FoodTech Startups News: March #1
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 🥣
The Silicon Valley food start-up best known for its vegan mayo thinks it can cure malnutrition in Africa
When Bill Gates called flashy food start-up Hampton Creek the “future of food,” he was presumably referring to products like the company’s much-hyped vegan mayo. The mayo, the company argues, shows that it’s possible to produce plant-based foods Americans love at prices they can afford, without relying on the egg, meat and dairy products that take such a toll on the environment.
But Hampton Creek, recently renamed JUST, has far grander ambitions than turning the U.S. food market on its head. This month it’s going public with a product it describes as its solution to addressing West African malnutrition.
The fight against ‘fake meat’ has officially begun
What is meat?
Back in the day, the distinction was simple. Animals are meat, and plants are not. But now, it’s getting a lot more complicated thanks to cultured, or what some might call “fake,” meat.
Companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are using science labs and farms, rather than animal meat, to create products that rival traditional grilling staples like burgers and hot dogs.
Imagine A Better Future Of Food Now–Or Be Shocked By What We Get
In 1995, the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California, had an acre-sized vacant lot filled with wild weeds and cracked concrete. While others passed-by and saw neglect, a local restaurateur and activist saw an opportunity. Alice Waters knew that she could help transform children’s relationship to food and nutrition if she could only give them a taste of what’s possible. She created the first Edible Schoolyard on that one acre in Berkeley. Today, Edible Schoolyards span the United States because Waters dared to dream about a different future.
Sea vegetables are making waves in food and beverage applications
Bon Appétit named 2012 “the year of kale.” Kale can now be found everywhere, from Walmart and McDonald’s to fine dining establishments. Now, the search is on for the next big, trendy ingredient.
Could that just be kelp or seaweed? These “ocean garden” varieties certainly have the attributes to be the new kale. They’re nutritious, uniquely flavored and versatile.
And, like kale, they have the potential to incite a sea change in the food industry, both through innovation (seaweed snacks are already available at every major retailer) and production.
Seducing Ploutos 💸
Data Sheet — What DoorDash Plans to Do With Another Half a Billion Dollars of Capital
Delivery, of all things, has become the global investment flavor of the month. In China, for example, Alibaba reportedly is upping its stake in a major delivery concern, parrying, as is its wont, an investment from rival Tencent.
In the U.S., one needs a scorecard to track all the players in food delivery alone: A few include GrubHub (which bought Yelp’s Eat24); Postmates; UberEATS; Caviar (owned, counterintuitively, by Square); and the $700-billion gorilla, Amazon.
Temasek leads $24.7m round in US-based animal-free dairy firm Perfect Day
Singapore’s Temasek has led a $24.7-million Series A round in California-headquartered Perfect Day, an animal-free dairy producer, marking yet another investment by the sovereign wealth fund in the emerging food tech space. In a statement, Perfect Day said the fundraising was the largest Series A in the history of the sustainable food technology industry. Early backer Hong Kong-based venture capital firm Horizons Ventures also joined the funding round, along with Continental Grain (USA), Iconiq Capital (USA), Lion Ventures, Verus International, and others.
CRISPR Startup Inscripta Raises $55.5m Series C to Democratize Gene-Editing
Inscripta (formerly Muse Bio) has raised a $55.5 million Series C round led by healthcare investor Mérieux Développement and Washington, DC-based private equity firm Paladin Capital Group. Existing investors Venrock, Foresite, MLS Capital, and NanoDimension also participated.
Inscripta is building a business based on selling gene-editing tools, such as instruments, reagents, and software, and in order to create a market for these tools, the company is giving away CRISPR enzymes for free. CEO Kevin Ness likened his company to selling pickaxes during the gold rush.
Karyogamy 🤱
Alibaba moves to gobble up China-based food delivery startup Ele.me in full
Alibaba’s 2018 investment spree looks set to continue after it made a push to buy Ele.me, the food delivery startup from China that it has invested in, in full.
Bloomberg reported yesterday that Alibaba plans to purchase the roughly-60 percent of Ele.me that it currently doesn’t own from the other investors, which include search giant Baidu. TechCrunch has confirmed that with sources close to Alibaba, who told us that a proposal to buy the remaining stakes was submitted to investors yesterday.
Heavy Lies the Crown 👑
Zomato co-founder Pankaj Chaddah quits as it shuffles top management
10 years after he co-founded Zomato, Pankaj Chaddah has hung his boots at the food technology firm in what is the first of its kind instance of a founder leaving a unicorn startup in recent times.
While Chaddah gave no indication of his next move, he is expected to stay with the company until the end of March to enable a smooth transition. According to people aware of Chaddah’s plans, it seems likely that he will startup again.
Rod of Asclepius 💊
The race to replace sugar is on. Which natural sweetener will come out on top?
There is arguably no greater pariah than sugar in today’s food and beverage world. Once beloved for its swiss army knife capabilities — helping cakes rise, caramelizing crusts and sauces and of course, delivering mouthwatering sweetness — a growing number of health-conscious consumers are rejecting the staple for nutritious alternatives.
According to a survey by Label Insight, 22% of U.S. consumers want to restrict their sugar intake. Sarah Schmansky, vice president of Nielsen’s fresh and health wellness division told Food Dive that one in two consumers plan to do this by purchasing “no sugar added” products this year.
Cornucopia 🍱
AiFi emerges from stealth with its own take on cashier-free retail, similar to Amazon Go
Farewell, cashier jobs. Following the launch of Amazon’s cashless, cashier-free Amazon Go convenience store in Seattle, a startup called AiFi is emerging from stealth today to announce the availability of its own checkout-free solution for retailers. But unlike Amazon Go, AiFi claims its A.I., sensor and camera network-based system can scale from a small mom-and-pop all the way up to a big retailer with tens of thousands of square feet and a hundred thousand products.
Bit by Bit, Whole Foods Gets an Amazon Touch
Some signs are subtle, like the “Whole Foods + Amazon” one near the bananas. Others are more obvious, like the kiosk with Amazon devices for sale.
It has been six months since Amazon took over Whole Foods, a $13.4 billion deal that made the internet retailer a major player in the world of brick-and-mortar retailing. For the most part, the 470 stores are still the same upscale, expensive healthy food emporiums that they have always been.
Beating Pheidippides 🏃
Is Personalized, Next-Day Delivery the Future of Urban Farming?
Canadians have grown accustomed to seeing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pop up in unlikely photos, sometimes shirtless or in athletic gear. But Trudeau was wearing a suit for a planned photo op when he toured Lufa Farms, a 63,000-square-foot rooftop greenhouse in Montreal, last March. During his visit, Trudeau took a moment to harvest a bag of greens for his family.
Metrolinx, Loblaw to pilot grocery-pickup service at GO Transit stations
The agency that runs GO Transit is about to start letting you pick up groceries at several of its train stations, a move that reflects the ongoing evolution of how we shop and commute.
The idea is part of a shift among transit agencies around the world to include in their stations businesses catering to the captive and time-pressed consumers that pour through daily. This evolution has been limited so far in the Toronto area, a gap that Metrolinx has been trying to address.
Walmart’s Sam’s Club partners with Instacart for same-day grocery delivery
Earlier this month, Amazon began offering one- and two-hour Whole Foods deliveries through its Prime Now service. Now, Walmart fighting back. Its membership warehouse club, Sam’s Club, announced today a partnership with Instacart which allows shoppers to order groceries and other household goods for same-day delivery.
The partnership is kicking off with launches in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and St. Louis markets, but Walmart says that the expectation is to expand the service to “millions of additional households” across the U.S. this year and beyond.
Sons of Ivaldi 🛠️
What Nuro’s focus on last-mile delivery might mean for the autonomous vehicle sector
The self-driving car industry is developing rapidly, and companies are competingnot just to perfect the technology first, but also to figure out and execute the type of autonomous vehicle model that’s most likely to be profitable and accepted by the general public.
Originating as Google’s self-driving car project, Waymo remains a frontrunner in bringing consumer-owned fully autonomous vehicles to market. But another startup, with interestingly similar origins, has the potential to shift the industry — and help bring us to an autonomously driven future.
Ford’s Miami self-driving cars will tackle the tricky bits
If you work on self-driving cars, the cocktail party question people always ask is probably: When will I get to interact with one? For two years now, Ford Motor Company has had an answer — in 2021. That year, Ford wants to launch a self-driving taxi service, and it wants to start making deliveries with driverless vehicles.
But before the Detroit automaker does any of that, it needs to figure out how to run a fleet.
Forging Gleipnir 🔗
The Amazon of China is putting its high-end beef imports on the blockchain
The Chinese e-commerce company JD.com is turning to blockchain technology to keep customers in the loop about where their meat has been.
JD, Wal-Mart’s partner in China and a huge competitor to Alibaba, said customers will be able to track “each piece” of beef “right back to the farm in Australia where it was produced.”
The tracking system is unique to JD’s partnership with the Australian beef producer HW Greenham & Sons Pty Ltd.
When it goes live in spring, customers will have access to information including where and how the specific animal was raised, how the meat was processed, and how it was transported.
Return of Persephone 🌱
Is ‘seed to table’ the next big food trend? One top chef hopes so.
Starting in the late fall and continuing through the winter, when gardens are dormant, the seed industry blossoms. Catalogues arrive filled with the latest collections of heirloom tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, Asian greens, multicolored beans, even varieties from Italy. So when I heard about another seed company — launched by no less than star chef Dan Barber of New York’s celebrated Blue Hill at Stone Barns — my first thought was: Do we need another one?
This Startup Is Building the Techiest Indoor Farm in the World
Indoor vertical farming startup Bowery is in the process of building a second facility which it claims will be the most technologically sophisticated indoor farm in the world.
The operation will be in Kearny, N.J., and grow 30 times more produce than its current indoor farm that’s located nearby, and supply 100 types of leafy greens and herbs for customers like Whole Foods and Foragers.
In May, the New York City-based startup raised a $20 million Series A from investors including General Catalyst, GGV, and GV (formerly Google Ventures), with capital from the round going toward building the new farm.
That’s all for today, thanks for reading!
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