FoodTech Startups News: February #3
Stay up to date with what’s cooking in the food startups world!
Welcome to ShakeUp Factory’s News Digest!
Here are the latest impacts startups had on the food world:
Pygmalion’s Kitchen 🥣
What’s in a Name (for Lab-grown Meat)?
If you thought choosing between organic, grass-fed, free-range, GMO, and locally sourced animal proteins was tough, just wait a few years, because the rise of lab-grown meats is going to add an entirely new layer of complexity to what and how we label our meat choices.
Lab grown meats aren’t even widely available yet, but they’re enough of a concern that the United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) filed a petition with the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, asking for new beef labeling requirements.
Seducing Ploutos 💸
Amazon has partnered with Bank of America for its lending program
In his shareholder letter two years ago, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said he was looking to team up with banks that could help his company expand its lending program for small businesses that sell on Amazon’s websites.
CNBC has learned that Amazon Lending, which launched in 2011, ultimately found a partner in Bank of America Merrill Lynch, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the alliance is confidential. Partnering with Bank of America allows Amazon to reduce its risk and access capital specifically to provide credit to more merchants so they can acquire inventory.
India-Focused Agtech VC Omnivore Partners Holds First Close on $46m for Second Fund
Omnivore Partners has announced the first close of its second fund, Omnivore Partners India Fund 2, on $46 million.
Omnivore, which calls itself an “impact venture fund” is solely focused on agtech investments in India, and investors (LPs) in the fund were largely impact-minded funds from Europe, India, and the US, demonstrating the growing link between agriculture and impact investing.
Citius, Altius, Fortius 🎟️
Crowdfooding’s global food tech map connects start-ups and corporates
An interactive map which tracks rising food tech start-ups around the world will allow industry players to navigate the latest innovations, its creator, Crowdfooding, says.
Aimed at corporate manufacturers and food business operators, the global map pinpoints food and ag start-ups based on their location and categories them according to their function. Its overall aim is discovery and engagement between corporates and start-ups, said its co-developer the UK-headquartered Crowdfooding.
Hypnos’ Realm 🧠
Why It’s So Hard to Sell Wine on the Internet
In 2012, a startup named Club W set out to help millennials find and buy decent wine on the internet. With bottles from a few boutique vintners, a slick web platform and a simple recommendation algorithm, the Los Angeles-based company had a propitious plan.
It didn’t work quite as hoped. So when the company’s founders tried again, they decided to get their hands dirty.
Dining with Lucullus 🍽️
Vazee app brings previously out-of-reach consumer data to brands, it says
Vazee’s app tells manufacturers what consumers are eating and drinking in restaurants. It’s important marketing data and Heineken and Pago have already signed up, its co-founder says.
“The app works very simply and intuitively,“ CEO and co-founder Mathieu Brosch told FoodNavigator.“The concept answers two major issues of the food and beverage sectors. First, ‘who really are my customers?’ and second, ‘How to effectively engage them?’”
Cornucopia 🍱
Why your grocery store wants to be like a startup
Grocery shopping has not changed much over the past 100 years.
Since Piggly Wiggly introduced the concept of picking out your own groceries in the 1930s, few technological advancements have stood out. The first shopping cart came along in 1937, and self-checkout was introduced more than 50 years later, in 1992.
But Amazon’s recent acquisition of Whole Foods Market was an abrupt wake-up call, setting off a scramble for supermarkets to adopt new technology to compete for customers who’ve become accustomed to getting exactly what they want, delivered quickly to their doorsteps.
Beating Pheidippides 🏃
Delivery Hero sees Amazon, Uber squeezing online food market
The chief executive of online food ordering firm Delivery Hero expects competition from the likes of Amazon and Uber to make it harder to make money although the German company is still targeting breakeven this year.
Niklas Ostberg, a Swedish former management consultant who founded the company in 2011, said Delivery Hero has the critical mass to fend off the U.S. giants, but admits their move into food delivery could dampen profits.
Amazon to Launch Delivery Service That Would Vie With FedEx, UPS
Amazon.com Inc. is preparing to launch a delivery service for businesses, positioning it to compete directly with United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp.
Dubbed “Shipping with Amazon,” or SWA, the new service will entail the online retail giant picking up packages from businesses and shipping them to consumers, according to people familiar with the matter.
Instacart Adds $200 Million to Defend Against Amazon Delivery
Amazon.com Inc. is very serious about grocery delivery, but Instacart Inc., the most popular alternative for supermarket orders in the U.S., isn’t rolling over.
The San Francisco startup raised $200 million in a round led by investment firms Coatue Management and Glade Brook Capital Partners, the company told Bloomberg on Monday. The money will help Instacart defend against programs like the one Amazon made public on Thursday: It’s testing free two-hour delivery of Whole Foods groceries to Prime customers in four U.S. cities.
Sons of Ivaldi 🛠️
Miso scores $10 million to bring its hamburger-flipping robot to more restaurants
Pasadena-based hardware startup Miso Robotics just got a big vote of confidence from investors, in the form of a $10 million Series B. This latest windfall led by Acacia Research Corporation brings the company’s total disclosed funding to $14 million and arrives as it ramps up production and gets ready to deliver its hamburger-cooking robot Flippy to 50 CaliBurger locations.
PicoBrew announces a modular and scalable professional brewing appliance
PicoBrew today announced a new product in its growing line of brewing appliances. Called the Z Series, this product targets serious brewers with a scalable design that allows for greater precision in repeatable larger batch sizes. And with the largest model, the Z4, the owner ends up with a stack of slick brewing appliances that reinforces the thought we’re finally living in the future.
Forging Gleipnir 🔗
Safe Catch snags $5M to extend line of mercury-tested fish
California-based Safe Catch has raised $5 million from Echo Capital, Essential Investments and unnamed angel investors. The company said it plans to expand and promote its 100% mercury-tested tuna, seasoned tuna using spice blends, Ahi canned tuna and a new line of canned and pouched salmon. The three-year-old firm has products in almost 10,000 stores in six countries.
Chinese pig farmers using AI to create China’s ‘pork miracle’
In China pig-rearing used to be a predominantly a backyard operation. The etymology of the word “home” in Chinese means literally a “house with a pig in it”. That is now all changed.
Since the nineteen eighties China has been modernizing its pork industry and upped production. China now has some 700 million pigs, half of the world population, most on huge farms. To manage such huge numbers China is turning to new technology including artificial intelligence (AI).
Return of Persephone 🌱
Agrilyst raises another $1.5M for its intelligent indoor farming platform
Agrilyst, a platform that makes it easier for indoor farmers to manage their crops based on sensor data, today announced that it has raised a $1.5 million funding round from iSelect Fund, Argonautic Ventures, Horizons Lab (Horizons Venture’s seed fund) and Onlan Capital Fund. The new investors were joined by existing investors Compound and the New York State Innovation Capital Fund. That’s on top of the $1 million round Agrilyst announced in 2016.
African Agtech Market Map: 99 Technologies Changing the Future of Agriculture in Africa
There are seven billion people on the planet and more than one-quarter of them suffer from malnutrition, mostly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. By 2050, the global population is expected to reach 9 billion people and the number of under-nourished children to increase by 25 million. We are now facing one of the biggest challenges of this century — how can we feed all these mouths?
Innovative solutions need to be implemented and technology and information sharing can help produce enough food and correctly distribute it around the planet.
Cargill Grabs a Stake in Facial Recognition Software for Cows
Facial recognition technology might seem creepy when it’s your mug in question, but move it over to the farm and its possibilities become far less dystopian.
Irish startup Cainthus is using it to increase cow productivity and lower costs on dairy farms. And with food industry heavyweight Cargill grabbing a minor steak (please kill me for that) in the company, Cainthus’ reach should expand to more markets in the coming months.
That’s all for today, thanks for reading!
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