“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.
Are GLP-1 drugs “an existential threat to the processed food industry,” as one academic recently told the New York Times, or are they creating new opportunities for companies to create new products or reposition existing ones?
Agribusiness worldwide accounts for 70% of the world’s water usage in addition to contributing enormously to pollution.
Plus, meet the Internet of the Forest.
By producing it in fermentation tanks using microbial strains optimized by Triplebar Bio, FrieslandCampina Ingredients hopes to to unlock new markets for lactoferrin.
Cauldron believes a continuous fermentation process will be key to unlocking the commercial viability of microbial fermentation for a host of ingredients that have historically been sourced from animals or petrochemicals.
Making dairy without cows is cleaner, greener and kinder, says Bon Vivant. But is it commercially viable?
How will cultivated meat transition from a loss-making novelty served at a handful of restaurants to a viable alternative to animal ag?
Berkeley-based Orbillion reckons it can achieve economic production for cell-cultured Wagyu beef “at around 2,000 liters in scale,” says cofounder and CEO Dr. Patricia Bubner.
Plus: Impossible Foods unveils a “meatier” new look to attract more carnivorous customers.
