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FoodTech Weekly #48 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
May 07, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #48
Hi there,
I helped launched a cheese this week. It's not every week you get the do that. I wrote a neat behind-the-scenes article about the whole process. In a way, I still feel like this:
I guess it's normal to feel a little imposter syndrome (after all, they didn't teach us in law school how to launch a cheese. In law school, they would probably teach us why a plant-based cheese cannot legally be called a cheese, only that one may say that the product can be used as a cheese).
But launch day yesterday was both intense, and an insane amount of fun. Engaging with restaurants, cheesemongers, and consumers eager to buy and try the cheese. Responding to social media accounts buzzing with activity. Getting our co-founder on live broadcasts, coordinating a TV crew for Swedish national TV doing a new series [link in Swedish] on top entrepreneurs, and most importantly seeing our product on the shelf.
People seem to like what we're doing. So maybe that's a good sign.
Enjoy this edition of FoodTech Weekly, and please keep Sweden in your thoughts and prayers (we had 2C / 35F and snow this week -- when it didn't rain).
Highlights
Conversations: Andreas Karlsson (VEAT)
Noteworthy: Personalized nutrition startup Zoe raises $53M Series B; OKO in Mali raises $1.2M Seed to bring tech-powered crop insurance to smallholder farmers; record harvest of seaweed in the U.S.; Dubai launches 'Food Tech Valley'; cultivated tomatoes might soon get better flavors thanks to new database; Kroger starts drone deliveries of groceries in the U.S
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Random Stuff: Zoom CEO has Zoom fatigue; Belgium just made an accidental territorial gain on France; MI6 hires new Q. And more.
Conversations
Spoke with Andreas Karlsson, Founder and CEO of VEAT, this week (full disclosure: I'm an advisor to VEAT). VEAT, a Stockholm-based startup, deploys vending machines with 100% plant-based, freshly made foods, such as salads, wraps, ready-to-heat meals, drinks, and snacks. While studying at Yale a few years ago, Andreas adopted a plant-based diet. He quickly realized there were very few healthy, delicious, and affordable grab & go plant-based options, and this bothered him. When returning to Sweden, he decided to do something about it. After some research, he found out that the best way to provide people with high-quality yet affordable plant-based grab & go meals, would be to use vending machines. In 2020, VEAT was launched in Stockholm, Sweden, and the company has since deployed machines at e.g. coworking spaces and corporate HQ's. The menu was designed by top chefs, and the current Head Chef at VEAT was previously Head of R&D at Frantzén restaurant, the only Swedish restaurant to receive three stars in Guide Michelin. VEAT's goal is to quickly scale up in Stockholm, and then expand to other major European cities. Currently, the startup is finalizing its Seed round by adding €1M. To get in touch with Andreas, send him an email.
Andreas Karlsson at one of VEAT's vending machines. Image: VEAT
Noteworthy
U.K/U.S. personalized nutrition startup Zoe, founded in 2017, has closed a $53M Series B round. Zoe's first product is a $360 home testing kit that enables users to learn how their body responds to different foods, and get personalised nutrition advice. The kit analyzes e.g. blood lipids, blood sugar levels, and the type of bacteria in the human gut. The service is underpinned by big data and machine learning that result in predictive insights into how people will respond to different foods. The goal is to help people reduce negative responses caused by diet.
Speaking about vending machines: Singapore, which already has vending machines offering e.g. fresh Norwegian salmon and chili crabs, now has vending machines offering Australian Wagyu beef, courtesy of local company EasyMeat.
OKO, a Malian insurtech startup catering to smallholder farmers, has raised$1.2m in Seed from Newfund, ResiliAnce, Mercy Corp Ventures, Techstars, ImpactAssets, and RaSa. The company develops affordable mobile-based crop insurance for smallholder farmers (growing things like maize, cotton, sesame, and millet), accessible to anyone with a phone. OKO currently operates in Mali and Uganda where it has 7,000 paying customers, and will now expand into the Ivory Coast. Last year, it paid out claims to 1,000 farmers affected by floods. A lack of ag data is holding African countries back, so OKO and other startups in the region such as Ignitia are truly needed.
Image: OKO
In a new report, the UN says urgent cuts in methane are needed to slow the rate of climate change. While methane breaks down much faster than CO2 in the atmosphere, it's also is a much more potent greenhouse gas. To reduce methane emissions from animal agriculture, cows in particular, seaweed has been proposed as a solution; some scientists however doubt whether this is a viable option.
Israeli agtech company Prospera, which was founded in 2014 and develops tools for increased agricultural productivity, has been acquired for $300M by Valmont. This is the first exit of an Israeli agtech company.
The production of seaweed in Maine, USA is breaking new records; 100,000s of kgs of seaweed will be harvested this year. The seaweed is then processed into products sold at e.g. health food stores, supermarkets, seafood counters, and restaurants, such as e.g. seaweed salads. High in fiber, seaweed is hailed as a health food by foodies.
Rockstart AgriFood, based in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Bogota, has raised a €22M fund. It will invest in AgTech and FoodTech startups (including those of the Rockstart accelerator), up to Series B.
Dubai has announced plans to build a new business park for ag firms, in a push for greater food security. Dubbed 'FoodTech Valley', it'll include spaces for HQ's, R&D, an innovation center, a smart food logistics hubs, and areas for vertical farming. Dubai currently imports almost all of its food.
Dubai. Image: Wikimedia Commons
As a first insect, the yellow mealworm just passed the EU Novel Foodsapproval process. Another 11 applications for insects-as-food are currently being processed by the EU.
5 minute video on FoodMarble AIRE, a personal breathalyser / fermentation-tracking device that can show you what foods are making you feel bloated, and cause other digestive issues. Fascinating stuff.
CubicFarm Systems has bagged $1.5M in new funding. The Canadian company grows fresh forage for cows, in fully-automated indoor vertical farming systems. CubicFarm System's farms can sprout grains such as barley and wheat, with up to 92% lower water consumption and 7.4% lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to field crop production. If you're itching to grow stuff on your own, HECTAR is a DYI (do-it-yourself) open-sourced at-home vertical farming kit. It can grow up to 128 plants, such as e.g. kale, spinach, and green beans (that you can then feed yourself, or your cow).
Wild tomatoes harbor genes for numerous desirable traits (flavor, aroma, disease resistance etc) that in some cases have ben lost in the process of domestication and breeding of tomatoes. Breeders are now investigating the possibility of reintroducing these lost wild traits into cultivated tomatoes, and they will be aided by a huge new database covering genetic and metabolic traits of wild and cultivated tomatoes. The database was developed by scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Finnish biotech startup eniferBio converts less valuable side streams (such as vinasse, a by-product from the production of ethanol from beet molasses) into a valuable protein ingredient for aquaculture feed, using a process called Pekilo. The hope is to replace soy protein concentrate, and eniferBio is now conducting salmon feeding trials with Skretting, the world's largest aqua feed producer, in Stavanger, Norway.
U.S. supermarket giant Kroger is beginning grocery deliveries via drone this spring, using drones made and piloted by Drone Express. Deliveries can be made in 15 minutes, and reach consumers wherever they're located -- e.g. in a park, beach, or in a backyard, as long as its within a drone's flight range.
Image: Kroger
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Gelatex is hiring e.g. a Head of Growth and a Senior Scientist... Stockeld Dreamery is looking for a Creative Social Wizard... Karma is recruiting a Marketing Manager... GFI Europe has open roles for a Head of Policy and aCommunications Officer... ReFED is hiring a VP, Data and Insight Products... GOURMEY is looking for a food chemist... Higher Steaks is recruiting a Chief of Staff.
IKEA has kicked off its Food Innovation Program - click here for more info and how to apply.
GFI Israel has released the 2021 'Israel State of Alternative Protein Innovation Report'.
Seth Olsen of Resonance is hosting a webinar -- if you're interested in scaling circular economy approaches in the food system, check out their conversationwith leaders from Apeel and EverGrain on how to build circular economy for food partnerships.
Save the date (May 31 - June 4, 2021) for Sweden FoodTech's Big Meet conference online. Five days of cutting-edge content where major foodtech players and entrepreneurs from all over the world meet and share disruptive insights, foodtech demos and discuss next gen food systems. Check out the schedule and line-up here.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
The CEO of Zoom is suffering from Zoom fatigue.
If you love James Bond, you might be interested in that MI6 is looking to hire a new Q.
A Chinese tour operator is under scrutiny, after promising to take elderly tourists to a 'scenic spot' in Chongqing with lunch provided, but instead taking them to a cemetery and giving them a sales pitch on grave sites.
A local farmer in Erquelinnes, Belgium moved a centuries-old stone marker delineating the Franco-Belgian border roughly two meters (6 ft) to give his tractor easier passage. Thereby, he broke the Treaty of Kortrijk signed in 1820, which delineated the Franco-Belgian border. The Erquelinnes Mayor, David Lavaux, has asked the farmer to put the stone back to avoid a diplomatic problem. Says Lavaux: "He enlarged Belgium, he reduced France; it wasn't a good idea. But I was happy that my town got bigger."
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Floating Through Space by Sia and David Guetta. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter (I'm @danielsruben on Clubhouse). Did your brilliant friend forward this to you? Subscribe here.