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FoodTech Weekly #63 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
August 20, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #63
Hi there,
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In case you missed it, cotton candy grape season is upon us. These sweet little things were developed in the U.S. using natural-breeding practices, are only in season from mid-August to mid-September -- and are only available in certain countries, usually at a 50% or more price premium. This variety of grapes have to be harvested after close visual inspection, to ensure that each cluster is perfectly ripe; if harvested at the wrong time, they don't taste like cotton candy.
Not all people love them (those people are obviously wrong). Take a bite and you'll get a sweet taste explosion of carnival-like cotton candy.
Happy Friday!
Highlights
Conversations: N/A
Noteworthy: Apeel raises $250M to continue fighting food waste via organic fruit and vegetable coating; Beta Hatch secures $10M to expand insect-as-feed production; Revo Foods gets $800K bridge loan to scale production of plant-based seafood; Melt&Marble banks $750K in Seed to produce animal fat for plant-based meats using precision fermentation; saltwater tomato farming startup Red Sea Farming has raked in $16M in new funding
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Random Stuff: Why cooking instructions for the same rice vary wildly in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark; inserting human protein into plants to supersize them; Glebe Farms hits back at Oatly. And more.
Conversations
Noteworthy
Apeel Sciences, of California, U.S., has raised $250M in Series E at a $2B valuation. The company has raised $635M in total since launching in 2012. Apeel develops a plant-based, organic, edible, tasteless, and odorless transparent coating for fruits and vegetables, increasing shelf life significantly -- thus reducing food waste. The company works with customers and partners in eight countries and will use the new funding to increase its footprint. Here's a little time-lapse of Apeel's tech in action.
Image: YouTube screenshot.
U.S.-based Beta Hatch, which produces insects for animal feed (mealworms, to be specific) has raised $10M from investors including Lewis & Clark AgriFood, Cavallo Ventures, and Innovation Memphis. BetaHatch's main farm is located in Washington state in the U.S. Northwest, and the new funding will enable that facility to expand to 10x its current output.
Austrian plant-based seafood startup Revo Foods has raised $800K (article in German) in a bridge loan from Biogena Group. The company has e.g. developed a 3D printed plant-based salmon. The new funds will be used to scale production and hire new employees.
Danish enzymes corporation Novozymes will invest $316M into an alt protein production line in Nebraska, USA; the investment will be fully deployed in 2023. Novozymes call alternative protein the fastest-growing segment in the food industry.
Beyond Meat has filed a trademark for 'Beyond Milk', indicating that they intend to go into alternative dairy. One of the leaders in the milk substitutes space, Oatly, which is now publicly listed, posted Q2 2021 revenue of $146.2M, a 53.3% increase compared to the same quarter in 2020. Oatly forecasts a 64% increase in its annual revenue, to $690M. The company is investing heavily in increasing production, which also means it's not currently profitable on the bottom line.
Sweden-based Melt&Marble has raised a €750K seed round, according to a press release sent to FoodTech Weekly. The company uses precision fermentation to produce animal fats that are then used to make plant-based meats taste more like animal-sourced meat. Nordic FoodTech VC led the round (full disclose: I'm an advisor to that Fund); other investors included Paulig's venture arm PINC, Purple Orange Ventures, and Chalmers Ventures. Meat&Marble claims it can mimic any fat structure, as well as create completely new and better fats, with a better sustainability profile than palm oil and coconut fat. The company believes its fat will be in plant-based meat products within a few years.
Melt&Marble CEO Dr. Anastasia Krivoruchko and CSO Dr. Florian David
Zowasel of Nigeria has raised $100K from Guinness Nigeria and Promasidor. The company builds a digital marketplace catering to smallholder farmers.
U.S. indoor vertical farming startup BrightFarms has been acquired by Cox Enterprises for an undisclosed sum. Just last week, Kalera acquired German vertical farming company &ever for €130M. In related industry news, Red Sea Farms has secured $16M in new funding from AppHarvest and Aramco. The company, which is based in Saudi Arabia, can grow crops (mainly tomatoes) using diluted saltwater (saving 90% of the freshwater typically required to grow tomatoes, Red Sea Farm claims).
Singapore-based alt protein startup Shandi has raked in $700K in new Seed funding. The money will be used for scaling up production, developing new products, and entering into new partnerships. Shandi produces chicken substitutes such as shreds, pieces, strips, and drumsticks, using ingredients such as chickpeas, pea protein, brown rice, and coconut oil. It aims to launch commercially in Q1 2022.
Image source: Shandi
Regrow of California, U.S. has scored $17M in Series A funding. The company has developed a Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) tool, designed to 'customize, optimize, and monetize carbon impact strategies across the entire supply chain - including buyers, sellers, producers, and verifiers.' Investors included e.g. Tenacious Ventures, Cargill, Microsoft's venture fund M12, CSIRO's Main Sequence Ventures, and others.
Sound Agriculture has banked $45M in new Series C extension funding, in a round led by Leaps by Bayer. Sound Agriculture is a 'bio-inspired' crop inputs company that can increase yields and reduce nitrogen usage by up to 30%.
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Mohjo (Singapore) is hiring a Chief of Staff... TradeBay (Sweden) is recruiting a Business Development Manager... NovoNutrients (US) is seeking a fermentation consultant... THIS (UK) is looking for a Marketing Director... GFI APAC (Singapore) has two available positions, as Policy Specialist and Innovation Associate... myAgro (Senegal) is hiring a Chief Commercial Officer... FUNCiFUR (Sweden) is bringing on a Social Media & Content Manager... UPSIDE Foods (US) is recruiting a Sr. Program Manager... Solar Foods (Finland) is on the lookout for a Senior Specialist, Advanced Protein Applications... Peas of Heaven (Sweden) is hiring a Key Account Manager, Foodservice)... Land O'Lakes Venture37 (US) is recruiting a Senior Manager, Strategic Partnerships and New Ventures... Farm From A Box (US) is hiring a Sales and Marketing Associate.
The Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge is 'an international competition that identifies and promotes the most energy-efficient, sustainable and cost-effective technologies designed for use by smallholder farmers and producers that can meet cold storage requirements for fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, and dairy products.' And it's open for applications until August 29, 2021.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
This is a visual rabbit hole -- pretty cool but trippy.
Researchers have transferred a human protein into plants in order to supersize them. And it worked. The study author, Chuan He, said: 'To be honest, we were probably expecting some catastrophic effects.' So that's reassuring.
Supersized potatoes. Source: Qiong Yu et al
These cooking instructions in Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish for the same rice are all different (e.g. ranging from a 10 minute to a 20 minute boiling time) [spoiler alert: The Swedish Food Agency recommends a long cooking time to reduce the amount of residual arsenic in the rice; their Nordic peer agencies like to live life dangerously].
Remember how Oatly recently lost a legal battle against U.K. family-run firm Glebe Farm Foods? Also remember the Oatly Super Bowl commercial? Glebe Farms sure did. And their comeback after successfully defending themselves against Oatly's (frivolous) lawsuit is hilarious.
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Let's Get Down To Business by The Marshall Project. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter (I'm @danielsruben on Clubhouse). And here's the Appetizer podcast which I co-host. Did your brilliant friend forward this to you? Subscribe here.