FoodTech Weekly #64 by Daniel S. Ruben

FoodTech Weekly #64

Hi there,

Here's a little work/life harmony to start your Friday:

A correction: Last week I mistakenly called Swedish startup Melt&Marble something else (Meat&Marble). Twice. So just to be clear: 

Melt&Marble produces animal-mimicking fat using precision fermentation. And they're hiring a Chief Business Officer -- go check it out.

OK - on with the show!

Highlights

• Conversations: Reetta Kivelä and Tytti-Lotta Ojala (Nordic Umami Company)

• Noteworthy: Orbisk raises $1.2M for tech combating food waste; INSEACT secures $1.3M for farming Black Soldier Flies for feed in Singapore; why scientists use facial recognition for grapes; EU approves insect-as-feed for use in pig and poultry feed; TartanSense rakes in $5M for robotics-as-a-service for farmers in India; WUR ranked (again) as the #1 ag university

• News from the FoodTech Weekly community

• Random Stuff: Sri Lanka bans drunk driving of elephants; vending machines for mussels; lonely flies who overeat; amazing LEGO stop motion. And more.

Conversations

• Had the pleasure of chatting with Reetta Kivelä (Chief Scientist) and Tytti-Lotta Ojala (Chief Design Officer) of Nordic Umami Company of Helsinki, Finland. The company founders are no rookies -- Reetta (who is also a professor of practice at the University of Helsinki) e.g. invented export success product 'pulled oats' and commercialized them in her previous startup Gold&Green, which was acquired within a few years. Nordic Umami Company co-founder Outi Mäkinen had tinkered around in a lab in her parent's garage, when she invented a soyless soy sauce, that Reetta and Tytti-Lotta tried and loved. In January 2021, the startup was founded, after the idea had been brewing for some time. The company uses natural fermentation processes to turn industrial side streams (wasted plant ingredients) into umami flavors -- which can then be used by e.g. companies producing alternative protein products to meat and cheese. Says Tytti-Lotta: 'We want to bring umami to food. The umami taste is one of the reasons people love cheese, for example. But we need diversity in the food system -- not just to grow and eat soy. And we need a circular economy. We will advance plant-based eating, while reducing food waste. So we think we're the missing piece in the puzzle.' In addition to selling its ingredients to others food manufacturers, Nordic Umami Company will also launch its own products, starting with the soyless soy sauce, made of discarded peas and beans. The company, which recently raised a pre-seed round from Nordic FoodTech VC (full disclosure: I'm an advisor to that fund), is currently building a pilot factory. Nordic Umami Company is interested in building partnerships with food production companies, both corporates and startups, to help bring umami flavors to their products by joint development. And Nordic Umami Company will also look to raise more funds next year, so the team is interested in building relationships with potential investors. Reetta and Tytti-Lotta can be reached via email, as well as via LinkedIn.

Noteworthy​

• Netherlands-based food waste startup Orbisk has secured €1.05M ($1.2M) in Seed funding, lead by PeakBridge. Orbisk has developed a computer vision system that help foodservice operators identify and reduce food waste. This is done through a camera that automatically identifies the food being wasted, while a scale measures how much of the food is being thrown out.

• INSEACT, an insect-ingredients company based in Singapore, has raised a $1.3M round. The startup feeds waste from palm oil plantations to Black Soldier Flies. The flies are then turned into aquafeed, insect oil for livestock feed, and fertilizer. The company plans to raise a Series A next year.

• Scientists are using facial-recognition tech to identify disease resistance in grapes (pretty cool huh?). What used to take months now only takes days. Growers hope this new tech will eventually save them millions in lost crops and pesticide costs.

• The EU has authorized insect proteins in poultry and pig feed (representing 65% of the EU compound feed production). The approval, which follows a similar one for the use of insects in aquaculture back in 2017, is expected to further boost the insect-as-animal-feed producers on the content. Industry proponents say insect-as-feed can help reduce the reliance of protein sources linked to deforestation and overfishing (read: soy and fishmeal). 

• Nabati Foods has launched a liquid plant-based egg in Canada (made from a base of lupin and pea protein).

  

  Image source: Nabati

• Some fund news: Ahimsa VC has launched what they claim is India's first fund on sustainable food and materials -- the fund has $10M to deploy; meanwhile, AgFunder's alternative protein fund New Carnivore has announced a final close of $21M. The first half of 2021 has seen a number of new funds raise big sums, including many in the alternative protein space such as Lever VC's Lever Fund I ($46M), Big Idea Ventures ($50M), Agronomics (GBP 62.5M, via ordinary shares) and Good Protein Fund I ($25M).

• TartanSense bagged $5M in funding, for robotics-as-a-service for farmers in India. TartanSense's robotic devices help smallholder farmers cut costs, boost productivity and reduce their need for farm labor -- helping with things like sowing, spraying, weeding, and harvesting. The round was backed by FMC Ventures, Omnivore, and Blume Ventures. Says TartanSense's Jaisimha Rao: 'The mission of the company is to put the technology that Western farmers have enjoyed into the hands of South Asian farmers.

• AgNext of India has scored $21M in new Series A funding. The company deploys a network of sensors that monitor crop conditions, which help increase farm productivity and reduce losses (for things such as grain, spice, tea, dairy and feed).

• In 1955, a cup of Coca-Cola at McDonald's in the U.S. was 207 ml (7 fl. oz). Today, a regular kids-sized cup at McDonald's is 354 ml (12 fl. oz.) (h/t Azeem Azhar) (and on the sugar topic, from BBC: What happens to your brain when you give up sugar?)

• Wageningen University & Research has yet again been ranked as the #1 ag university in the world.

• The FDA in the U.S. will require veterinary oversight for all animal antibiotics important to human medicine (meaning these antibiotics will no longer be available over the counter from mid-2023). The goal is to protect public health against the growing threat of antibiotic resistance.

• Interesting article in The Guardian about the rise of ag robots (and here's a video on a U.S. farmer explaining how they have to waste 350,000 lbs (158 metric tons) of asparagus because they're unable to secure farm labor; a lack of labor is something farm robots can help solve for).

• Miami startup SquarEat is launching a concept with pre-prepared, home-delivered 50 gram cubes of 'modular food'. The company is running a crowdfunding campaign and has so far received about $150K in commitments. More in this video.
  

  

  Image: SquarEats

News from the FoodTech Weekly community 

• Karana (US) is looking for a Marketing Lead... Cold Hubs (Nigeria) is hiring a Head of Administration... HIER Foods (Germany) is recruiting for a bunch of positions... Melt&Marble (Sweden) has an open position as Chief Business Officer... TrusTrace (Sweden) is hiring a Senior Sustainability Manager... Future Fields (Canada) has an open role for a Production Technician... Stockeld Dreamery (Sweden) is seeking a  Process Engineer... TINDLE (Australia) is looking for a Country Manager... Martie (US) is hiring a Senior Growth Marketing Lead... vly (Germany) is recruiting a Food Technologist... FUNCiFUR (Sweden) is hiring a Social Media & Content Manager... eggXYt (Israel) is looking for a Chief of Staff.

• Ron Shigeta, who e.g. co-founded biotech accelerator IndieBio, has launched a virtual accelerator called iAccelerate. More in The Spoon.

• FoodTech Challengers is open for applications -- the deadline to apply is September 15.

Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.

Random Stuff

• Sri Lanka bans 'drunk driving' of elephants.

• For your ears only: The Nordic FoodTech Podcast conversations with a few of the leading Nordic FoodTech investors.

• Vending machines for mussels are now a thing in the Netherlands.

• This hit close to home: Chronically lonely flies overeat and lose sleep.

• And speaking about bugs, people on TikTok are building tiny ant restaurants, feeding carefully selections of food to insects.

• Twelve years in the making: Swedish artist collective Rymdreglage's latest must-watch epic stop-motion video using LEGO (don't miss the behind-the-scenes shots at the end).
  

  

  Image: YouTube

​I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Sunday - Klangkarusell Remix by Max Manie. 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.

Disclosures: I'm Head of Strategy and Special Projects at Stockeld Dreamery. I'm an operating advisor to VC firms Nordic FoodTech VC, Blume Equity, and Fynd Ocean Ventures. I'm a mentor at accelerators Katapult Ocean, Big Idea Ventures, and Norrsken Impact Accelerator. I'm an advisor to BIOMILQ, Volta Greentech, VEAT, Hooked, IRRIOT, Rootically, Urban Oasis, FUNCiFUR, Juicy Marbles, Vultus, and Ignitia; in some of these startups, I have equity. 

Boring disclaimer: The newsletter content is intended only to provide general and preliminary information to folks interested in FoodTech, and shall not be construed as the basis for any investment decision or strategy. I assume no liability in regards to any investment, divestment, or retention decision taken by readers of this newsletter content.