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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Chris Albrecht

Compound Foods Raises $4.5M to Make Synthetic Coffee

Coffee, without the bean, is what startup Compound Foods promises, and the company just raised $4.5 to help make that goal a reality. TechCrunch was first to report today that Compound has raised $4.5 million in Seed funding from investors including Lowercarbon Capital, SVLC, Humboldt Fund, Collaborative Fund, Maple VC, Petri Bio and angel investors. This brings the total amount raised by the startup to $5.3 million.

Instead of growing and harvesting coffee beans, Compound uses synthetic biology to recreate “coffee” on the molecular level. Compound Food Founder and CEO, Maricel Saenz, didn’t provide much detail to TechCrunch as to how the company re-creates coffee, but did they use sustainable ingredients and far less than the 140 liters of water it takes to grow one cup of joe.

Compound isn’t the only company using such synthetic techniques to recreate particular food and drinks. Seattle-based Atomo is also in the molecular coffee biz, making its synthetic java out of upcycled vegan ingredients. Atomo introduced a ready-to-drink cold brew canned coffee last year. Endless West makes molecular whiskey. And Climax Foods uses data and plant-based ingredients to re-create cheese.

Though it’s rather grim to think about, as the pandemic and climate change highlight how fragile our agricultural and supply chain logistics are, there is a real opportunity for synthetic food and beverage makers to grow. These companies can recreate foods we know and love with fewer land and water resources. Additionally, because these foods are manufactured in facilities and not grown outdoors, they aren’t reliant on growing seasons and are less susceptible to catastrophic weather conditions.

Of course the most important factor for any synthetic food and drink company is taste. If the finished product doesn’t taste good, all the molecules in the world won’t convince people to buy it.

Eat Just Partners with Qatar Free Zones to Bring Cultured Meat Facility to the MENA Region

Eat Just announced today that it has partnered with Doha Venture Capital (DVC) and Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA) to build a cultured meat facility in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region.

The new facility will be located in the Umm Alhoul Free Zone in Qatar, and will at first house Eat Just’s cultured meat division, GOOD Meat. Eventually, the facility will accommodate Eat Just’s plant-based egg brand JUST Egg as well. In addition to those brands, the facility will also conduct research and development, engineering, and business development.

According to the press announcement, the Qatar Free Zones Authority and Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health have indicated that they will grant regulatory approval for GOOD Meat’s cultured chicken “very soon” and have formally granted an expert license for the cell-based meat. If Qatar does come through with this approval, it would be the second region in the world to approve the sale of cultured meat, following Singapore’s decision to do so in December of last year.

Gaining regulatory approval in more countries around the world is obviously a key milestone that needs to be reached in order for cultured meat to gain any sort of traction. Cell-based meat startups around the world have raised a ton of money over the past year, and the technology is rapidly maturing. But all the funding and the best technology in the world doesn’t mean anything if you aren’t allowed to sell your product.

While there are skeptics that doubt cell-based meat will ever be able to economically scale, a number of startups have made moves that aim to bring it to market. After two drastic price reductions this year, the production price of Israel-based Future Meat’s cell-based chicken is now $4 for 110g (check out our recent podcast interview with Future Meat Founder and CSO Yaakov Nahmias for more). Here in the U.S. Memphis Meats re-branded to the more consumer-friendly UPSIDE Foods and announced a partnership with the Altier Crenn restaurant in San Francisco.

Eat Just has definitely pushed its way to the front of the cultured meat pack, however. It is the first company to ever commercially sell its cultured meat, and now it will have large-scale production facilities in both Singapore and Qatar.

Gatik Raises $85M Series B, Brings Automated Middle Mile Delivery to Texas

Autonomous middle mile delivery company, Gatik, announced today that it has raised an $85 million Series B round of funding. The round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, with participation from existing investors Innovation Endeavors, Wittington Ventures, FM Capital, Dynamo Ventures, Trucks VC among others. This brings the total amount raised by Gatik to $114.5 million

Despite its hum-drum name, the middle mile is far from middle of the road. In fact, the middle mile is perhaps one of the more exciting areas in autonomous vehicles right now. For those unfamiliar, the middle mile is the route between two business-to-business locations. Think: a retailers distribution warehouse to one of its store locations. Because the route is fixed, there are fewer variables a self-driving vehicle would encounter (same road, typically the same traffic conditions, etc.).

Because of these route limitations, it can be faster for a autonomous middle mile delivery company like Gatik to get to market. Local regulators don’t have to worry about self-driving cars learning and navigating complex situations and added safety concerns that come with delivering to a neighborhood house. Gatik now operates delivery routes in Toronto, Canada for Loblaws and for Walmart in Louisiana and Arkansas, where its middle mile route is fully driverless.

Along with today’s funding announcement, Gatik also said that it is expanding its operations into Dallas, Texas. Gautam Narang, Co-Founder and CEO of Gatik told me via video chat last week that as part of its move into Dallas, Gatik has signed undisclosed customers, which Gatik will be serving simultaneously, operating its trucks almost around the clock. “[We’ll be] moving goods for customer A during the day and customer B during the night,” Narang said.

The big funding and big move into Texas is the continuation of a big year for Gatik. So far this year the company has introduced an all-electric box truck, received $9 million (CAD) from the Canadian government to help winterize its technology, and partnered with Isuzu to develop autonomous medium-sized delivery trucks.

There isn’t a ton of competition right now in the autonomous middle mile space. Udelv unveiled its Transporter platform in April of this year. Unlike Gatik’s vehicles, which look like regular delivery trucks, Udelv’s Transporters are essentially giant pods, that don’t even have a place for a driver.

Between the investment and customers that Gatik is attracting, and the expanding willingness of local regulators to allow autonomous middle mile delivery, I suspect we’ll be seeing more players enter the space this year.

Kickstarter: Bottle+ is a Waste-Free Thermos That Gives You Fizzy Water on the Go

We drink an insane amount of bubble water in our household. And while it’s all from recyclable aluminum cans, it still feels… excessive. Which is why the new Bottle+ project on Kickstarter caught my eye. The SPARK Bottle+ is a travel thermos with a built-in, re-usable CO2 chamber to fizz up your water while you’re on the go. In addition keeping your drinks as maximum fizz even as the thermos jostles around in your backpack, the Bottle+ is also waste free.

There are three main components to the SPARK Bottle+, the main drinking vessel, a portable CO2 chamber that attaches to the vessel, and a refilling station. Just like a SodaStream, you place a CO2 cylinder inside the refilling station. When you’re ready to go, affix the chamber to the thermos and press it down onto the refilling station to load your Bottle+ with CO2. When you’re out, press the button on the CO2 chamber to carbonate your water. A full chamber can make produce 15 bottles of sparkling water before needing a recharge.

The whole system is circular and reusable so there is really no waste. The bottle itself is obviously reusable, and like the SodaStream the CO2 canisters can be swapped out and turned in for refilling. Plus, there are no pods to be packaged and shipped.

Launched on August 24th, the Bottle+ campaign has already blown past it Kickstarter goal of $29, 510 and has raised more than $77,000 as of this writing (with 31 days still to go). Early backers can pick up a complete Bottle+ system for €139 (~$164 USD). According to the campaign page, the Bottle+ system will cost €179 (~$211 USD). Units will ship in June 2022.

According to Grandview Research, the global market for sparkling water is valued at $29.71 billion, and projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.6 percent from this year to 2028. So Bottle+ is certainly launching at the right time.

The entire hydration space is actually chock-a-block with companies vying to improve the water you drink and how you drink it. In March of this year, Pani launched a crowdfunding campaign for its water filter/mineralizer/flavor pod system. Earlier this month, Cirkul raised $36 million for its reusable water bottle and flavor cartridge combo. And just last week, drink giant PepsiCo announced that it was bringing its SodaStream Pro fizzy water dispenser to college campuses.

As with any Kickstarter project, backing it is definitely buyer beware. There is a big difference between developing a prototype and scaling up to mass production — just ask the backers of Rite-Press and iGulu. However, if Bottle+ can pull it off, that will be a definite plus for the planet and for soda water addicts like me.

So Long, and Thanks for all the (Cultured) Fish

Let’s not bury the lede here. After spending the past four years covering food tech startups, I’m leaving The Spoon to start my own (more on that in a minute).

This is a completely amicable split (you can tell because Spoon Founder Mike is letting me write this farewell post). I first got into food tech as the emcee of the very first Smart Kitchen Summit back in October of 2015. In 2017 Mike asked me to contribute editorially. I’m so glad I did.

The past four years haven’t just been fulfilling for me professionally, it’s also been a wild time to cover food tech! So much has happened over the past four years and The Spoon has covered it all:

  • The rise of plant-based meat giants like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat
  • The introduction of robotics to the restaurants courtesy of companies like Miso Robotics and Starship
  • The cell-based meat industry gaining steam and momentum thanks to a number of innovative startups around the world
  • Precision fermentation is poised to radically re-invent all types of food
  • The explosion of food delivery services that changed the nature of restaurants

And so much more.

I am eternally grateful to Mike Wolf, Ashley Daigneault, Surj Patel, Jenn Marston and Catherine Lamb for making this a fantastic adventure.

So what’s next? Well, I’m still going to be writing about food tech. I’m launching my own online publication/paid newsletter that will focus on food robotics and automation. Basically anything that is automating the meal journey: drones, robots, cashierless checkout, etc. The new site is called OttOmate and it will officially launch on Sept 9th (you can get a sneak peek of it here).

Mike and I have talked and we will continue to collaborate going forward. We’re already putting together plans to bring back ArticulATE, our food robotics conference next year (fingers crossed it will be in person).

In the meantime, I’ll still be kicking around here for a couple of days to finish up some news stories that I’ve been working on.

Thank you, for reading and commenting and chatting with me at events over the past few years. It’s been a treat covering and getting to know folks in this industry. I’m excited for what’s next both for myself and for The Spoon. On that note, The Spoon is actively looking for a few good writers. If that’s you, send in your CV!

PepsiCo Bringing SodaStream Professional and Unattended C-Stores to College Campuses

In July of last year, during the first wave of the pandemic, PepsiCo introduced the SodaStream Professional connected sparkling water system for offices. At the time we noted that the machine, which reduces the need for single-use platic bottles was a good idea, but its future seemed questionable given that offices were closed. Even now, more than a year later, it’s unclear when or how workers will return to the office, so like any good company, PepsiCo has adapted, and is now bringing its SodaStream Professional to college campuses.

PepsiCo has installed its SodaStream Professional at William and Mary College and College of the Holy Cross (it’s also installed a machine at Dana Hill High School in Dana Point, California), which dispense customizable carbonated water. Customers can choose from a number of flavors, adjust the fizziness of their drinks and even offer up enhancements like electrolytes and vitamin B.

There is an accompanying QR-coded bottle and mobile app that people can use to control the machine. Users download the app and scan the QR code with their phone. At the machine, they scan the bottle’s QR code which allows users to order via the app, contactlessly dispense the drink, and remember certain flavor/fizziness preferences for future drinks. For those without the QR-coded bottle, the machine works with other vessels, and can be controlled with the on-board touchscreen. Pricing for the drinks is dependent on the arrangement made by the university.

The move to colleges is a smart play by PepsiCo, given the unknown future of office work. Schools have re-opened (fingers crossed) and are once again alive with activity on campuses.

But PepsiCo isn’t stopping with the new beverage station. The company has also launched a branded convenience store at Kansas University that features cashierless technology. The new store is powered by New Stand, and is not as high tech as the computer vision + artificial intelligence-powered Amazon Go, so students can’t just grab what they want and walk out. But it does allow users to scan their items with the New Stand mobile app at checkout.

And if that weren’t enough, during a video chat this week, Greg Herman, Sr. Marketing Director, Beverage Innovation – Foodservice at PepsiCo told me that in addition to these programs, PepsiCo is also still running its robot delivery program that it launched back at the start of 2019. That program used small, rover bots from Robby to carry around snacks and beverages that students could order. Herman didn’t provide too many details on the program, but we haven’t heard much about it since launch, so it’s nice to see it’s still going.

Between these programs, cereal dispensing robot vending machines, and 3D printed plant-based meat, colleges are fast becoming hotbeds of food tech innovation.

As Cruise Buys Solar Energy, it’s a Good Reminder that Autonomy Requires Electricity

Self-driving vehicle company Cruise announced earlier this week that it is acquiring solar energy to power its fleet of autonomous vehicles in San Francisco. Cruise is doing so through Farm to Fleet, a program it created with BTR Energy to buy renewable energy credits (RECs) from agricultural farms that also house solar farms.

In a corporate blog post, Cruise said that starting earlier this spring it had been buying RECs from Sundale Vineyards and Moonlight, two farms in California’s Central Valley. Farm to Fleet doesn’t just provide cleaner energy to Cruise’s cars, but it also generates revenue for those farms in the program.

Cruise’s announcement is a good reminder that all of the autonomous vehicles we write about here at The Spoon — delivery trucks, sidewalk robots, drones — require power. On its face that may seem obvious, but the question of where and how autonomous vehicles are powered is an important one for robot startups, delivery services and local governments.

As Cruise notes, it operates its own electric vehicle charging stations, so the move to green power is one it can make entirely on its own. But what happens with smaller sidewalk robots or drones that are deployed to various businesses in dense urban areas? Space needs to be created for to vehicles re-charge, and that space can’t interfere with the natural flow of people on public sidewalks and streets. Once you have the space, then you need the actual electricity and enough of it. Robot and drone companies like to tout how their solutions are greener than having a two-ton car on the road bringing you a burrito. That is true, but that commitment to a cleaner world should ideally extend to greener power

This isn’t the most pressing issue for robot and drone companies, which have a lot more immediate concerns like regulations and economics of scale to deal with as they come to market. But thinking about basic infrastructure issues like electricity now, will help autonomous vehicle companies deploy more easily in the future.

Stop & Shop Now Accepting EBT Payments From SNAP Customers Shopping Online

The Stop & Shop grocery chain announced today that its customers on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) can use their Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card when placing orders online for pickup and delivery. The new program extends to all SNAP participants across Stop & Shop’s five state reach – Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey as well as delivery customers in New Hampshire.

Customers shopping online will be able to filter searches for SNAP eligible products, and apply their benefits at checkout. However, EBT cards can only be used for SNAP-eligible grocery items, and not for things such as fees, taxes or driver tips.

Adding an EBT payment option is absolutely a good thing to do. Providing greater access to grocery delivery can help alleviate food deserts in certain areas. Instacart has launched EBT payment options with ALDI, Publix, The Save Mart Companies and Price Chopper/Market 32. And last year, Amazon expanded the availability of EBT payments for groceries as well.

The outstanding issue for all of these services, however, is the payment of fees. Stop & Shop, for instance, charges $2.95 for pickup and $9.95 delivery fee for orders less than $100 (orders greater than $100 carry a $6.95 delivery fee). To really help bridge inequality and bring more equity to food availability, it would be nice if big retailers and well-funded delivery services did more to offset the costs of delivery and pickup for customers.

Wing to Hit 100,000th Drone Delivery

Wing, the drone delivery spin-off from Google X, announced yesterday that it will pass 100,000 customer deliveries “in the next few days.” The milestone is another stepping stone for the nascent drone delivery sector, as it inches closer to more widespread adoption around the globe.

In its announcement, Wing said that 50,000 of those deliveries were to customers in Logan, Australia over the last eight months. Wing added that it made almost 4,500 deliveries in the first week of August, which translated into a Logan resident received a drone delivery approximately every 30 seconds during Wing’s service hours. Wing also shared that over the past year its drones have dropped off more than 10,000 cups of coffee, 1,700 snack packs, and 1,200 “hot chooks” (what Australians call roasted chicken).

Drones are actually a pretty good technology for food delivery, and have the potential to radically alter the delivery landscape. Drones are fast, arriving at their destination in minutes so hot food stays hot. They can reduce traffic on the road by replacing full-sized cars making deliveries. And in the age of COVID, they can provide contactless delivery.

We’ve already seen startups like Manna make thousands of deliveries in Galway, Ireland. Here in the U.S., Kroger started piloting its first drone delivery in Ohio, and Walmart has partnered with Flytrex for drone deliveries and invested in on-demand drone delivery startup DroneUp.

Despite all these advances, there are still plenty of regulatory hurdles for drone deliveries to overcome before they can truly scale on a global basis. Drones need flight paths cleared, specific safety measures installed, and citizens need reassurances that they aren’t being spied upon (the CEO of Manna told me that this is a top concern for people).

Those concerns, however are steadily being worked out and as Wing and other companies are showing, drone delivery going mainstream is not that far off.

Schnuck Markets to Deploy Simbe Shelf Scanning Robot to All of its Locations

Schnuck Markets announced today that it will be deploying Simbe Robotics‘ Tally shelf-scanning robot to all of its 111 locations across the U.S. This builds on the existing agreement between the two companies, which currently has Tally bots in 70 percent of Schnucks stores.

Simbe’s Tally robot is an autonomous shelf-scanning robot used to monitor a stores inventory. The robot traverses up and down aisles, using computer vision and AI to scan shelves and detect when a product is running low or has been misplaced. Tally can also monitor other issues such as pricing to ensure that sales and promotions are being executed properly.

Validating in-store inventory is more important than ever as people continue to shop for groceries online. Stores need to be more aware of what is in stock to accommodate both in-store shoppers, and customers selecting items online (where they can’t physically see store shelves or ask staff if there is more in the backroom). By automating inventory checks, Simbe says that retailers can get more accurate data and act faster to prevent out-of-stocks. In the press announcement today, Simbe said that Tally enables a 20 – 30 percent reduction in out-of-stock items.

Worth noting is that Schnuck Markets is expanding its use of shelf-scanning robots almost a year after Walmart gave up on them. Last November Walmart made headlines when it announced it was no longer using Bossa Nova’s robots to manage inventory. It was reported at the time that Walmart had found what it considered easier ways of managing inventory than using the robots.

Other retailers, however have put in-store robots to use. Giant Eagle was trialing Simbe’s Tally as well, and Woodman’s Markets was testing Badger Technologies’ robot at its stores across the Midwest.

SavorEat’s 3D Printing Robot Coming to Colleges Courtesy of Sodexo

Foodservice giant Sodexo North America and Israeli food tech company SavorEat announced today that they have partnered on a program that will test out a new type of robotic plant-based cooking appliance to colleges and universities next year.

SavorEat makes a 3D printing robot that simultaneously extrudes and cooks plant-based proteins. The company’s appliance can produce a range of products including plant-based burgers, and in the near future kebabs, steaks and more. Additionally, the settings can be tweaked to create more customized plant-based meat such as a burger with higher fat content. The SavorEat can make three dishes at once, every five minutes.

According to the press announcement sent to The Spoon:

Sodexo will examine the robot chef system and the first product developed by SavorEat, a plant-based protein burger, within higher education institutions across the U.S. In parallel, both parties are working on reaching an agreement for the distribution of SavorEat products.

For its part, Sodexo has certainly become a forward-thinking, tech-friendly company. In this year alone, Sodexo has expanded its partnership with Kiwibot to bring delivery robots to more college campuses, and it has partnered with controlled environment agriculture (CEA) grower Vertical Harvest to source local greens for colleges and hospitals.

That Sodexo is piloting a high-tech program to delivery plant-based meats should come as no surprise then. Sales of plant-based meat grew 45 percent over 2020 and the category is now worth $1.4 billion. Adding this partnership with SavorEat allows Sodexo to reach more vegetarians and flexitarians on college campuses.

This is the second big pilot program for SavorEat, which will be conducting a test of its robot at the BBB hamburger chain in Israel.

Small Robot Company Crowdfunds £4M for its Ag Robots

British agriculture robot company, Small Robot Company, announced today that it has raised £4 million (~$5.5M USD) through its equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube. This brings the total amount for funding raised by Small Robot to £11 million (~$15.12M USD).

Small Robot Company uses a combination of robotics and artificial intelligence to help farmers manage their fields. Small Robot makes a trio of robots dubbed, Tom, Dick and Harry that map fields, zap weeds, and do no-till drilling, respectively. The whole system is tied together with the Wima AI that uses computer vision to identify weeds and gather per-plant intelligence.

This is Small Robot’s fourth trip to the crowdfunding well, and this particular campaign got off to strong start in July when the company raised £2M (~$2.75M USD) on its first day. Small Robot isn’t the only ag robotics company going the equity crowdfunding route. Future Acres, which makes an autonomous driving platform for a number of farm is crowdfunding as well.

Agriculture is an area that is ripe for automation as the industry faces ongoing labor shortages and extremely harsh working conditions. Robots can work in the fields in extreme heat all day without injury or sickness, and can bring precision to tasks such as weeding to reduce the need for harsh herb and pesticides.

One indicator of the opportunity in agriculture automation is the fact that Bear Flag Robotics, which makes autonomous driving technology for tractors, was acquired by John Deere earlier this month for $250 million.

If you’d like to learn more about the state or agriculture and robotics, watch the video from the “Crops and Robots: How Automation is Changing Agriculture” panel we held at our ArticulATE food robotics conference in May that featured Aubrey Donnellan, Founder and COO of Bear Flag Robotics (Spoon Plus subscription required).