- FoodTech Weekly
- Posts
- FoodTech Weekly #60 by Daniel S. Ruben
FoodTech Weekly #60 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
July 30, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #60
Hi there,
Everywhere I go online, I'm asked to accept cookies. Of course I accept cookies. If they were called personal tracking files, I guess I wouldn't hit that green button. But who doesn't like cookies?
Anyways. I just got my second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine (yay science!) so this is my current feel:
This whole pandemic likely started with a food choice. Maybe some dude woke up back in 2019 with a strong craving for bat soup, and things went south from there -- I don't know. But let's continue to build a better food system together, to minimize the risk of another global pandemic happening again anytime soon.
Two more things before we get started:
A European/U.S. FoodTech startup I know is looking to hire someone who has built food production factories; the person should be intrigued by the plant-based / alternative protein space. Ping me if this is you, or if you know someone.
The Good Food Institute (GFI) is hiring a COO/President, who will be tasked with running GFI-U.S. day-to-day, allowing their founder Bruce Friedrich to move into a CEO role. GFI is focused on replacing conventional animal agriculture with plant-based and cellular agriculture. It has 115 staff, a $20M or so annual budget, and affiliated chapters in India, Israel, Brazil, APAC (Singapore) and Europe (Brussels and London). GFI does an impressive job on everything from policy work, advancing the science, startup and investor support, and much more. The job brochure for the COO/President role is here.
Highlights
Conversations: N/A
Noteworthy: Chilean plant-based alternatives startup NotCo raises $235M; the Philippines approves genetically engineered Golden Rice; greenhouse operator AppHarvest secures $91M in new financing; Delivery Hero launches sustainable packaging program; Argentinian food rescue company Nilus secures new funding; scientists CRISPR cherry tomatoes that grow faster
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Random Stuff: Spices in food harm pathogens; cockatoos have learnt how to open trash cans; twice as much food is going to waste on farms as previously estimated. And more.
Conversations
Noteworthy
Chilean FoodTech startup NotCo, which develops plant-based meat and dairy alternatives, has raised a $235M round, valuing the company at $1.5B. The company sells products in 6 countries in North and South America.
Single-cell protein company NovoNutrients, based in California, has raked in $4.7M in new funding. The startup captures CO2 and feeds it to microbes, which then produce nutritious protein flours, that can be used in anything from animal feed to plant-based meat. The round was led by Happiness Capital; other investors in the round included e.g. E2JDJ, Marinya Capital, and IndieBio. Previous investors include Purple Orange Ventures, Joyance Partners, and the Stanford GSB Impact Fund. The new funding round will be used to complete NovoNutrients industrial pilot at an oil and gas and/or cement-related plant. The startup plans to raise a Series A later this year.
The Philippines has become the first country to approve so called Golden Rice for planting. The variety has already received food safety approvals from regulators in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S, but the Philippines is the first country approving commercial cultivation. Golden Rice has been genetically modified to contain extra amounts of beta-carotene, which the human body converts into vitamin A. Almost 200 million children worldwide suffer from vitamin A deficiency; an estimated 250,000 - 500,000 children who are vitamin A deficient become blind every year, and half of them die within 12 months of losing their eyesight. Greenpeace has denounced the approval of Golden Rice in the Philippines.
Speaking about crop innovation, scientists have used CRISPR to engineer cherry tomatoes to grow in bunches and wish smaller stems (optimal for confined spaces) and growing faster than normal tomatoes (ready for harvest in 40 day).
Image source: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Long Island
Danish food rescue app Too Good To Go is expanding to Canada. And German vertical farming company InFarm is expanding in Canada, by partnering with Sobeys, one of the largest food retailers in the country.
U.S. AgTech company AppHarvest, which operates large greenhouses, just secured $91M in additional financing. The company went public through a SPAC earlier this year, and is busy constructing controlled environment agriculture facilities across the Eastern U.S.
Argentinian FoodTech startup Nilus just bagged an undisclosed sum in seed funding (link in Spanish) from Kalei Ventures and others. The company, which has 35 employees and is active in Mexico and Argentina, sources fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste from local farmers. It then sells the produce (heavily discounted) to end-consumers who are using group buying via intermediaries such as schools (that receive a commission). Many vulnerable communities in LATAM lack access to affordable healthy food such as fruits and vegetables; Nilus is changing this.
Delivery Hero has launched a Sustainable Packaging Program to reduce plastic waste. It's piloting the program in 7 countries; local restaurants will be provided with eco-friendly, affordable packaging. Delivery Hero aims to deploy 10 million units of sustainable packaging by the end of 2022.
U.S. company Vermeer has showcased a concept for an autonomous bale mover, nicknamed Bale Hawk. The baler, which is currently diesel powered, can move bales from a field to e.g. a storage area. Vermeer says the robot (which is not yet available for sale) saves time and labor, but also limits soil pressure and compaction.
CB Insights have released their State of FoodTech Q2 2021 Report. Some findings: The number of deals is up (369 to 409), but total funding amount is down ($13.5B to $8.9B). Alt protein funding is booming. Delivery apps and food waste were two key
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Shiok Meats is looking for a Bioprocess Technical Coordinator... Chunk Foods is hiring engineers and food technologists... Finless Foods is recruiting a Policy and Impact Manager... Mycorena has a bunch of open positions, in sales, science, engineering, and more... BIOMILQ is hiring a Research Manager.
The Blue Climate Initiative (BCI) is accepting applications for the $1M Ocean Innovation Prize, in collaboration with the Sustainable Ocean Alliance. Alternative seafood companies can apply -- the deadline is September 15, 2021.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
Do spices and herbs in food harm pathogens? Really fascinating 2018 study finds plenty of evidence for this, and for broader health benefits as well (fun trivia: The study was funded by the Government of India).
Image: Rakhi et al, 2018.
Australian cockatoos have learnt how to open trash cans by copying others, in first evidence of social learning. (If they could help with my household recycling, that'd be awesome).
Almost twice as much food is going to waste on farms across the world -- nearly twice as much as previous estimates. This means 40% of the food grown globally is wasted. In related news, a group of U.S. private and non-profit sector actors just announced a U.S. Food Loss and Waste Action Plan.
Watching these guys makes me happy, and I hope the same goes for you. The undisputed kings of lockdown.
I love you.
Daniel
- - -
This issue was produced while listening to Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter (I'm @danielsruben on Clubhouse). Did your brilliant friend forward this to you? Subscribe here.