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- FoodTech Weekly #96 by Daniel S. Ruben
FoodTech Weekly #96 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
April 29, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #96
Hi there,
I'm back from a week of skiing in beautiful Laponia in northern Sweden (the skicross slope went great, the 9 stitches on my left ring finger will be removed towards the end of next week). Yesterday and today I spent in Copenhagen and Malmö (flight CO2 offset via Trine) meeting a delegation of Israeli FoodTech startups (e.g.TIPA, Future Meat, Imagindairy, ZeroEgg, ChickP, Hargol, and Wilk) and accelerators like Fresh Start and The Kitchen FoodTech Hub, in Sweden and Denmark to engage with potential partners there. I moderated a panel during the event. The big discussion topic these two days was perhaps the announcement of Israeli precision fermentation dairy company Remilk, that it'll build a 75,000 sq. m (750K sq. ft) production facility in Denmark. Obviously a big deal.
Left: Laponia. Right: Some participants of the Israeli FoodTech event
The next big event on my radar is the FoodHack Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland May 12-13, which I'll moderate. Only 50 tickets remain (meaning 450 people have already registered), so grab yours here (and use the code FTWEEKLY10 for a 10% discount).
Then, June 1-3 2022 is the Sweden FoodTech Big Meet in Stockholm, Sweden. Use the code FOODTECHWEEKLY for a 20% ticket discount, when you sign up. Should be a fun event (here's a video recap of their most recent one, before the pandemic hit).
One final thing, before we kick things off: TrueInvestor just launched its Future of Protein Investor Trend Report. More than 30 experts have weighed in on various alt protein topics. I wrote two pages on how cheese is about to change. Other contributors include e.g. Lisa Sweet (World Economic Forum), Varun Deshpande (GFI India), David Yeung (Green Monday), and Caroline Kolta (XPRIZE Foundation). Check it out!
This week's rundown:
UPSIDE Foods takes in $400M to build commercial-scale production facility for cultivated meat
Entosystem of Canada secures $60M to scale up insect-as-animal-feed production
Big public funding announcements for cultivated meat in the Netherlands and Israel
Let's go!
Conversations
Had an interesting convo or two, and will summarize them for you next week!
Noteworthy
Remilk of Israel, which recently closed a $120M round, will build a large production facility (similar in size to 9 football fields) in Kalundborg, Denmark. The company produces dairy using precision fermentation. Construction will start towards the end of this year, and when finished, the company says the facility will produce dairy products such as ice cream, yoghurt, and cheese equivalent to the amount produced by 50,000 cows per year. That will make itthe largest precision fermentation production site in the world.
Israel-based Tastewise announced a $17M Series A round. The company uses AI to predict trends in foods and beverages, which helps food brands make better decisions. The round was led by Disruptive AI, and joined by existing investors PeakBridge and PICO Venture Partners.
UPSIDE Foods, the cultivated meat company formerly known as Memphis Meats, has taken in a record $400M in fresh Series C funding, led by Temasek and the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, and supported by e.g. Tyson, Cargill, and Givaudan. UPSIDE will now build a commercial-scale manufacturing facility with an annual capacity of 'tens of millions of pounds (kilos) of cultured meat'.
Entosystem of Canada banked $60M in new funding from public and private investors to build a second facility (100K sq. ft. / 10K sq. m.) growing black soldier fly larvae, which will be processed into 5,000 tons of animal feed and 15,000 tons organic fertilizer every year. In related news, insect-based feed producer Inseco of South Africa raised a $5.3M Seed round. The company uses the old production facility of AgriProtein, which went into liquidation in 2021.
The Netherlands announced it will award €60M to boost the local cellular agriculture ecosystem; this is the largest single investment into cellular agriculture by a government globally. Meanwhile in Israel, a consortium of 14 companies and 10 labs received a $18M grant from the Israel Innovation Authority to help scale up cultivated meat.
CELLMeat of South Korea has scored $8.1M in Seed funding for its cell-cultivated shrimp. The company will now ramp up production, and is hoping to launch its products in Singapore next year. It says it can bring its shrimp meat production cost down to $20 or less per kilogram (2.2 lbs). Global investments into alt seafood startups totaled $175M in 2021, which was up 92% from 2020.
Image: CELLMeat
Scotland-based seafood trading platform Rooser has reeled in $23M in new funding from e.g. Index, GV (Google Ventures), and Point Nine Capital, to help make seafood trading more efficient between wholesalers and processing plants. The company says its solution helps cut waste in the industry.
Indian CEA (controlled environment farming) startup Eeki Foods has nabbed $6.5M in new funding, in a round led by General Catalyst. Over in the U.S. meanwhile, vertical farming startup Vertical Harvest raised $8.3M in Series A funding, led by Nicoya and Raiven Capital.
Farmerline of Ghana announced a $12.9M round; its marketplace helps smallholder farmers improve yields by offering digital tools, logistics, field agents, farm resources, and partnerships. The data enables farmers to forecast fertilizer demand, trade their products, and build credit score which allows for borrowing. The round was backed by e.g. Acumen, FMO, Rabobank, and Kiva.
Planetary of Switzerland took home $8M in new financing, to help add production capacity for the food fermentation industry. The round was led by Astanor Ventures.
Plant-based chicken nugget brand Nowadays raised a $7M Seed round, led by Stray Dog Capital and Standard Meat Co (full disclosure: I invested a small sum in the round via the FoodHack Syndicate). Nowadays' nuggets have just 7 ingredients, vs. the 20-40 ingredients of many animal-based and plant-based competitor nuggets, and a better nutritional profile too.
Image: Nowadays
Freshflow of Berlin has built an AI-powered forecasting platform that helps food retailers optimize stock replenishments of perishable goods like fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy. This helps cut down food waste by up to 30%. Further north, in Sweden, local FoodTech startup Cerve banked $2M for its solution helping food wholesalers to automate and digitize their operations.
Starship Technologies has expanded its robot delivery service to Finland, where it will make grocery deliveries for a grocery chain, serving thousand of households.
Belgium has granted permission for field trials of maize (corn) that have been genome-edited with CRISPR Cas9 to be more resilient to climate stress.
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
VEAT (Sweden) is looking for a Sales & Business Development Manager, and also a Head of Growth... myAgro (Senegal) is hiring a Country Director... Volta Greentech (Sweden) is recruiting a (paid) intern as Production Technician...GFI Europe (remote) is on the hunt for a Digital Communications Manager, and GFI in general is hiring for a number of positions including Director of Science & Technology, Director of Corporate Engagement, Director of U.S. Philanthropy and Legislative Director.... Mycorena (Sweden) is lookingfor a Business Controller.
Aqua-Spark released a new report, The Transformative Power of Digital Aquatech.
The Food Waste Challenge is an idea competition, accelerating ideas that battle food waste run by Global Shapers Stockholm, an initiative of the World Economic Forum. Ideas can target the reduction of food waste in different parts of the supply chain, including production, distribution, and consumption, as well as the utilization of food waste in biogas or other refined products. The Food Waste Challenge provides an opportunity for anyone with an idea that combats food waste to apply and have a chance to win SEK 50,000 (appr. €4,800) along with mentor support and relevant exposure in a proud partnership with Invest Stockholm. Applications close May 20th. More info here!
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
This text from Upstream Ag Insights, on 22 Mental Hacks for Agribusiness Leaders, resonated. Really a list of principles to help you improve your output, relationship building, critical thinking, and professional development.
A Turkish restaurant owner attempted, and failed, to send a plate of Adana kebab to space, using a helium balloon.
In other kebab news: A man recently threw a Döner kebab at a security guard in Berlin. Here's the evidence photo taken by German police:
The Manuscript Writing Café in Tokyo only allows you in if you have a manuscript with a deadline -- and only allows you to leave when you finish writing it. The café charges by the hour.
Baby ducklings play on a slide (39 sec video).
Meanwhile in Ohio (5 second video, sound on).
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Shooting Stars by Bag Raiders. 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.