FoodTech Weekly #31

FoodTech Weekly #31

Hi there,

I hope you have had a good and relaxing break, and that your 2021 is off to a good start. Let's hope this will be a year of health, healing, rebuilding, and impact.

I'm still not a fan of hearing my own voice -- but I really enjoyed the conversation I had with Arman Anatürk of FoodHack for his podcast The Secret Sauce. We spoke about everything from my background, to the issues with the current food system, to regenerative agriculture and True Cost Accounting, to current FoodTech trends, and much more. Listen to the podcast here.

Onwards.

Highlights

• Conversations: N/A

• Noteworthy: Scandinavian food waste companies raise big bucks; Oatly rumored to prepare IPO; personalized nutrition platform GenoPalate raises $4M; Swiss company ECO Process releases rice paddy robot Moondino; Singapore attracts a growing number of foodtech companies

• News from the FoodTech Weekly community

• Random Stuff: Epic animated battle between rust fungus and a wheat stalk; why South Koreans are rushing to arrange cosmetic surgery; a baby trashing a bar in Las Palmas. And more.

Conversations

• N/A

Noteworthy​

• Plenty of momentum in the food waste space, and it's looking like a Viking invasion. Too Good To Go of Denmark just bagged $31M. The company runs a marketplace connecting e.g. restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, and other foodservice businesses, with consumers looking to buy cheap food before it goes bad. Too Good To Go is operating in 15 countries including the U.S., and has signed up 65,000 businesses and 30 million consumers/users. Swedish competitor Karma, which runs a very similar business to that of Too Good To Go, just took in SEK 30 million ($3.6M) in new equity issuance (paywalled article, in Swedish, so good luck reading it). And Norwegian startup Savvie, which crunches data to help foodservice companies to reduce food waste, has raised NOK 7.2M ($0.85M) (article in Norwegian). Less Scandinavian, but still in the food waste space, Capital One Ventures invested an undisclosed sum into Atlanta-based food waste tech company Goodr last month. Goodr has developed a solution that redistributes surplus food to families in need.

• South African AgTech company Aerobotics has raised ZAR 250M ($16.5M) from Naspers Foundry, FMO, Cathay AfricInvest Innovation. Aerobotics enables tree and fruit farmers to monitor their crops and to increase yields, through a combination of satellite imagery, drone imagery, and AI. The funding will be used to boost international expansion and tech development.

• Milwaukee-based startup GenoPalate has raised $4M for its personalized nutrition platform. The company's simple swab test analyzes 100+ genetic markers that determine a person's specific needs for 24 vital nutrients (such as various vitamins) and sensitivities to lactose, gluten, caffeine, and alcohol. It then recommends the foods a person should eat more of. The personalized nutrition space is smoking hot -- expect this field to expand and mature dramatically in the coming years.

• Rumor has it Oatly is planning to IPO this year, at a $5B-$10B valuation. In 2020, U.S. oat milk sales increased by over 300% to $213M, becoming the second most consumed plant milk after almond milk ($1.5B in 2020 sales).

  

  Oatly. CC BY-ND 2.0 Trixi Skywalker, Flickr

• Air Protein, which produces proteins via microbes rather than animals or plants, has raised $32M in a Series A round. Finnish competitor Solar Foods raised an €18.5M round back in September. Meanwhile, California company Calysta, which feeds methane to single-cells to produce protein, is building a production facility in China. The protein product will be used in aquafeed; Asia represents around three-quarters of the global aquafeed market.

• Swiss company ECO Process & Solutions has developed the AgTech robot Moondino, which is used on rice paddies for weeding and padding. Moondino runs autonomously and can stay in the field continuously thanks to a solar-powered electric motor. The robot will be commercially available in 2022, and it looks pretty cool.

• U.S. plant-based seafood startup New Wave Foods has reeled in an $18M Series A round. The company has developed a shrimp product made from seaweed and other plants and will use the new funding to scale up production, boost sales and marketing, and plan for new products. Meanwhile, in the plant-based space, Impossible Foods is slashing the price of its plant-based meat to foodservice distributors by 15%, as part of its journey of achieving price parity with, and eventually undercutting, the price of animal-based meat.

• Perfect Day Foods is setting up an R&D facility in Singapore, in collaboration with Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR). Perfect Day produces real dairy through microflora, a type of microorganism. The company programs the microflora to produce whey and casein proteins identical to those found in cow's milk. The resulting dairy can be used to produce things like ice cream, cheese, and yogurt. Singapore, which recently allowed the sale of cultivated meat, is currently attracting a large number of international FoodTech companies.

• Ever wanted to see an insect-as-feed factory from the inside? Here's a neat 5 min video on French company Ÿnsect from the Financial Times.

• PeakBridge VC has committed to invest up to $3M in Swiss watertech company BE WTR. The company offers dispensers, adapted filters, design taps, and smart accessories that deliver filtered, still, and sparkling tap water, which encourages people to increase their tap water consumption. BE WTR currently caters to e.g. offices, hotels, and restaurants but aims to sell its solution to private homes in the future as well.

News from the FoodTech Weekly community 

• Noquo Foods, which develops plant-based cheese, is hiring an R&D manager. 

• The Good Food Institute has three U.S. science positions open; have a look here, here, and here.

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

Random Stuff

• This is a really fascinating animation (4 mins) by CSIRO showing how rust fungus attacks a wheat stalk -- and how the wheat fights back. Bonus points for the Aussie narration.

• Is dairy farming cruel to cows? Interesting piece by the NYT.

• Insane video of objects that are all cakes.

• Can't find the 'end call' button on Zoom calls? Here's an excellent solution (20-sec video).

• South Koreans are scrambling to get cosmetic surgeries before mask-wearing ends.

• It's now been 10 years since that baby thrashed the bar in Las Palmas. Never forget.
  

  

​I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Tú me acostumbraste by Salvador Sobral and Alma Nuestra. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter. Did your brilliant friend forward this to you? Subscribe here

Disclosures: I'm a consultant to the Rockefeller Foundation Food Team. I'm an operating advisor to VC firms Nordic FoodTech VC and Fynd Ocean Ventures. I'm a mentor at accelerators Katapult Ocean, Big Idea Ventures, and Bloomer. I'm an advisor to Noquo Foods, BIOMILQ, Volta Greentech, VEAT, Hooked, IRRIOT, Rootically, Holistal, Vultus, and Ignitia; 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.