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- 🥩 AI's answer to Alt Meat?
🥩 AI's answer to Alt Meat?
A chatbot for conversations on cultivated meat, 220+ protein startups to know and $22M for a regenerative farming tool to decarbonise agricultural supply chains.
As the countdown to the HackSummit in New York begins, we’re excited to reveal more of the exciting plans we’re cooking up. Starting with the Summit menu, of course.
It’s packed with well-loved brands, local favourites and new combinations to keep our attendees fuelled up during the two days with Plantega, Oshi, Pleese Foods, Stockeld Dreamery, KARANA, Daring Foods, ABBOT’S, Fabalish and Atomo Coffee on the menu.
If you’ve already got your pass, spoiler alert: You’re in for a tasty treat. And if not, then now’s the time to get your ticket.
Sorrynotsorry for making you hungry… whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner time for you, it’s time to reveal what’s on the menu.
This week in FoodTech:
🥩 Plant-based marbled wagyu steaks
💰 €115 million fund for European AgriFood
🐮 Reducing methane emissions in East Africa
The Digest
Credit: Good Food Institute
📈 What’s up?
A GFI Europe report reveals that public and philanthropic funding for European alternative protein research hit a record €290 million in 2023—up from €63 million in 2020—and funding is expected to reach or exceed this level by the end of 2024.
🥛Oatly’s Q3 2024 shows strong strides toward profitability with a 10.9% revenue boost, doubled gross profit, and a 29.8% gross margin, driven by supply chain and product mix improvements.
🧀 Global food prices have reached an 18-month high, with staples like cheese, sugar, and oils soaring, pushing the UN food price index to 127.4 in October—a 5.5% year-on-year increase.
📉 What’s down? GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, which suppress appetite and reduce cravings, are having a "mild impact" on Hershey’s business, according to CEO Michele Buck.
🚜 Old news: 100-year old advice on the easiest way to go broke as a farmer.
🎥 Good watch: The pros and cons of the largest concentration of greenhouses in the world.
🧫 World Animal Protection and AI company PubTrawlr launched Cultivator, the first chatbot dedicated to educating consumers on cultivated meat technology.
🦆 Pessac has joined other French cities like Bordeaux, Poitiers, and Montpellier in banning foie gras at official events, reflecting a rising focus on animal welfare in France.
🧬 Hack Exclusive: A list of 230+ Protein Deep Tech startups to know plus insights from the Founders of Shiru, MeliBio, PoLoPo, Finally Foods, Magic Valley, NewMoo, AQUA Cultured Foods, Mission Barns and more.
AgriFood Fundraises
Credit: Zymofix
💰 Capagro Fund II secured over €115 million in commitments, boosted by a major investment from Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale’s Environmental and Solidarity Revolution Fund, to support innovative, impact-driven agrifood startups across Europe.
🥗 German fresh food vending machine startup, Foodji has partnered with P Capital Partners (PCP), securing up to €25 million through their innovative hybrid financing model.
🌾 Berlin-based regenerative agriculture startup Klim raised $22 million Series A funding, marking Germany’s largest Series A round in AgriTech this year. It will use the funds to expand its digital platform, which has so far helped over 3,500 farmers transition to sustainable practices, improve soil health, and reduce emissions, with clients including Nestlé and Kaufland.
🔍 AI-powered startup Shiru secured $16 million in a Series B funding round, led by S2G Ventures, to expand its protein discovery marketplace and ingredient portfolio, bringing its total funding to $36 million.
🪰 French insect ag firm Innovafeed received a grant of $11.8 million from the USDA to build a facility in Illinois producing sustainable fertiliser from black soldier fly larvae manure, aiming to improve soil health with nutrient-rich, slow-release insect frass.
🦠 Ghent-based Zymofix raised €2 million from investors including HTGF, The Nest Family Office, and VP Capital to scale its solid-state fermentation technology, which converts biomass residues into cost-effective microorganisms aimed at enhancing soil health and crop productivity in a sustainable way.
➡ Check out the top 10 fundraises from this week including natural colours from precision fermentation and green ammonia from air, water and renewable electricity.
Startup Milestones
Credit: Brevel
🔬 Brevel has constructed its first FOAK facility for industrial-scale microalgae protein fermenters and secured two commercial agreements with major food and beverage companies.
🤝 Tasmania’s Sea Forest has partnered with Uganda's NileOrbital Aerospace to supply Asparagopsis seaweed feed supplements to 30,000 cattle in East Africa, aiming to reduce methane emissions.
🏭 FoodYoung opened a state-of-the-art facility in Balerna, Switzerland, to accelerate the development of sustainable, health-focused food products, offering rapid end-to-end solutions that allow for prototyping and scaling within one to three months.
🍄 English TV presenter James May has launched a new vegan gin, JG 05 California Dreamgin’, infused with girolle mushrooms and patchouli, inspired by California's culture and his experiences there.
🍻 British retailer Aldi introduced two sustainable beers under The Hop Foundry brand—Toast Brewing’s Another Round Session IPA and Freedom Brewing’s Misfits Summer Fruits Beer—crafted from surplus bread and imperfect fruit which would otherwise have gone to waste.
HackSummit Headline Speaker
Protein demand is rapidly on the rise, but scaling novel alternative proteins isn’t without its challenges.
Enter Alpine Bio who are leveraging the global farming and food infrastructure already in place and using plants like soybeans to "teach" them to produce non-plant proteins.
Alpine Bio is backed by notable investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Fifty Years, Germin8 Ventures, New Crop Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and FootPrint Coalition, and closed a $75 million Series B round back in summer 2021.
During an intimate fireside chat at the HackSummit, Founder and CEO, Magi Richani will reveal Alpine Bio’s journey to transform plants into the world’s most scalable and efficient bio-factories.
Alt Protein
Credit: Millenial Flavor Town
🥩 Korean startup Millennial Flavor Town is set to debut its plant-based wagyu line, featuring marbled steak and shredded beef in soy sauce and truffle flavors, which is described as a ‘masterpiece’.
🇦🇺 Australian startup Nourish Ingredients is joining forces with China’s CABIO Biotech to produce its fermentation-based fat, Tastilux, at commercial scale. CABIO will manage Chinese distribution and leverage its expertise in precision fermentation to support Nourish’s global expansion without significant capex investment.
🧫 Forsea Foods, based in Israel, has achieved what it claims is the highest cell density in the cultivated meat industry, reaching over 300 million cells per ml and enabling cost-effective production of sustainable eel meat, with plans to launch its cultivated unagi in Japan by 2026.
From the Community
Get hired in FoodTech
Griffith Foods (Thailand) is hiring a Regional Sustainability Lead
Neggst (Germany) is looking for a Head of Sales
Hochland (Germany) is offering an Applied Research internship
💡 AKA Foods’ NPD Enablement Platform, which transforms complex data into a streamlined digital hub for R&D teams, is now available to Beta Testing Partners. The tool enhances the design, evaluation, and optimization of food prototypes, already proving effective in tackling challenges in plant-based products.
🤸♂️ If only startup founder life was this easy.
Hit the link below to tell us what you thought of this week’s email.
Until next time - Stay Hungry