⚗️ AI Aroma Alchemy

Q3 FoodTech investments mapped, generative AI model for new flavour and fragrances, fava bean-to-bar chocolate funding

October 11, 2024

It’s hard to beat a good ol’ get together with new and familiar faces. And that’s no exception for us here at FoodHack.

Together with our talented Ambassadors, we’ll be hosting Meetups in Dubai, Singapore and Basel over the next week. Whether you’re local or just visiting, we’d love to see you there - always free to attend.

And soon after, we’ll be heading to New York to host the HackSummit in December for the ultimate end of year gathering, jam-packed with dealmaking and networking. Hack: prices go up next week.

This week in FoodTech:
🐕 Formula One star’s next investment
🍤  Gene-edited giant freshwater prawn
📈 18 molecular farming startups to know

The Digest

Credit: Watershed AC, Evogene, and Ben-Gurion University

📈 What’s up? After two years of drought in Spain, olive oil supplies are expected to increase and prices to fall as improved weather boosts production.

📉 What’s down? The US Southeast agricultural sector has been further disrupted by Hurricane Milton, with fruit supply especially impacted.

🔐 Startup Tiamat Sciences has ceased operations, citing financial constraints.

📊 Global FoodTech investments of Q3 2024 mapped by DigitalFoodLab.

🇬🇧 The UK government has awarded £1.6 million to the Food Standards Agency to establish a regulatory "sandbox" aimed at fast-tracking cultivated meat approval, accelerating efforts to bring cultivated meat to British consumers.

🇪🇺 The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that France or any Member State cannot prohibit using “terms traditionally associated with animal products” - like burger, sausage, or steak -  for plant-based alternatives, as long as the ingredients are clearly shown on labels.

🍤 A research partnership between Watershed AC, Evogene, and Ben-Gurion University has successfully produced the first gene-edited giant freshwater prawn, using CRISPR technology and supported by Evogene's GeneRator AI.

FoodTech Fundraising

Credit: xFarm Technologies

🚜 Italy's xFarm Technologies raised €36 million, in a Series C funding round led by Partech, to expand its “better farm management” platform across the EU, Turkey, India, and beyond, while developing new fintech divisions and products. Opinion: Why they could become the European Leader in agrifood digitisation.

🇫🇷 French plant-based meat startup La Vie secured €25 million following 192% sales growth YOY, taking its total funding to date to €50 million, and announced the launch of its vegan meatballs.

🥚 Barcelona-based UOBO raised €500,000 seed funding to develop new products and expand its operations, following the successful launch of its liquid plant-based eggs made from canola and potato protein.

🍫 British cocoa-free chocolate startup Nukoko secured investment from German food manufacturing specialist Döhler to scale its bean-to-bar chocolate made from fava beans, ahead of a planned market launch in 2025.

🏎️ Formula One legend Lewis Hamilton made a second investment in plant-based pet food startup Bramble, partnering with the brand to promote the health benefits of vegan diets for dogs.

🦁 nÿcha kombucha got a deal on ‘Die Höhle der Löwen Schweiz’, Switzerland’s shark tank for their refreshing and health-conscious beverage.

🐾 Check out the full recap of 15 funding rounds from across AgriFood, including climate resilient legumes, jackfruit-based meat alternatives and black-eyed pea protein innovations.

Startup Milestones

Credit: NotCo via The Spoon

🇨🇱 Chile’s NotCo unveiled the Generative Aroma Transformer, a generative AI model designed to create new flavour and fragrance formulations, designed for use in industries including food, personal care, home care, and beauty.

🏦 Czech startup Bene Meat Technologies debuted what it describes as a cutting-edge cell bank with over 5,000 high-quality primary cell samples from various species, designed to support long-term supply for cultivated meat production.

🇸🇬 Singapore-based cultivated seafood producer Umami Bioworks has expanded its operations to the UK and is in discussions with regulators as it works towards commercialisation.

👀 Spot the difference between a 3D printed salmon prototype from 2022 vs 2024.

📹️ Good watch: Arturo Elizondo of The Every Company explains how they’re proving to the masses that their new-to-world protein products blow the incumbents out of the water.

Make Magic Happen

We’re making big plans for the inaugural edition of the HackSummit in the US. And we’re building a world-class team to help us deliver it.

Whether you’re looking for your first or next role in Food and Climate, want to get hands-on experience in event curation and delivery, or simply looking to expand your network and learning, volunteering with us at the HackSummit will give you the ultimate insider's perspective. Come and join us.

Plant Based

🌟 Impossible Foods launched three new products, including Disney-themed nuggets and pre-seasoned beef mince, designed to appeal to families looking for convenient options.

🫛 McDonald’s France has partnered with Beyond Meat to introduce Veggie McPlant Nuggets, made from pea protein, across its 1,560 restaurants, offering them at the same price and in the same formats as Chicken McNuggets.

🍗 Simulate, known for its plant-based nugget brand NUGGS, has been acquired by Ahimsa Companies in a cash and equity deal, following the company's decision to seek a buyer instead of raising additional capital.

Molecular Farming

Would you eat cheese that its key protein was grown in a potato? Not a cheese alternative… but the real, genetically-identical deal. Might sound like sci-fi, but startups are making it happen. How? Plant molecular farming (PMF). It’s a form of alternative protein production that enables plants to express target molecules like animal proteins.

🔎 Discover in the full HackTrends Report:
- 2x case studies (Finally Foods, Elo Life Systems)
- The why, the challenges and the figures behind the space
- Map of of 18 companies growing the future of protein
- Insights from Dafna Gabbay of Finally Foods, Ido Eliashar and Maya Sapir-Mir of PoLoPo

Find out more about how molecular farming unlocks the potential for affordable, animal-free proteins by using plants as natural bioreactors. Can this innovative technology scale up to revolutionise protein production as we know it?

Big Food

Credit: Oatly

☕️ Oatly launched a campaign to encourage Brits to use oat milk in tea, as research shows only 4% of UK tea drinkers currently opt for plant-based alternatives, despite oat milk's popularity in coffee.

🌾 M&S launched an autonomous field farming trial using drones and robot tractors to reduce carbon emissions and improve parsnip crop quality, with the first autonomously farmed vegetables expected in stores by November.

⚖️ ADM launched a new supportive solutions platform, featuring over 25 market-ready concepts, to meet the growing demand for tailored nutrition solutions for consumers using GLP-1 and other anti-obesity medications.

🍄 Sainsbury's has become the first UK supermarket to offer conventionally grown mushrooms without using peat, helping to reduce the carbon intensity of mushroom production.

From the Community

Get hired in FoodTech:

🚀 How a hypothetical startup goes from idea to IPO.

🎟️ Ticket prices increase next week for the HackSummit in New York. Lock in the best rate today.

📝 Carbon Equity shares their best resources across hiring / quarterly updates / efficient meeting guides and more.

🍅 Just for fun: When your non-FoodTech board member tries to apply their knowhow.

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Until next time - Stay Hungry