Plus: Science Based Targets initiative’s new rules for Scope 3 emissions are causing more than a little chaos.
Robust waste tracking and inventory systems are key to cutting more food waste out of the food retail supply chain.
The Maia Farms & Ecoation growing system for mycelium and fresh produce can make 700kg of food a year in a device the size of a wardrobe.
Blue Tree Technologies has developed a patented process to selectively remove sugars from juice, milk, and beer.
Industrial-scale insect farming is not for the faint-hearted. So what business models make sense, and who is going to fund the next wave of facilities?
Proprietary tech and proprietary strains of seaweed provide a model that’s scalable anywhere in the world, says Seadling founder Simon Davis.
Dutch startup Rival Foods will start deploying shear cell technology—a novel approach to texturizing plant-based proteins that can create whole cuts—at a “commercially viable scale” this summer.
“One thing we’ve recognized is that sometimes breakthrough technologies that map really well to a very positive and impactful food and agri thesis might originate outside of the sector,” says Michael Lavin.
Also: farm labor management platform Seso raises $26 million, L’Oreal backs sustainable pigment producer.
“A key part of the proposition to fine dining chefs was that they can serve something that no one else has and no one else can have, because we invented it,” says Vow’s CEO.
Funding into Australian agrifoodtech startups fell 33% last year according to AgFunder data… But it could have been worse: global agrifoodtech funding fell 49% over the same period.
‘Investors are starting to understand that plant cell culture is one of the emerging categories within cellular agriculture,’ says CEO Frank Jaksch.
The Israeli startup leverages AI technology from computational biology specialist Evogene it claims will dramatically speed up the R&D process.
Bpacks combines bark from timber production, used coffee grounds and other bio-based materials to create pellets that can be used by packaging manufacturers to create a variety of materials from produce packaging to meat trays.
Plus: more funding for ag robotics and bad news for Kroger’s e-commerce business.
Meatable has slashed production times for cultivated pork by dramatically speeding up the process by which its stem cells differentiate into fat and muscle.
Scaling and commercializing products from a completely new crop takes time and patient capital, says Terviva cofounder and CEO Naveen Sikka.
The current ‘push for profitability’ is ‘code for surviving in a world where you can’t raise capital,’ says Fall Line Capital: ’But if you drive to profitability with no growth, there’s no value at the end of that tunnel.’
Funding winter notwithstanding, “If you’re doing something different and really innovative, you will make money,” says Vinod Khosla.
If the marketing of whey from fermentation is too narrowly focused on the ‘animal-free’ aspect, it potentially limits the market, says Netherlands-based startup Vivici.
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