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FoodTech Weekly #38 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
February 26, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #38
Hi there,
I hope you've had a good week! My week in recap:
I joined the co-founders of Klarna and Soundcloud plus some other cool folks for this neat 1 min video to market the Norrsken Impact Accelerator. As a final reminder: We're looking for startups with the potential to become impact unicorns (positively impacting a billion people). $100K investment for each of the 20 selected startups, 8-week sprint in Stockholm this summer, and a special focus on FoodTech in the first cohort -- what's not to like? We've received applications from 100+ countries. Deadline to apply is this Sunday, Feb 28, 2021.
Norrsken Impact Accelerator
Reminder:New Food Invest takes place on March 18. It's the world’s first online conference focused exclusively on bringing international plant-based and cultivated food startups together with investors and venture capitalists. Use the code FOODTECHWEEKLY2021 for a 15% discount on your ticket.
This week's big news was perhaps AgFunder's release of its annual AgriFood Tech Investment Report. In 2020, FoodTech startups raised $26.1B, a 15.5% year-over-year increase. And AgFunder even believes the number is a little low, and that the final figure may exceed $30B as new 2020 deals come to light.
Reading the report, it's clear that the pandemic accelerated a lot of technology implementation already under way -- from robotics on farms, to tech for supermarkets and foodservice actors (restaurants etc). Online grocery sales boomed, contactless became a trend, and cloud kitchens coupled with last-mile delivery services truly took off. Alt protein companies were all the rage, and deals were larger than ever before. And for the first time in years, more money was invested in upstream deals (startups closer to the farmer) than downstream deals (startups closer to the consumer). If you can't be bothered to read the report,here's an AgFunder summary article of it.
Enjoy your weekend!
Highlights
Conversations: N/A
Noteworthy: Oatly files paperwork for billion-dollar IPO; demand for insect protein may each 500,000 tons by 2030; Infarm announces high-capacity vertical farming Growing Centers; Project Well raises $2M for 'food as medicine' play; Gates Foundation invests $10M to stop fall armyworms through smart pheromone use; using tech to fight forced labor in the seafood industry
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Random Stuff: U.K. man with 28,000 BMI make the rest of us feel good; a beautiful visualization on all types of fermented foods; a Beijing court orders man to pay ex-wife for years of unpaid housework. And more.
Conversations
Noteworthy
Oatly has confirmed it has filed paperwork for an IPO. The company value is estimated in the $5B-$10B range (FoodDive has more). Meanwhile in Asia, Next Gen Foods in Singapore has closed a €10M Seed round, supposedly the largest ever for a plant-based FoodTech company. The company will release its first product, a plant-based chicken thigh, later this March.
Netherlands-based cell based meat company Mosa Meat has raised an additional $10M, expanding it's Series B round to $85M. And over in South Korea, startup CellMEAT has announced a $4.5M raise; the company 'intends to make cultured meat production a reality in South Korea.'
Demand for insect protein could reach 500,000 tons by 2030, up from 10,000 metric tons today, according to a new report from Rabobank. Today, only a few thousand tons of insect protein is used in e.g. aqua feed, but the industry is actively looking for more sustainable options to e.g. soymeal and fishmeal. Insect protein is also expected to increasingly be used as feed for pigs, poultry, and household pets.
MYOR of Israel has launched a joint venture with Nucitec in Mexico, called AlphaCare Infant Health. MYOR's technology enables caregivers to take a digital survey for their newborn and send it to their healthcare providers. If this survey flags that the baby is at risk, the baby’s parents are recommended to join a protection plan, which includes preventive interventions. One of the interventions is early allergen introduction, meaning that the child is given allergen containing foods that will reduce the risk of developing allergies.
German vertical farming company Infarm has announced a new high-capacity Growing Center, planning to establish 100 of them by 2025. The company currently has 1,200 mini-farms installed in grocery stores and distribution centers. Infarm is also rumored to have hired Goldman Sachs to raise an additional $250M later this year.
Image: Infarm
Danish startup Zymoscope has chugged down €960K in new investment .The company enables microbreweries to reduce waste with sensor technologies, and optimize their fermentation processes. Zymoscope currently works with six Danish breweries, and aims to commercialize in 2021.
New research indicate that 7.5% of total agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in the EU (or 33M metric tons of CO2 equivalents) could be avoided, if GM crops were allowed to be grown in the EU.
U.S. startup Tortuga AgTech just harvested $13M from Spero Ventures. Tortuga makes AI-powered robots that can pick fruits and vegetables; cool pics and vids on the Tortuga website.
German food retailer Edeka has added grapefruits and lemons to the growing list of produce treated with Apeel Sciences' protective coating, that extends shelf-life and thus reduces food waste.
U.S. based startup Project Well has secured $2M in new funding, from S2G Ventures and others. Project Well connects e.g. health insurance plans and their members, with food vendors that can provide nutritionally targeted, customized meals. According to the company, some 90% of the $3.5 trillions spent on healthcare in the U.S. is linked to costs associated with chronic disease (e.g. high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity).
The Gates Foundation has invested $10M into pest management startup Provivi's $45.5M Series C2 round. Provivi produces pesticide alternatives for farmers based on insect pheromones. When Provivi applies specific pheromones to a field, it confuses the pests and prevents them from finding one another (to mate). The Gates Foundation hopes this non-toxic pest management alternative will help smallholder farmers battle the fall armyworm.
Fall armyworm, FAW at IITA Ibadan. Photo by IITA, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
A growing number of tech companies and NGOs are using their knowhow to e.g. identify the dark fleet -- vessels that don't broadcast their location or appear in public monitoring systems -- in an attempt to help end forced labor in the seafood industry. Fascinating read.
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
I really enjoyed the most recent Secret Sauce podcast, where Arman Anatürk interviewed Sorosh Tavakoli of Noquo Foods.
Emil Wastesson at plant-based seafood startup Hooked Foods is hiring for a Head of Product Development.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
The U.K. health system (NHS) registered a guy as having a 28,000 BMI. He was subsequently invited for a COVID vaccination, as he was considered morbidly obese. His BMI makes me feel very good about my own weight.
The practice of shipping live baby chicks in the mail might be banned in New York state. Each year, 100,000s of chicks are shipped in the U.S. via the USPS.
This is a great visualization of all the types of fermented foods out there:
Full-sized image here.
Israeli and Icelandic researchers have found that spirulina algae may reduce COVID mortality rate.
In a landmark ruling, a Beijing divorce court has ordered a man to pay his ex-wife 50,000 yuan ($7,700) for five years of unpaid housework.
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to El Invento by José González. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter (I'm @danielsruben on Clubhouse). Did your brilliant friend forward this to you? Subscribe here.