- FoodTech Weekly
- Posts
- FoodTech Weekly #90 by Daniel S. Ruben
FoodTech Weekly #90 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
March 11, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #90
Hi there,
Why is it so satisfying to watch Ukrainian farmers stealing Russian tanks? It started with this video, and then the videos just kept coming (here, here, here, here, here, here -- well, you get the idea...).
Anyways - this week's rundown:
Finless Foods reels in $34M for plant-based and cultivated seafood
The FDA approves the sale of beef from CRISPR-altered cattle
Clean Crop Technologies bags $6M Series A for technology that can remove molds and toxins from food, thus extending shelf life and reducing food waste
Let's do this!
Conversations
Hoping to be back with more startup convos soon :)
Noteworthy
Alternative seafood startup Finless Foods of California, which cultivates bluefin tuna in bioreactors as well as produces plant-based tuna, has raised a $34M Series B round. The round was led by Hanwha Solutions, and supported by e.g. SOSV, Sustainable Ocean Alliance, and Gaingels. The company will now build a pilot production facility, and launch its plant-based tuna in foodservice this year. Just last week, Umami Meats of Singapore, which also cultivates seafood, reeled in a $2.4M pre-seed round.
Netherlands-based AgTech startup Source.ag, which has built algorithms to optimize crop production in greenhouses, has closed a $10M (appr. €9M) Seed round, led by VC Acre Ventures Partners, and joined by MIT-affiliated E14 Fund, Astanor Ventures, and a consortium of Dutch growers. Source.ag says that its solution can deliver up to 15x higher yields while using 20x less water.
California FoodTech company Lypid has bagged a $4M Seed round, backed by Green Generation Fund, Big Idea Ventures and SOSV. Lypid is looking to replace e.g. coconut fat which is often used in plant-based alternartives, with 'PhytoFat', which the company claims works just like conventional animal fat.
The FDA has approved for sale beef from cattle that has been altered with CRISPR (aimed at letting the animals better withstand hot weather). Recombinetics, the U.S. company behind the altered cattle, believe they can be on the market within 2 years.
Food fraud is a big global problem. Spanish startup EthiChain has developeda technology that can detect animal DNA in vegan products, pork DNA in Halal and Kosher products, as well as horse and donkey in regular meat products. EthiChain's method is cheap and test results arrive within 30 minutes, on-site. The plan is to commercially launch by 2023 or 2024.
Evo Foods of Mumbai, India has launched a heat-stable, plant-based boiled egg. It looks pretty realistic.
Image: Evo Foods
Speaking about eggs, Dutch FoodTech startup In Ovo recently announced a €34M Series B round. The company aims to prevent the annual killing of billions of day-old male chicks, by developing a technology that can identify the gender before an egg hatches. This allows hatcheries to only hatch females, which thus avoids billions of unnecessary killings of male chicks.
Mi Terro, which takes agricultural waste and turn it into a protein which can be used as a compostable plastic replacement, raised a $1.5M round led by Astanor Ventures.
Arkeon Biotechnologies of Vienna, Austria, has banked a $7M Seed round, backed by e.g. Synthesis Capital and ReGen Ventures. The company use a microorganism to produce protein ingredients through a process called gas fermentation, which is carbon-negative.
Cultivated meat company SuperMeat of Israel has secured a $10M Series A round co-led by Agronomics. In a recent public blind test conducted by SuperMeat, experts were unable to tell the difference between conventional chicken and cultivated chicken grown by supermeat. SuperMeat is currently working to obtain regulatory approbal in the U.S. and Singapore for its chicken products, and hope to commercialize within the next 24 months.
Scientists in Saudi Arabia have grown spinach using water captured from vapor in thin air, in the desert.
A new study has found that single-use plastic wrapping on fruits and vegetables in supermarkets 'doesn't necessarily prolong the life of uncut produce'.
Israeli FoodTech startup Gavan is creating natural blue colorings (in different shades) derived from the algae spirulina; the colorings are then used for hot and cold drinks. The goal is to replace artificial additives currently used in drinks.
Image: Gavan
Indian AgTech company Otipy brought home $32M in Series B funding; the company aims to reduce food waste by purchasing fresh produce directly from India's smallholder farmers, and then selling to resellers or consumers.
Protenga of Singapore/Malaysia has secured a $2M venture debt facility; the company produces insects that are turned into pet food.
Clean Crop Technologies has received a $6M Series A investment from MassMutual Catalyst Fund, ReGen Ventures, and Trailhead Capital. Pathogens, molds, and mycotoxins result in 500M tons of wasted food every year, representing hundreds of billions of dollars in losses. Clean Crop of Massachusetts, USA, has developed a 'high voltage catalyst' technology which can remove molds and toxins from seeds, nuts, fruits, and vegetables.
A new WHO/UNICEF global report on infant formula, found that formula makers continue to use aggressive and misleading marketing methods to sell their products to new mothers, especially in low- and middle-income countries. One marketing technique outlined by the report include formula companies reading social media posts from women about nursing; the companies then send direct messages to those women about the benefits of infant formula.
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
Hack Ventures (Switzerland), formerly known as FoodHack, is seeking a Head of Comms... Ark Biotech (US) is recruting a Head of Manufacturing Science... Perfect Day (US) is looking for an Associate Scientist, Biochemistry Team... Hooked (Sweden) is hiring a Key Account Manager... Klimato(Sweden) has several open positions within software engineering for Ukrainians; the company offers a relocation package or remote work... Libre Foods (Spain) has an open position for a Marketing Manager... Planet(Switzerland) wants to bring on a Mycelium Expert... Skira (Sweden) is hiring a Business Developer, Platform Growth.
DigitalFoodLab has released its FoodTech Unicorns 2022 Global Report; it identifies 55 FoodTech unicorns, mainly in food delivery.
Some 15 Nordic FoodTech startups have now been selected from 150+ interviews to participate in +impact accelerator, a growth-focused program connecting startups with investors, corporates and experts. A majority of them are ready to scale internationally. Please get in touch with [email protected] if you want to get connected with any of them.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
Google has announced it aims to cut food waste in its own cafés and restaurants with 50% by 2025, and send zero food waste to landfills.
Scientists have learnt how to decode pigs' emotions based on their grunts. They hope the findings can be used to improve animal welfare.
The World Obesity Atlas 2002 predicts that 1B people across the world, including 1 in 5 women and 1 in 7 men, will be living with obesity by 2030.
Annoyed by the high gas/fuel prices? This guy has found the perfect workaround (26 sec video - sound on):
I love you.
Daniel
- - -
This issue was produced while listening to Kaät by Roseaux and Blick Bassy. 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.