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- FoodTech Weekly #46 by Daniel S. Ruben
FoodTech Weekly #46 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
April 23, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #46
Hi there,
A correction: Last week, I wrote that the WHO had called for a ban on the sale of live animals in food markets to combat pandemics - but it should have read 'a ban on the sale of live wild animals.' Thanks, Cate, for pointing out the mistake.
On May 12, I'll join Sonalie Figueiras (a.k.a.Green Queen) for a webinar moderated by Karine Hirn of East Capital, on the Future of Food. It's organized by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, and you can sign up here.
Let's dive in!
Highlights
Conversations: Bettina Schütz (Hempster)
Noteworthy: New LCA shows Perfect Day's whey protein has about 90% lower GHG emissions than conventionally produced whey protein; DouxMatok launches unique product in the U.S. which has 40% less sugar and 7x more fibers than competitors; Misfits Market takes in $200M to sell ugly produce and other items at a discount; FieldWork robotics secures $780k for raspberry-harvesting robot
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Random Stuff: Firefighting goats; electric tractors; sneaky Italian civil servants. And more.
Conversations
Had a chance to chat with Bettina Schütz, CEO and Co-Founder of Hempster Sweden, a Swedish food start-up making alt-dairy products with focus on flavor, nutrition and sustainability. Born and raised in Germany, Bettina was studying a Masters degree in Economics when life circumstances brought her to Sweden, where she has spent a lot of her time ever since. Having a career at a media/tech company back in the late 90's, she eventually grew tired, and together with her partner and (now) Co-Founder Paul sold everything they owned to travel to India and reboot. Years later and back in Sweden, Paul developed health problems. When switching his diet (removing some foods, and adding some others), his health situation improved significantly. One of the main reasons was the nutrition of hemp seeds. As a creative chef, Paul wanted to find a way to consume the seeds easily and in a pleasant way and started making shakes - Hempster was born. He then went on to develop their first product, focusing on mouthfeel and flavor. A key differentiator from many competing products is the production process. While not going into details, Bettina says that "We have a unique method giving a competetive shelf-life without compromising on nutritional value". This fall, Hempster will launch a non-dairy beverage (drinkable snack) and more products will follow. Bettina's startup is racking up larger and larger orders for clients, and Hempster Sweden is busy scaling up. The company is currently raising a €150k pre-seed round. To connect with Bettina, you can ping her on LinkedIn or via email.
Image: Hempster
Noteworthy
Swiss AgTech startup OneSoil has raised $5M; the company helps farmers monitor fields and increase yields. Just 3 years after launch, OneSoil has racked up 200,000 farmers in 180 countries as customers.
A new LCA (life cycle analysis) for the whey protein produced by Perfect Day Foods shows that it generates between 85% to 97% lower greenhouse gas emissions than whey from conventional production methods (using cow's milk). Also this week, Perfect Day's German industry peer Legendairyrebranded as Formo, and announced they aim to bring products to market later this year.
A new study from the University of Michigan and Tulane University looks at the water scarcity footprint, measuring the water-use impact of U.S. diets. The study included examples of substitutions consumers can make to reduce their water scarcity footprint -- e.g. replacing some beef with other protein sources (e.g. chicken, pork, soybeans, peanuts etc), replacing high water-intensity tree nuts (almonds, walnuts and cashews) with peanuts or seeds, and limiting consumption of high-water intensity vegetables, and replacing them with lower-intensity vegetables such as fresh peas, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, and kale.
Israeli startup DouxMatok has launched IncredoSpreads, its first product in the U.S. The hazelnut/chocolate blend has about half the sugar, and 7x the amount of fiber, as competitors. DouxMatok's core ingredient, Incredo Sugar, is derived from conventional sugar but it takes 40% less of it to make a product just as sweet as traditional products.
Fieldwork Robotics has secured €780K in funding for its robot that can harvest soft fruits and vegetables, such as raspberries and tomatoes. This 3 minute video has more on the robot.
Image: YouTube
Cell-cultured meat for pets is (increasingly) a thing. Fascinating quick read on Bond Pet Foods and Because Animals. Other companies, like Reglo and FUNCiFUR, are using insects as pet food instead.
Les Nouvelles Fermers of France has raised €2M to build one of the largest aquaponics farms in Europe. Not sure what aquaponics actually means? Check out this nifty guide by FoodHack to frequently used FoodTech terms.
Indian plant-based egg startup Evo Foods has bagged $845K in fresh funding. The plant-based egg sector is expected to reach $1.3B by 2023. Across the Pacific, Bay Area startup Clara Foods has announced a partnership with ZX Ventures, the venture arm of the world's largest brewer AB Inbev. Clara Foods ferments egg proteins in bioreactors.
North Carolina startup Jellatech has secured $2M in pre-seed funding. The company develops cell-based, animal-free collagen and gelatin products, that can be used in e.g. food & beverage, pharma, and skincare/cosmetics.
Oatly will IPO this year. Michal Klar has written a nice summary of the key findings from the Oatly SEC filings; e.g. the $420M turnover in 2020, that Asia is the fastest growing market for Oatly, and that the company plans to expand production capacity from 301M liters in 2020 to 1.4B liters in 203.
Big Idea Ventures has announced its Cohort 3; check out the 15 companies here. Applications are already open for Cohort 4 (full disclosure: I'm a mentor at Big Idea Ventures)
Misfits Market, which sells ugly produce (and more) at discount prices, has taken in another $200M in funding, bringing total funding to over $301M, and pushed the valuation above $1B. Last year, the company shipped 77M lbs (35M kgs) of produce to 400K customers in the U.S.
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
The Creative Destruction Lab is open for applications, for venture founders. The deadline is July 30, but CDL encourages early applications.
Oskar Malm Wiklund of Global Shapers Stockholm (a World Economic Forum initiative) helps put together the Food Waste Challenge. 1/3 of all produced food is thrown away. That’s pretty stupid. The Food Waste Challenge is an idea competition, accelerating ideas that battle food waste. Apply with your idea, and have a chance to win 50.000 SEK, mentors and exposure. Applications open 1st of May at foodwastechallenge.org.
Image: Food Waste Challenge
Alexandre Lefebvre at U.K. insect-as-feed startup Entocycle is hiring a Business Development Manager.
Swedish AgTech and grain trading platform Skira has launched a project with partners such as Brewmaster, Ängöl, IBM and FoodChain by Blockchain, to accelerate sustainable production of food through better transparency and traceability. First product up: Beer. On May 3, the partners are launching the first fully traceable beer Helt Spårat (loosely translated: Fully Traced), in Sweden. For the first time, a beer can be verified and tracked through the whole process from when the barley grain is sown until the beer is poured into the bottle. Consumers can scan a QR code on the bottle to learn about the entire history of that beer, from start to finish. More info, in English, here.
Image: Helt Spårat
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
Who you gonna call? Goatbusters!
Electric tractors are coming to the U.S. And a bunch of other commercial vehicles are, too.
The Italian Job: An Italian hospital employee (a civil servant) is being investigated by authorities after having allegedly skipped work, with full pay, for the past 15 years. He is said to have pocketed €538,000 (about $650,000) during this time.
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Within by Daft Punk. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter (I'm @danielsruben on Clubhouse). Did your brilliant friend forward this to you? Subscribe here.