FoodHack’s Post

Here's what happened this week in FoodTech 👀 📈 What’s up? Lavazza warned that coffee prices will keep rising until the middle of next year 🇰🇷 Researchers at Yonsei University have developed a gelatin-based scaffold for cultivated meat that can recreate the flavours and aromas generated during the Maillard reaction. 🦗 Singapore Food Agency approved 16 species of insect for consumption, including species of crickets, grasshoppers, mealworms and silkworms. 🚘 A new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), The Good Food Institute and Synthesis Capital highlights the ways alt protein companies can learn from the EV industry. 🫐 US-based alcohol-free brewery Athletic Brewing Co. secured $50 million in a funding round led by General Atlantic. 🦠 NovoNutrients raised $18m in a Series A funding round led by Woodside Energy and CM Venture Capital. 🍽️ allO secured $5m seed funding to further scale its restaurant software platform. 🪰 ByBug raised $1.4m seed funding to build a platform to produce recombinant proteins from genetically engineered black soldier flies 🥚 The VERY Food Co. secured €850,000 to accelerate commercialisation of its functional plant-based food ingredients 📌 OSY Group received a 5-figure grant from Innovate UK, to support finding new markets for its antimicrobial food packaging coating, Xtend 🍭 Incredo signed a manufacturing and commercial distribution deal with US sugar refiner Sucro. 🇸🇬 Umami Bioworks has partnered with two Indian entities to advance its R&D and reach commercial-scale production. 🤝 Bonumose is partnering with Roquette to “enhance the scalability” of tagatose, a rare sugar with 92% of the sweetness of regular sugar but only 38% of the calories. 🧈 Savor developed a butter prototype made from CO2 and hydrogen, which it claims offers the taste and functional properties of dairy butter. 🧀 Credo Foods debuted what it says is the “world’s first” oat milk spray cheeze, which took over 3 years to develop. 🍤 Big Idea Ventures launched Bayou Best Foods, using IP from New Wave Foods Ltd, which shut its operations last year. 🥩 Nestlé debuted Maggi Rindecarne, a soy-based meat product designed to be blended with conventional beef in a hybrid format. ❄️ Chobani launched shelf-stable low-fat dairy milk product, which lasts up to 9 months without refrigeration. 🐄 dsm-firmenich and Elanco’s methane-reducing feed additive, Bovaer, has secured the regulatory green light for use in lactating dairy cattle in the US. 🔬 Get a job in FoodTech with ProFuse Technology, The Good Food Institute APAC, Kokomodo, Simon Capital 👀 Good reads from Loui Blake, Miami Foods™, Oliver Bolton, Oliver Fuss 🎟️ Lock in the very best rate for the next 2 HackSummits. And from just $200. But hurry, only 25 tickets at this price. 🌟 Highlights from FoodHack Lisbon’s latest Meetup. 🐣 Forward Fooding opened applications for the 2024 FoodTech 500. Get the full recap: https://lnkd.in/e4YSy5Rt

How can we (better) integrate ocean and food technologies? FoodHack Lisbon met at Nova SBE Haddad Entrepreneurship Institute for a Meetup on the intersection of ocean and food. We were joined by: Bernardo Ferreira de Carvalho of Oceano Fresco who shared their technology to grow high-quality bivalve species in aquaculture Joana Rosa at S2AQUAcoLAB who revealed how her lab is developing cellular aquaculture to produce protein. Rui Rodrigues at Indico Capital Partners who walked us through the VC perspective and how their investment process mixes traditional VC practices with a strong ESG foundation. ⌛️ Followed by 30-second pitches full of energy and a strong desire to collaborate. 🙏 With thanks to Amy Woolf, Daniel Mathon, and Luis Pereira of Climate Circle Lisbon and to SOGRAPE and MC Food Lab for their support. 🌟 And of course a huge shoutout to Pedro Conceição and Nuno Lopes Gama for organising the get-together.

Catch up on this week's FoodTech headlines in <5mins 📈 What’s up? 11 Dutch retailers, including Spar Holding Netherlands and Picnic Technologies, have committed to selling 60% plant-based proteins by 2030.  📈 Cellular Agriculture Europe has grown its membership by 150%, with 12 companies including Mewery (Czech Republic), Re:meat (Sweden) and Upstream Foods (Netherlands). 📉 What’s down? Data from AgFunder shows that global agrifoodtech funding is down 12.5% year-on-year in H1 2024. 👎 UPSIDE Foods is undertaking another round of layoffs, in a bid to extend its runway in a difficult market. 🍌 Philippines’ Department of Agriculture approved gene-edited banana varieties with reduced-browning characteristics, developed by Tropic Biosciences, thanks to their potential to help reduce food waste. 5️⃣0️⃣ DigitalFoodLab reveals their Top 50 European FoodTech startups. 📊 A study by HealthFerm - Plant-Based Fermented Foods Ecosystem reveals that making fermented alternatives cheaper than animal products could actually make consumers less likely to buy them. 🇪🇸 Seaya closed its latest ClimateTech fund, ‘Andromeda’, with €300 million, bringing its assets under management to €650M 🇲🇼 The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Government of Malawi launched a $53 million programme to combat food insecurity. 🇧🇷 Gênica raised $12 million in a funding round led by Mitsubishi’s Agrex Group 🌾 eAgronom secured €10 million Series A2 funding to encourage farmers into more sustainable farming practices 🍄 Afterlife Ag is building a circular solution for restaurant waste. 🌾 Platypus has developed a gel supplement which makes the process of using pesticides safer, more effective, and more environmentally friendly. 🍓 OLIPOP PBC rebranded, and is now on track for $500 million in yearly sales, read why it worked. 🥩 Redefine Meat launched its 3D-printed plant-based flank steak in Ocado in the UK and Coop in Switzerland ❌ Australian Plant Proteins - the country’s first and largest plant protein isolate manufacturer - has gone into administration 🇨🇦 Above Food Corp. has gone public via a SPAC merger with Bite Acquisition Corp. 🫛 Plantaway Foods launched what it claims is India’s first plant-based whole-cut chicken fillet, made from pea protein. 💡 Andre Menezes, former TiNDLE Foods CEO explores the decline and future of plant-based foods. 🍍 Aldi UK is trialling crownless pineapples to help cut food waste. 🥛 Oatly set up a soft-serve truck marked with statistics about its climate credentials next to a legacy ice cream event to offer “delicious liberation from dairy propaganda”. 🤝 Morrisons is joining forces with Sea Forest to feed its cattle methane-reducing seaweed-based livestock feed 🔬 Jobs from Hoxton Farms, Meala Foodtech, European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) 💡 How to make fundraising your superpower by Helena Wasserman Take a read of the full recap: https://lnkd.in/ebrpDCd3

AI is changing the world. And FoodTech is no exception That's why FoodHack Berlin invited 90+ attendees and a stellar line up of speakers to Choco to share their unique perspectives on AI & FoodTech opportunities, real-world use cases and to finally answer the question “do VCs require FoodTech's to integrate AI?” The answer: No. But it is fundamentally important to be aware of what’s happening in the space and have analysed the risks and opportunities you’re missing out on. But don’t just integrate it for the sake of it. Moderated by Ramona Brunner We heard from a stellar line up of speakers: - Will Norris of Choco - Lia Carlucci of Food Campus Berlin - Peter Dorfner of Green Generation Fund - Maximilian Köhler of Optiwiser A.I. Solutions And food tastings of BettaFish SAL-NOM and Mondarella’s cheese while catching up with new and familiar faces. With thanks to Ambassadors Arianna Spaggiari, Sarah Decoine, Jordi Morales-Dalmau, Paul Steinhardt

11 FoodTech Funds and Funding Rounds just announced this week 💸 🇪🇸 Seaya closed its latest climate tech fund, ‘Andromeda’, with €300 million, bringing its assets under management to €650 million and making it the largest venture firm in the country. 🛒 Rohlik.cz secured $170 million, having served 800,000 customers in 2023. It plans to launch in ten more European cities in the next six years and will launch its tech platform licensing initiative later this year. 🇲🇼 The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Government of Malawi launched a $53 million agricultural development programme to help combat food insecurity in the country. 🇧🇷 Gênica, based in Brazil, raised $12 million in a funding round led by Mitsubishi’s Agrex Group, and claims it’s the largest amount raised so far for ag biologicals in the country this year. 🌾 eAgronom secured €10 million Series A2 funding to encourage farmers into more sustainable farming practices by incentivising them with its carbon credit program. 📦 Vytal raised €6.2 million, in a funding round led by Emerald Technology Ventures, for its digital reusable packaging system, which it operates across restaurants and canteens in 17 countries. 📲 Cluby, based in Finland, raised €2.9 million seed funding for its digital platform, which enables every restaurant to connect with their customers digitally to help encourage repeat business. 🌾 Aurea Imaging raised €2.8 million in Series A funding, specialising in sensor systems for orchard farming. 🥘 Australian startup ReciMe secured $1.5 million in a seed funding round led by Even Capital. Its cooking app is designed to help home cooks organise, share and shop their recipes, and it will use the funds to further expand its presence in the US. 💨 Scientists at the University of Galway received a grant of €1.4 million from the Irish government to support research into novel technologies for methane mitigation in beef and dairy farming. 🏭 Spanish plant-based food tech VANETTA FOOD raised €400,000 to open the first plant-based factory in Galicia for products based on traditional vegetable proteins, with a focus on artisan-inspired production for the B2B2C channel. Congratulations Beatriz Gonzalez, Beth Faus, Ana Rocha, Carlos Fisch, Bert Rijk, Águeda Ubeira, Christine Nguyen, Ivy Nguyen, Will Kent, Kalle Ek, Joel Leino, Pekka Koskinen, Tomáš Čupr, Fernando Reis Robin Saluoks, Dr. Tim Breker, Josephine Kreische, Fredric Petit Catch the full recap: https://lnkd.in/eTJH5hYK

The next FoodHack Lisbon Meetup is tonight. See you there? Before you join us, here's what happened last time 🍇 André Soares Campos from SOGRAPE shared how they are building close relationships with startups with a small venture capital fund for them. 🥗 Maria Tolentino at Too Good To Go spoke about various initiatives to reduce food waste, such as labelling with "best before" instead of "expiration date" 📲 Milana Dovzhenko of Bairro revealed how their tech connects small and large companies to customers, massively simplifying the work and cost for companies looking to sell directly to customers. Ready for more? We've got you covered. The next FoodHack Lisbon Meetup is tonight Where we dive into the integration of ocean and food technologies. With André Almeida Santos, Indico Capital Partners Bernardo Ferreira de Carvalho, Oceano Fresco Joana Rosa, S2AQUAcoLAB Together with Climate Circle Lisbon. Sign up here: https://lu.ma/ocdm6typ With thanks to our Ambassadors Pedro Conceição and Nuno Lopes Gama

Our largest FoodHack Meetup in Dubai to date 🇦🇪 Bringing together new and familiar faces from across the local FoodTech ecosystem at in5 Dubai We hosted a panel discussion moderated by Diane Fermin Roeder to discuss 'Fundraising for Food & Climate Tech: Opportunities & Challenges' Joined by: Nader Amiri - Ex-Founder, elGrocer by Smiles - Online Grocery Delivery / General Partner, Homegrown Ventures José Francisco Fernández Serna - AgriFood Tech Leader & Advisor/ VC Specialist/ Angel Investor Edward Hamod - CEO, Switch Foods Followed by a Q&A, 30 second pitches, networking and sampling by Dr.Amineh Razavian's Snac' N Smile kids snacks and Simon's innovative Millermite Thank you to everyone who joined us including: Abdelrahman Omran, Farida Ahmed, Oz Erbas Soydaner, Maher El-Tabchy, Balazs Lederer, Ahmed Khan, Monique Naval, Frando Sarmiento, Nada ARABI, Paul Mahacek Special thank you to Sascha Dutta, Diane Fermin Roeder, Kaoutar Makrache for co-hosting the event

Should Vienna have its own Food Innovation Hub? 🇦🇹 The latest FoodHack Meetup hosted by Ryan Grant Little in Vienna was a chance to imagine what a FoodTech Hub in Vienna could look like. We hosted two short keynotes and a panel discussion with Vienna Business Agency, Climate Lab, Herd - Open Kitchen, Good Food Institute Europe Thanks to everyone who came including Hinnerk Hansen, Eva Czernohorszky, Shannon Falconer, Michel Kovac, Ivo Degn, Eva Hickl, Markus Linder, Michael Schuster, Viktoria Zimm, Marko Ertl Now to make it happen...