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FoodTech Weekly #81 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
January 07, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #81
Hi there,
Happy New Year! I hope you have had a relaxing break. In today's edition I'll try to include some of the most important news in the FoodTech world since you last heard from me on Dec 17. Lots of exciting news coming out of Israel, which is one of the leading innovation hotspots for AgTech and FoodTech.
The Rockefeller Foundation Food Initiative (that I supported as a consultant 2017-2021) just adopted a new strategy, and is hiring for a number of positions in New York and Nairobi. Outstanding team, important mission. Highly recommended.
Another plug: Nordic Alternative Proteins is facilitating an 8-week program (organized by Cambridge University and the Good Food Institute) on the fundamentals of alternative protein science. The signup deadline is January 13, 2022, and participation is free of charge. Apply here.
This week's rundown:
No moo: Remilk of Israel lands $120M for precision-fermented dairy
Pack it up, pack it in: TIPA bags $70M, Notpla $13.5M, and Cirqle $3M, for sustainable packaging solutions
I for one welcome our new overlords: Scientists teach goldfish how to drive vehicles
Let's go!
Conversations
Right before the holiday break, I had a chance to connect with Ricky Cassini, CEO and Co-Founder of michroma. Ricky, who hails from Argentina, previously worked as a management consultant. He always felt a growing urge to do something impact-related, focusing on how and what we consume. Ricky did a couple of startups in the food/ag space, and met his co-founder Mauricio Braia, Ph.D., 3 years ago. Mauricio focused on scaling industrial bioprocesses, and told Ricky about how food dyes (coloring) could be made using fungi. Together they founded michroma in Argentina; the company uses synthetic biology / precision fermentation to produce high-performing, stable, natural colors. 'We want to replace for example carmine, which is made from insects and isn't vegan, as well as synthetic dyes which are petroleum-based and are linked to many health concerns.', Ricky says. Michroma already has red, orange, and yellow colors in its portfolio, and wants to develop e.g. blue and green too, as well as flavors and fragrances. Ricky explains: 'Not all natural ingredients are sustainable. They need land, water, pesticides and so on. We can produce high-value molecules for the food industry, with a reduced environmental footprint and with less waste, and in a more scalable, cost-effective way.' Michroma, which currently has 11 employees and has raised a pre-seed round, hopes to be at industrial scale in a couple of years' time. The company aims to be a global ingredient supplier, targeting North America and Europe first, 'as customer demand for more natural and sustainable ingredients is stronger there than in any other part of the world.' Michroma is conducting tests of the product in categories like dairy, snacks, confectionery, baking and so on, to get feedback. So corporates interested in testing a super-stable natural red color, that can replace e.g. beetroot, carmine, or synthetic dyes, should reach out. To get in touch with Ricky, you can shoot him an email or connect via LinkedIn.
Left: Michroma's red color product. Right: Mauricio and Ricky. All images: Michroma
Noteworthy
Remilk of Israel announced a $120M Series B round. The company, which was founded in 2019, uses precision fermentation to produce dairy without using animals. The funding round was led by Hanaco Ventures, and joined by Rage Capital, CPT Capital, Precision Capital, Tnuva, Hochland, fresh.fund, and OurCrowd. Remilk believes that compared to conventional dairy, its product, will be 100x more land efficient, 25x more feedstock efficient, 20x more time efficient, and 10x more water efficient.
Israeli cultivated meat startup Future Meat Technologies raised a $347M Series B round led by ADM Ventures and joined by e.g. Tyson, S2G Ventures and Manta Ray Ventures. Founded in 2017, the company now aims to build a large-scale production facility in the U.S., tentatively operational by 2024. Future Meat Technologies also says it can produce a 110-gram (3.8 oz) chicken breast for just $1.70 (NB, this is for a product that's roughly 50% cultivated meat, and 50% plant-protein and water).
California-based startup Full Harvest snagged a $23M Series B round from lead investor Telus Ventures as well as Citi Impact, Rethink Impact, Doon Capital, Stardust Equity, Astia Fund, Cultivian Sandbox, and others. Full Harvest runs a B2B marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of produce, and enables surplus and imperfect fruits and vegetables to be sold instead of ending up in landfills. In fact, Full Harvest has sold over 50M lbs (22,000 metric tons) thus far, saving 6M kgs of CO2 in the process. The company takes a fee from each transaction made on the marketplace. With the new funding, Full Harvest plans to expand the team from 35 to 100 people, and scale the marketplace even further.
Image: Full Harvest
Compostable packaging company TIPA, which is based in Israel, secured a $70M Series C round, led by Millennium Food-Tech and Meitav Dash. TIPA has developed a flexible plastic material that emulated the properties of conventional plastic in protecting food (e.g. fresh produce, bakery, dry food) and apparel, but that at its end-life decompose just like an orange peel, leaving zero waste behind. The global consumer flexible plastic market is worth north of $100B, but most of this packaging isn't recyclable, and indeed less than 4% is recycled. TIPA's product is used by e.g. Waitrose, Woolworth, Pangaia, and others. Together with my co-host Sandra Malmberg for The Appetizer podcast, I interviewed TIPA CEO and Co-Founder Daphna Nissenbaum last year, so give it a listen if you want to learn more.
In related news, sustainable packaging startup Notpla of London bagged £10M (about €11.7M, or $13.5M) in its Series A round. The funding was led by Horizon Ventures, joined by Astanor Ventures, Lupa Systems, and Torch Capital. Notpla was founded in 2014, and uses seaweed to replace single-use plastics (check out this cool 1 min video). And in Denmark, Cirqle just raked in 20M DKK ($3M) in funding (link in Danish), for its biobased packaging used for food delivery. The round was led by Vaekstfonden (The Danish Growth Fund).
And speaking about plastic packaging, on January 1, 2022, a new lawbanning plastic packaging on most fruits and vegetables came into effect in France. Chopped and processed fruit are exempt, as are larger packs. The country believes the ban could prevent a billion items of single-use plastics used every year.
Adieu, plastics
German soil testing startup Stenon raised a $20M Series A. Founders Fund, Cherry Ventures, The Production Board, and Atlantic Labs were among the investors. The company's solution allows smallholder farmers to receive real-time insights about the condition fo their soil. Stenon's cost per soil sample is around €13, which is almost 80% cheaper than conventional methods.
Greeneye Technology of Tel Aviv, Israel, has raked in $22M in fresh funding, in a round led by Jerusalem Venture Partners and joined by e.g. Syngenta Group Ventures, Hyperplane Venture Capital, and One Way Ventures, as well as AGCO and KDT. Each year, farmers overuse chemicals like herbicides, which damages the environment, results in herbicide resistance, and drives unnecessary costs. Greeneye has developed an AI-enabled precision spraying technology that can reduce herbicide volumes by 90%. The new funding round will help support Greeneye's North American expansion over 2022-2023, as well as boost R&D. Speaking about reducing herbicide use, check out this neat innovation from The University of Queensland in Australia.
Fruit yield management startup FruitSpec, which is based in Israel, has raiseda $5M round led by Amathaon Capital, Ocean Azul, and Smart-Agro, andsupported by Trendlines and Agriline. FruitSpec's platform uses a yield prediction technology which together with digital tools allows customers such as farmers to optimize operations, resulting in increased profitability.
Swedish FoodTech fund Nicoya, which has backed companies like N!CK's, El Taco Truck, and Peas of Heaven, has secured 400 MSEK (€40M) in new private placement funding, from investors AltoCumulus and Coeli.
RIP: U.K. online grocery startup Farmdrop, which was founded in 2012 and had raised almost $42M, has folded. And Drinkworks, a partnership between Anheuser-Busch and Keurig Dr Pepper that allowed consumers to make alcoholic drinks at home in seconds, has shuttered its platform and stopped all sales of its machines.
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Shiok Meats (Thailand) is hiring an Operations Manager... Perfeggt(Germany) is recruiting a Head of Growth... OlsAro (Sweden) is looking for Senior Molecular Biologist and a Business Development intern... The Rockefeller Foundation (US/Kenya) has a number of exciting Food roles open... BIOMILQ (US) has 8 positions open at the moment, including e.g. Molecular Biologist and Head of Legal... Cortilia (Italy) has several roles open... UPSIDE Foods (US) is searching for a Director of Product Development... Urban Oasis (Sweden) is looking for a Lead Software Engineer.
Future Protein NL recently published a comprehensive 100-page magazine on the alt protein sector in the Netherlands, including interviews with Beyond Meat, Protix, Meatable, LIVEKINDLY, Redefine Meat and many more.
AgFunder's India 2021 AgriFood Startup Investment Report is out.
Image: AgFunder
USAID and the USDA has an RFI out for the role of insect production in global food security, climate response, environmental management and livelihoods. They're looking to hear from insect production and animal feed businesses, academics, public and private sector entities working on food security and food production, and local organizations operating in Feed the Future target countries. More info here.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
Global investments into FoodTech almost doubled to $42B in 2021, according to Dealroom. Asian FoodTech startups raised the most ($16B), followed by the U.S. ($14B) and Europe ($9B). There are now 115 FoodTech unicorns worldwide, 29 of which were created in 2021. On a similar topic, here's FoodHack's excellent rundown of the top FoodTech investors in 2021, and where they're investing.
A Japanese professor has developed a prototype lickable TV screen, called Taste The TV. 'The goal is to make it possible for people to have the experience of something like eating at a restaurant on the other side of the world, even while staying at home', says professor Homei Miyashita of Meiji University.
Image: Taste The TV
Long, but very interesting, read -- 'The Food Wars: Will we ever get a clear idea about what we should eat?' Also in the long-read section, Mosa Meat wrote a progress report, of sorts, on cultivated meat. And while we're at it, read how vertical farming is headed for the 'trough of disillusionment', and why that's a good thing.
A civic group in South Korea, Hungry Mamas, has filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) against the Ministry of Education, saying that serving spicy food for school lunches violates the children's human rights.
Don't give Uber any ideas, but Israeli researchers have taught goldfish how to navigate small robotic vehicles on land.
Finally, as Trung Phan noted re. this Shanghai McDonald's video: Net calorie consumption = 0.
I still love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to STAY by The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter. And here's the Appetizer which I co-host. Did your brilliant friend forward this to you? Subscribe here.