Meet the founders: ÄIO looks to upcycled feedstocks to fuel biomanufacturing platform
Used in everything from lipsticks to alt meat, tropical oils come with environmental costs. But can microbes give them a run for their money?
Used in everything from lipsticks to alt meat, tropical oils come with environmental costs. But can microbes give them a run for their money?
Five or six years ago the press coverage around cultivated meat was almost universally positive. Today, we’re seeing headlines about cancerous cells, ‘vaporware,’ and business failures. So where does the industry go from here?
Some commentators argue that cultivated meat is a food tech fantasy. So are they right? It all depends on your approach, says Joshua March, cofounder and CEO at San Leandro-based startup SciFi Foods.
Between 2005-2012, venture capitalists poured millions into startups attempting to make fuel from microalgae, getting their fingers badly burned in the process. But could algae be gearing up for a second bloom?
Rice and wheat are harvested with combine harvesters. Yet strawberries are still picked by hand at a time when growers are facing rising labor costs and serious labor shortages. So why aren’t we seeing more mechanization being deployed for specialty crops?
Dutch startup Meatable has slashed production times for cultivated pork from three weeks to eight days in the past year by dramatically speeding up the process by which its stem cells differentiate into fat and muscle, transforming its unit economics.
When the team at NCH Agriculture, a $1bn agriculture investment business, founded Agroprosperis in 2006, they didn’t have a plan and understood little about farming. Today Agroprosperis is the largest producer of crops in the Black Sea region, and is returning 15% a year to its investors.
If you’re farming edible insects for protein, scale is the name of the game, says Singapore-based startup Insectta. But if you’re mining bugs for higher-value functional ingredients, even a tiny startup can potentially compete on the global stage with the right technology.
Miyoko Schinner and the board of the plant-based dairy company she founded have agreed to bury the hatchet, withdraw their respective lawsuits and end their very public spat.
The Egg-Tech Prize—a global competition to find scalable technologies to sex chicks before they hatch—remains unclaimed because none of the applicants meet the criteria. It’s time to explore gene editing approaches, says eggXYt CEO Yehuda Elram.
“We’ve got a groundswell of young people who are trained in molecular biology,” says SynBioBeta founder Dr John Cumbers: “They’re not scared of GMOs. But they are scared of the environmental impacts of climate change and the unsustainability of our consumer culture.”
Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown says he is confident of returning to growth and achieving cashflow positive status in the second half of this year, after posting a 17.7% decline in net revenues to $195.5m in the first quarter of 2023.
The brainchild of alt protein entrepreneur and podcaster Adam Yee and Gainful founder Eric Wu, ‘Asian comfort food’ brand Sobo Foods is emerging from stealth.
Plant cell culture has been around for decades. So what’s prompted the recent flurry of activity in the food and nutraceuticals space?
Bud Light scandals aside, JBS USA appointed a new CEO as PR battles rage on and an Impossible Foods vet joined Alphabet X.
Founder Bobby Brannigan explains how the Mercato tech platform is keeping mom-and-pop stores in business while also serving food deserts.
Court documents show Miyoko Schinner and the board of the plant-based dairy company she founded have agreed to go through an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process, although legal experts say it doesn’t necessarily mean that their very public dispute is simmering down.
GMOs still have an image problem when it comes to food. But attitudes are evolving, insists one startup on a mission to change hearts and minds, one purple tomato at a time.
2022 was a grim year for agrifoodtech investment, with funding down 44% year-on-year globally, in part driven by an 81% drop in funding in China. So why did funding fall off a cliff and what can we expect in 2023 and beyond?
If you’re in space for three days, says Phnam Bagley, food is fuel. If you’re on a three-year round trip to Mars, it’s mission critical, a matter of life and death.
Sponsored
International Fresh Produce Association launches year 3 of its produce accelerator