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FoodTech Weekly #70 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
October 08, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #70
Hi there,
I recently joined a panel (with Mark Kahn of Omnivore, Dr. Ram Nair of Mycorena, and Abhishek Sinha of GoodDot) for the 2021 India-Sweden AgriFoodTech Webinar (I spoke from 17:50 onwards). A so called Manel.
This new TV show ('The Next Thing You Eat') with David Chang of Momofuku, premiering on Oct 21, looks pretty promising. In the meantime, if you're in the Nordics, don't miss scientist turned investor Dr. Lauri Reuter's series 'Would You Eat This?' (airing now at networks in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland). If you're not in the Nordics, instead please enjoy this epic video of legend Finn, Mr. Åke Blomqvist, teaching folks how to disco 40 years ago.
Shoutout to plant-based seafood startup Hooked Foods (disclaimer: I'm an advisor) for their new campaign --I love the video, as well as their street campaign in Stockholm:
This week's rundown:
Clara Foods rebrands as the EVERY Company and launches precision fermented animal free egg product
Do Good Foods receives $169M investment to convert unsold grocery store food into animal feed
Denmark commits to binding 2030 climate target for agriculture, cutting emissions by 50% or more
Turkish man declared missing was found after he accidentally volunteered for his own search party
Let's do this.
Conversations
Had a great chat with Jarkko Antila, CEO of Kuva Space in Finland. Jarkko has worked with startups and at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland throughout his career. In April this year, he joined Kuva as CEO -- a company with 8 people that had been started a few years earlier. Kuva has three nano satellites orbiting the Earth, and recently raised a €4.2M round that will enable the company to launch its first commercial satellite with full hyper spectral capability. If you didn't pay attention in space class, here's how it works: Let's say you want to get access to hyperspectral data (that can provide early detection of e.g. pests and diseases in the fields and forests, or for doing soil carbon measurements), well then you have to get images from bus sized satellites, that cross one single point on Earth maybe once or twice a month (if it's not cloudy). Kuva Space offers a live view. Insurance companies can buy the raw data. Farmers can get insights via a mobile app (yet to be launched) to understand where they should fertilize, irrigate, and when the optimal harvest time is. The secret sauce in Kuva is that the team has developed small-sized, high-camera fitted stuff much smaller than the laundry machine sized satellites launched by competitors (that are much more expensive to build, launch, and operate). Jarkko and Kuva plans to go to 40-50 satellites, selecting orbits so that the company can cover most of the relevant spots on Earth, maybe 50% of the world's land mass - daily. And hopefully making agriculture a bit more effective and environmentally friendly for all of us in the process. Jarkko would love introductions to large multinationals working with farmers (e.g. Cargill, Syngenta, John Deere etc), to test their service on more farms globally. Intros to carbon trading orgs would be welcome too, as well as investors (as the company is already talking to investors for the next round). And Kuva is hiring data analysts, and folks in software, marketing, business development, and more. Jarkko can be reached via email.
Jarkko Antila (seated, right) and the Kuva Space team
Noteworthy
Clara Foods has announced it is rebranding as the EVERY Company, and that they will launch an animal free egg product called ClearEgg. The company, which uses precision fermentation to produce its products, has been working on creating an egg replacement since 2014.
South Korean indoor ag startup N.Thing has banked a $26M Series B round, led by Korean VC firms InterVest and Kiwoom Investment. N.Thing will use the new funding to scale up its supply chain and growing operations, as well as introducing new products and do further tech development.
Danish company Unibio has made its first sale to a European feed manufacturer (Danish Agro) of its single-cell protein product, Uniprotein. The single-cell protein will be used to feed piglets. Single-cell protein (which is produced by feeding microbes e.g. methane) attempts to displace environmentally controversial feed sources such as fishmeal and soy concentrate. Unibio's first plant is under construction in Russia, and the company is exploring building production plants in North America, Asia, and the Middle East.
Uniprotein by Uniobio
Nuveen has invested $169M in Do Good Foods, which turns grocery waste into animal feed. In the U.S., some 40% of fruits, vegetables and meat sold at grocery stores end up in landfills. Do Good Foods collects and processes excess (unsold) food from grocers, and turn the nutrients into animal feed. Its Pennsylvania facility can convert 160 tons of food per day.
CH4 Global of Nevada, USA has secured $13M in Series A funding in a round led by DCVC and DCVC Bio. The company turns seaweed into cattle feed, which reduces cattle methane emissions by up to 90%. Other companies to watch in this space include e.g. Mootral, Volta Greentech, DSM (Bovaer) and Zelp.
Barcelona-based agtech startup Consentio has bagged €4.5M in fresh funding. The company's platform connects growers and retailers to simplify the food supply chain, and reducing food waste by 15-20% while they're at it.
SuperZop of India has scored $4M from Incofin's India-focused fund. SuperZop enables. 20,000 retailers in Mumbai and Pune to directly source staples from farmers and processors from 13 states across India.
EarthOptic, which does soil-carbon mapping, has raised a $10.3M funding round from Bayer's VC arm Leaps by Bayer. EarthOptic uses sensors in the ground to take measurements, and help farmers understand if, when, where and how deep to apply tillage.
Piestro has raised $5M in equity crowdfunding for its automated pizza vending machines.
Piestro automated pizza vending machine
Lawmakers in Denmark have agreed to a binding 2030 climate target for agriculture, forcing farmers of dairy and pork products reduce their emissions by 55-65% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. The government has set aside $600M to help ease the transition for farmers. As part of the agreement, $190M will also be used to advance plant-based foods. This is said to be the largest investment in plant-based R&D by any EU country to date.
According to El País, Spain will ban the sale of fruits and vegetables in plastic wrapping from 2023. The ban (which follows a similar one in France going into effect in 2022) will apply to produce weighing under 1.5 kgs (3.3 lbs).
Oxford Economics published a report on the socio-economic cultivated meat potential for the U.K. (oh, and GFI has found that 'cultivated' is the best term to use for cell-culture / cell-based / lab-grown meat, going forward).
The world's largest kosher certifier, Orthodox Union (OU), will not certify Impossible Pork from Impossible Foods. While the product is technically kosher in terms of its (all plant-based) ingredients, the fact that it is called 'pork' may cause consumer confusion, OU says. Jewish dietary law prohibits the consumption of pork.
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Five Seasons has announced the final closing of its second fund, which will tackle human health and climate issues via FoodTech. The €180M fund will invest in European Series A and B rounds. And in Spain, Eatable Adventureshas launched a €50M FoodTech fund, the biggest of its kind in the country. It will invest in early- to growth-stage startups across Europe and Latin America.
Erik and Anna of Swedish FoodTech investor Trellis Road VC are hiring their first colleague... The Rockefeller Foundation (US) is recruiting a Senior Program Associate for its Food Team based in New York... Square Roots (US) is looking for a General Manager, to run their new operation in Kenosha, WI... BIOMILQ (US) is hiring for a number of roles... MeliBio (US) is recruiting a Food Scientist and a Scientist... Better Dairy (UK) is hiring a Head of Food Science... Hooked (Sweden) have an open role for Head of Product Development... Eat Grim (Denmark) is looking for a Customer Success Specialist.
Chirag Sabunani is Founder of Supplant Foods, which has developed innovative clean technologies to maximize the utility of beans and lentils by making them flavorless, and much more functional as egg and dairy replacers. While the company is currently focused on the US market where it is setting up its second manufacturing base with strategic partners, it is now looking for suitable partnerships in Scandinavia. The company's technology is patent pending and flexible in that it can be applied to multiple raw materials and provides affordable alternatives to protein isolates. For more information please email Chirag or contact him at +1-713-742-2617 or +91-98225-04962.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
How Tiger Global is disrupting the VC industry. Fascinating read.
Helping a food delivery robot (from Starship Technologies) that got stuck on the street (11 sec video).
Watch a chicken embryo develop and hatch in 21 days -- outside of the egg.
Many of you have asked, and I finally have the answer: Yes, you can make ice cream from infant formula and breast milk.
A Turkish man declared missing was found after he accidentally volunteered for his own search party. Beyhan Mutlu had been drinking with friends after which he wandered off into a forest. When he didn't return home, his wife and friends alerted the authorities who set off a search. Mr. Mutlu stumbled upon the search party and decided to join it; after a few hours, when people in the search team started shouting his name, he realized it was him they were looking for. Police drove him home.
I've reported on this story before (here for example), but it's too good not to be re-shared: Farmers in Africa and Asia are building beehive fences (containing both real and dummy beehives). When elephants head for the farmed fields in search for food, they touch the fence, which shakes the beehives so that the the bees will swarm, scaring off the elephants. This help save farmer crops, while also reducing the need for farmers to use violence against the elephants. The beehive fences show that tech and innovation for food and agriculture doesn't always need to be VC backed, deep tech-based, or Silicon Valley-centered.
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Booty Swing by Parov Stelar. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter. And here's The Appetizer podcast which I co-host. Did your brilliant friend forward this to you? Subscribe here.