which is expensive). The company works with distributors all over the world and will open a new production facility in Jordan. Hargol plans to employ Syrian refugees, as a way of improving livelihoods and also the nutritional status of the 1M+ Syrian refugees in Jordan. Hargol is keen to connect with food producers interesting in joint ventures; the company is also raising $7M to expand its current production capacity, R&D, and marketing efforts, and finally, Hargol is looking for funders for their project in Jordan. You can reach Dror, Hargol's co-founder, and CEO, via email.
Hargol's farm in Israel
Noteworthy
Astanor Ventures has launched a $325M Global Impact Fund focused on FoodTech and AgTech, aligning its investments with the 17 SDGs. Astanor has 20+ portfolio companies including insect-as-feed company Ÿnsect, in-store vertical farm startup Infarm, climate modeling startup Cervest, seaweed-based packaging company Notpla and plant-based produce coating company Apeel. The Global Impact Fund is supposedly the largest FoodTech fund in Europe, and it will make investments in Europe and North America.
U.K. retailer Co-op has been using a small army of 80 self-driving robot vehicles from Starship Technologies to deliver groceries to people in Milton Keynes for the last few months. The trial has been successful and Co-op plans to expand with more robots. In Sweden, meanwhile, Vembla (a local version of Instacart) has secured SEK 6M (appr. $700K) in investment to grow its grocery delivery business; the startup is experiencing a 30% MoM growth.
Your friendly neighborhood robot, from Starship
A new $2.7M project at Cornell University will develop worm-like, soil-swimming robots to sense and record soil properties, water, the soil microbiome, and how roots grow -- focusing on maize. Learning more about these factors, scientists hope to be able to better predict things like grain yield and stress tolerance (e.g. to droughts). The robots will be 1 to 2 foot long (30-60 cm) so if you were traumatized by watching Tremors as a kid, don't be too alarmed.
Vietnamese insect protein company Cricket One has closed a Series A round (the exact figure is undisclosed, but somewhere between $1M and $9.9M). The company processes 100 million house crickets each month, turning them into protein-rich powders and oils, for use as ingredients in the food manufacturing industry. Cricket One has also developed a burger patty, and will develop cricket-based sausages and fillings for dumplings and pies.
IKEA has announced that 50% of meals offered in restaurants will be plant-based by 2025 and that 80% of the main meals offered in the restaurants will meet the IKEA Balanced Meal norm for healthier food. Given that IKEA has a €2B food business, this news is kind of big.
Israeli FoodTech company SavorEat has raised $13M in its IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. SavorEat develops plant-based meat alternatives and has built a 3D printing robot to allow for a better texture of meat alternatives (including fat, sinew, and fibers). In Singapore, meanwhile, Shiok Meats has unveiled the world's first cell-based lobster prototype, at a private tasting event. The startup hopes to bring its cell-based shrimp product to market by 2022.
Cell-based lobster and shrimp, from Shiok Meats
FoodTech VC Blue Horizon has released a new report, 'Environmental impacts of animal and plant-based food', worth checking out.
News from the community
Dr. Liz Specht at GFI is hiring for Senior Scientist - Plant Based Specialist. Additional details can be found in the job description.
Alex Mayers at GFI Europe is hiring for a SciTech Manager - their first such role in Europe. Additional details can be found in the job description.
Tom Johansson at plant-based seafood startup Hooked is looking to hire a CMO.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
Filipino engineer Carvey Ehren Maigue has created a material called AuREUS, made from crop waste. The food waste is turned into a plastic-like material that absorbs UV light, converts the energy into visible light, and passes it on to solar cells, which convert the light into electricity. Yes, this sounds awesome. The AuREUS system won the James Dyson Sustainability Award this year.
AuREUS
This video of 3D-printed drinks is very cool.
University of Georgia geologists have developed artificial soil mixtures that mimic materials found on Mars. The purpose is to figure out how to grow food using the materials on the planet's surface, as a manned mission to the Red Planet inches closer. After developing the artificial soil, the researchers came up with recommendations ranging from rinsing the soil, to adding inoculants like bacteria or other fungi to the soil to help plants grow.
This Russian cyberpunk farm 4 min video is pure genius (mostly in English; you can turn on the YouTube subtitles). Watch 'til the end for the plot twist.
Russian cyberpunk farm
I love you.
Daniel
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