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FoodTech Weekly #5 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
June 26, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #5
Hi there,
Summer is here, I've paused my conversations with folks in foodtech, and my beard is getting so long that it has started to sequester carbon. But there's no lack of exciting foodtech news to cover -- from new funds and investments, to scientific breakthroughs and the launch of new technologies; innovation doesn't take a summer break.
Stay hungry, stay curious.
Highligths
Conversations: N/A
Noteworthy: Amazon's $2B Climate Fund; Fitbit for cows; Ocean Hugger Foods sleeps with the fishes
The Profile: Isha Datar
Random Stuff: Cool time lapse. Doubling down on extreme poverty. And more
Conversations
Noteworthy
Amazon announced a $2B Climate Pledge Fund, which will invest in sustainable technologies and services that will help the company meet its net-zero carbon goal in its operations by 2040. The food system accounts for 25% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, so expect Amazon to make some investments into startups and companies looking to decarbonize the food system.
Shiok Meats of Singapore just raised $3M; BlueNalu is moving into a larger facility in San Diego, and will double its staff to 50 in the next 12 months. Both companies work on cultivated/cell-based seafood, which is expected to hit the market within the next few years.
Photo: BlueNalu yellowfin dishes. CC-BY-NC.
JBS, the world's largest meat company, silently launched a line of plant-based meat products called Ozo in the U.S. (the products use a mix of pea and rice proteins, plus e.g. dried shiitake mushrooms). Big Meat has been fighting a losing battle against the alternative meat startups for some years now. At the same time, some of the challengers are struggling. This week, Ocean Hugger Foods (which had previously raised $500K, and developed several plant-based seafood products) announced that they are ceasing operations -- citing the struggling foodservice business due to COVID-19. Meanwhile, Swedish alt seafood startup Hooked is getting closer to a launch date.
Dutch startup Connectera raised a €7.8M Series B (largest ever Series B for a European agtech deal); the company has developed a Fitbit like sensor for cows that can flag problems to the farmer - e.g. that a specific cow isn't eating, or moving, as much as usual. Connectera also claims its solution can reduce the need for antibiotics use by 50%.
Ecopackers has secured a $2.75M grant from the Canadian government, through Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). Ecopackers converts agricultural byproducts into 100% plant-based, compostable alternatives to conventional plastic inputs. SDTC also gave a $10M grant to Aspire Food Group, which is building the first fully-automated cricket farm (as an alternative to animal protein).
Turtle Tree Labs of Singapore closed a $3.2M seed round. The startup currently focuses on growing breastmilk in bioreactors, and says it can currently price it at $30 per liter (down from $180 per liter late 2019). Turtle Tree aims to eventually move into producing cultured cow's dairy too. The funding follows that of U.S. cultured breastmilk startup BIOMILQ, which raised $3.5M last week.
A Chinese restaurang company, Qianxi Robot Catering Group, just opened its 6th restaurant. The pics and text are worth your time - check them out. Is this the future of restaurants, post-COVID? It seems certain that restaurants will be changing. Some restaurants are installing UV light to kill off viruses, while others are investing a lot to help their employees and customers feel safe. If you only have time for one read to understand what the future restaurant could look like, I recommend the guest post Brita Rosenheim wrote for The Spoon.
GFI Asia just released a really nice visual industry map on Asia's top 100 protein disruptors.
The Portrait
Isha Datar is Executive Director at New Harvest. After completing degrees in biochemistry and biotech at UAlberta and UToronto (yeah, she's Canadian), and publishing a paper on 'Possibilities for an in-vitro meat production system' in 2010 in a food science journal, she joined New Harvest -- and she's been rocking it ever since. New Harvest is a donor-funded research institute focused on cellular agriculture - the ability to grow things like animal protein in bioreactors. While at New Harvest, Isha also helped co-found Clara Foods (which does cultured egg whites) and Perfect Day Foods (focusing on cultured dairy). Clara has raised $16.8M so far, and Perfect Day has raised north of $200M. New Harvest sponsors tons of scientists at various academic research institutions, to advance the field of cell ag. And New Harvest puts together an annual conference, which convenes the entire ecosystem. In short, Isha is a pioneer and a superstar.
Photo of Isha Datar by Joi Ito from Cambridge, MA, USA / CC BY.
Random Stuff
This mesmerizing time lapse shows a year of vegetation growth in Africa (source: Alex Orenstein)
New VC Trellis Road blogged about the state of the European FoodTech and AgTech investment landscape (10 min read)
Extreme poverty in the world has been constantly going down for the past decades, and indeed two centuries. COVID-19 has changed that, and the World Poverty Clock now reflects this. Let's double down our efforts to make sure we eradicate extreme poverty in our lifetime.
"It’s never personal for me. Dislike me all you want. But when you’re representing women at large who are having trouble feeding their children and families, women who don't have access to acceptable infant nutrition, women who are not experiencing appropriate levels of health care or advice? You can't dismiss them. You can tell me no but you can't tell them no." Michelle Egger, Co-Founder and CEO of BIOMILQ, in a longer interview with Forbes.
I love you.
Daniel
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