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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Funding

Aryballe Raises €7M for its Digital Nose Technology

Aryballe, which makes a “digital nose” capable of identifying smells, announced today that it has raised €7 million ($7.89M USD) in new funding. The round featured new investors Samsung Venture Investment Corp. and Seb Alliance as well as existing INNOVACOM, CEMAG INVEST, Asahi Kasei, and HCVC. This brings the total amount of funding raised by Aryballe to €17 million ($19.24M USD).

Aryballe debuted its new, miniaturized “nose” sensor earlier this year. The sensor can be built into a range of hardware products. As we wrote then:

The new sensor is smaller than a paperclip and is equipped with Aryballe’s proprietary combination of biosensors, which capture odors in seconds. Aryballe’s software then matches the signals captured with a database of previously collected and analyzed odors to mimic the human sense of smell.

There are a lot of industrial applications for digital smelling technology. Specifically as it relates to food, Aryballe’s nose could be installed in an oven to “smell” when food is burning, or it could be placed in a fridge to let you know if food is going bad. Aryballe’s tech could also be used in coffee roasting, or to help verify the authenticity of raw ingredients like vanilla.

Aryballe also makes the standalone, handheld NeOse Pro device that can also be used for odor analysis.

Aryballe isn’t the only company making a digital nose. Stratuscent‘s eNose is based on NASA patents and was on display at CES earlier this year.

With its new funding, Aryballe said that it will double the company’s current headcount across engineering and product positions and scale up the industrialization of its technology.

Karana Raises $1.7M to Develop ‘Pork’ Products From Jackfruit

Singapore-based Karana announced today it has closed a $1.7 million seed round to further develop its plant-based meat products, the first of which are derived from jackfruit. The round was led by Big Idea Ventures, Monde Nissin Corp CEO Henry Soesanto, and Germi8, along with angel investors Kevin Poon and Gerald Li.

Karana says it will use the funding to launch its pork product made from jackfruit in restaurants in Asia, and to further its research and development around jackfruit and other plants as meat substitutes. 

Jackfruit makes a good alternative ingredient for pork products because it can be cooked and shredded like the real thing. If prepared the right way, it can mimic the textures of pork (or in some cases chicken), which is a key element to get right when it comes to plant-based proteins. The plant is native to India and also grows in Southeast Asia, Mexico, and South America. 

Karana says it uses a proprietary “innovative mechanical technique” to process the fruit, while retaining its nutritional profile and other health benefits. In other words, Karana’s products aren’t as highly processed as, say Impossible’s “bleeding” burgers or Beyond’s patties.

Karana cofounder Blair Crichton made mention of that point to AgFunder today, saying, “There are plenty of consumers — myself included — that really like those other products on the market, but don’t want to eat a heavily processed burger or sausage every day.” Substitutes derived from jackfruit are one possible alternative.

Karana’s funding announcement lands in what’s been a very busy week for alternative proteins. Since Tuesday of this week, cell-based meat companies IntegriCulture and Shiok Meats announced a new partnership, Motif FoodWorks said it is doubling down on its quest to find the perfect alt-meat texture, and fake chicken company NUGGS raised $4.1 million. In the alt-dairy space, Perfect Day made its own funding announcement, the expansion of its Series C round to $300 million. Meanwhile, sales of plant-based meat in general have gone up since the start of the pandemic, thanks in no small part to meat shortage scares and panic shopping sprees.

Karana’s choice of plant-based pork as its first product is a wise bet. Pork is the most widely consumed meat in Asia, but between the aforementioned pandemic-induced problems with meat supply and calls from Asian governments to cut meat consumption, the time is ripe for plant-based alternatives.

Fake Chicken Co. NUGGS Raises $4.1M, Rebrands as Simulate, Adds DOGGS to its Lineup

NUGGS, the company behind the plant-based chicken nuggets of the same name, announced a bunch of things this morning including: It’s rebranding its parent company name to Simulate, it has raised an addition $4.1 million and it is developing a new spicy version of its NUGGS as well as a line of DOGGS (faux hot dogs).

That’s a lot to parse, so we’ll go through it line by line.

Re-branding from NUGGS to Simulate makes sense, especially since the company is expanding its product line in to non-nugget foods. Having a broader corporate name allows it to venture into more categories without any confusion. Plus, who wants to say they work for a company called NUGGS?

The new funding came from Lerer Hippeau, AgFunder, Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit), Walter Robb (former CEO of Whole Foods), and Jasmine Tookes (a model). This cash expansion brings the total amount of funding raised by NUG–, err, Simulate to $11 million.

Simulate will need the money because the fake chicken nugget space getting crowded. In addition to NUGGS, which made the move into retail this March, rival nuggets maker Rebellyous has also started to sell through grocery stores. Big meat company Tyson launched its line of Raised and Rooted plant-based nuggets in stores last year. And there are the existing stalwarts like Morningstar and Quorn.

Given all that competition, Simulate’s addition of new product lines like DOGGS isn’t that surprising. Besides, sales of plant-based foods have been on the rise over the past two years, so diversifying its product line to nab a bigger piece of that faux meat pie seems like a good idea.

Aquaponics Company Seed & Roe Rebrands as Upward Farms, Announces $15M in Fresh Funding

Seed & Roe, an indoor farming and aquaponics company, announced today it has rebranded as Upward Farms and plans to build a new headquarter farm in Brooklyn, NY to increase production of both leafy greens and fish. Today’s announcement also comes just as the company has closed a $15 million funding round led by Prime Movers Lab. The company has raised $20 million total to date.

The company, which was called Edenworks before it was Seed & Roe, said in today’s release that it plans to open its Brooklyn facility in 2020 and increase production by more than 20x its original facility (also located in Brooklyn). 

That production includes both leafy greens and fish — striped bass, specifically. The forthcoming facility will farm these fish, which it says will be available to those in the New York area by 2021. Keeping the entire operation something of a closed loop, the water produced by fish feeds (which is nutrient-enriched) then goes on to feed the plants in the facility’s greenery. 

Upward Farms provided this handy diagram of the new facility to explain its operations:

It’s approach to indoor farming is somewhat unique in that most companies aren’t yet combining indoor vertical farming with any other type of farming. Though there is plenty of activity currently in the vertical farming space, thanks in no small part to the pandemic surfacing the many insufficiencies of our current food supply chain. Also this week, Hong Kong-based Aspara launched its high-tech indoor farm for consumers in the U.S. Over in Singapore, the government has allocated more than $40 million (USD) to aid agtech and aquaculture startups grow more food locally. Finally, here in the U.S. South, AppHarvest is building a vertical farming powerhouse to feed the Appalachian region.

Because of its Brooklyn location, Upward Farms will service consumers in the New York area for now, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The company plans to expand in the future, though a timeframe is not yet clear. 

Perfect Day Expands Series C Round to $300M for its Flora-based Dairy

Perfect Day, which creates animal-free, flora-based dairy products, announced today that it has expanded its Series C fundraise to $300 million. The new tranche is led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and follows the $140 million C round that initially closed in December of 2019. This brings the total amount raised by the company to roughly $360 million.

Perfect Day recreates milk-like proteins through a process of yeast fermentation. As we wrote previously:

The protein is created by fermenting a genetically modified strain of the yeast Trichoderma reesei. Said yeast is submerged in media, where it ferments and excretes the β-lactoglobulin protein. The whole solution is then put through a centrifuge to separate out the protein, which is then filtered and dried to create a raw product. Add fat and water, and you’ve got something that’s essentially animal-free milk — and can be used to make ice cream, cheese, and basically anything that contains dairy.

In April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted approval of Perfect Day’s β-lactoglobulin protein, which the agency found to be Generally Recognized As Safe. In the letter designating the GRAS status, the FDA wrote that it “concludes that the protein characterization data shows that the sequence of β-lactoglobulin produced by fermentation is identical to commercially available bovine-produced β-lactoglobulin.”

Perfect Day’s technology is coming at a time when the global pandemic has highlighted inefficiencies in the global food supply chain. When restaurants and schools were forced to close, traditional dairies lost those customers and began dumping millions of gallons of milk down the drain. Perfect Day’s technology is more akin to a factory, so it is able to ratchet production up or down depending on demand.

Perfect Day products are already starting to appear in the market. In May of this year, the company started working with San Francisco-based Smitten Ice Cream to make a line of flora-based ice creams. (We really liked it.) Hopefully with this new funding, the company can quickly expand production and its footprint.

Outstanding Foods Raised $5M for Plant-based Pork Rinds

Snack company Outstanding Foods announced yesterday that it has raised a $5 million round of funding led by SternAegis Ventures.

Outstanding currently makes Pig Out, a plant-based “pigless pork rinds,” in flavors like “Hella Hot,” “Nacho Cheese,” and “Texas BBQ.” The rinds are gluten-free, non-GMO, soy-free, vegan and certified kosher. The main ingredients in the rinds are rice, sunflower oil and pea protein, with a bunch of spices thrown in.

This funding round comes at a good time for Outstanding Foods, which sits at the nexus of a few trends happening right now. First, Outstanding is creating a plant-based alternative to an animal product at a time when sales of plant-based food are taking off, so there is definitely a receptive market for pigless pork rinds.

Second, this pandemic has driven people to stock up on snacks. The NPD Group recently found that snack food consumption is up 8 percent during this time of COVID as we all look for comfort foods.

Finally, while Pig Out is available in select stores, Outstanding also sells directly to consumers via its website. This is an increasingly common tactic for nascent food brands that are able to create a direct relationship with consumers through a variety of online channels like Twitter and Instagram. Magic Spoon cereal is only available online and Impossible Foods recently launched its own D2C channel.

The only issue for Outstanding Foods might be if its pigless pork rinds taste too much like the real thing. While this verisimilitude may appeal to flexitarians, the more ardent vegan and vegetarian community may be turned off by this realism, having given up meat and pork for a reason. Plus, just because something is plant-based doesn’t make it healthy — there’s still plenty of processing that goes into making these treats.

Regardless, with $5 million in fresh funding in the bank, now is the time for Outstanding to, err, pig out on its expansion plans.

TurtleTree Labs Raises $3.2M Seed Round for its Cultured Human Breast Milk

Turtle Tree Labs, a Singapore-based startup that creates milk from mammalian cells, announced yesterday that it has raised a $3.2 million seed round of funding. Green Monday Ventures, KBW Ventures, CPT Capital, Artesian, and New Luna Ventures all participated in the round.

As we’ve covered previously, TurtleTree Labs uses cellular agriculture to grow mammary gland cells in a nutrient rich bath that actually lactate milk. This company is initially focusing on re-creating human breast milk, and will follow that up with cow milk. Because they are creating milk in the lab, scientists can alter the milk to give it different attributes like higher or lower fat or cholesterol.

When we spoke to TurtleTree at the end of 2019, the company had plans to debut its first glass of human breast milk in Q1 of 2021 and enter the market at the end of 2021. We don’t know if the COVID-19 pandemic has altered any of those plans, but in its funding announcement, TurtleTree said that the Singapore government has been supportive, allowing the company to continue its work apace.

Cultured breast milk seems to be a pretty hot space right now. TurtleTree’s funding comes just a week after BIOMILQ raised $3.5 million for its cultured breast milk solution.

It’s not hard to understand why cultured human breast milk is attracting funding. It has the potential to provide a healthier and more environmentally friendly option for women who are unable to produce enough breast milk on their own because of biological or environmental reasons.

That is still years away, however, as companies like TurtleTree need to continue development of its product and scale up to make its milk more affordable. This new round of funding will definitely help that.

Sevenrooms Raises $50M Series B Funding for Its Data-Driven Restaurant Tech Platform

Restaurant tech company Sevenrooms has raised $50 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Providence Strategic Growth and brings Sevenrooms’ total funding to $71.5 million. According to a press release sent to The Spoon, Sevenrooms will use the new funds to “further enhance” its restaurant guest-management platform as well as continue expanding globally. 

Sevenrooms, which was founded in 2011, has over time evolved from a reservations platform to a full suite of front-of-house tools that nowadays includes some pandemic-friendly features like contactless ordering and payments. The company continues to offer its reservations system, as well as waitlist and table management tools, marketing automation, and online ordering. Pre-pandemic, Sevenrooms was exploring voice-enabled restaurant tech as well as data-driven personalization.  

Like other front-of-house-focused restaurant tech companies, Sevenrooms quickly reacted to the COVID-19 crisis and the dining room shutdowns that followed. At no extra cost, it launched its DirectDelivery feature, which gives restaurants more ownership over their customers data on delivery order. The company also recently released its version of the contactless dining kit, meant to equip freshly reopened restaurant dining rooms with more contactless solutions, from order and pay technologies to digital menus. 

Others have made similar moves recently. In fact most restaurant tech companies — Presto, Zuppler, Paytronix, etc. — are offering enhancements to their platforms that emphasize contactless tools for the restaurant dining room.

Standing out from the masses will be the biggest challenge for all of these companies. Sevenrooms’ previous work around voice tech and personalization would give it a push in a somewhat unique direction. Its continued focus on giving restaurants more control over customer data will also be an important asset for the company going forward as digital properties become the restaurant experience, rather than an add-on sales channel.

Amazon to Fund Food Companies as Part of New $2B Climate Pledge Fund

Amazon announced today the launch of The Climate Pledge Fund, which will use an initial $2 billion in funding to back clean technology companies including those in the food and agriculture space.

The fund is part of the broader Climate Pledge, an initiative founded by Amazon and Global Optimism last year to achieve net zero carbon by 2040, 10 years earlier than the Paris Agreement deadline.

From Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund page:

In order to meaningfully reduce the amount of net greenhouse gas emissions, low-carbon solutions need to be developed in all sectors of the global economy. The Climate Pledge Fund will invest in companies in multiple industries, with an initial focus on: transportation and logistics; energy generation, storage, and utilization; manufacturing and materials; circular economy; and food and agriculture. Companies of all sizes and stages will be considered, from pre-product startups to well-established enterprises looking to scale. The scope of The Climate Pledge Fund is global and will consider investments in companies developing products or services that reduce carbon emissions and help preserve the natural world.

The fund announcement comes while the world is still in the throes of a global pandemic, which has had both positive and negative impacts on the environment.

There are plenty of opportunities for Amazon to make a big impact when it comes to de-carbonizing the meal journey. We cover a ton of startups that are fighting food waste, developing tools for sustainable and precision agriculture, and creating alternative proteins that don’t require resource intensive livestock raising.

The Climate Pledge Fund is accepting “indications of interest” right now via email.

Digital Meal Voucher Company Swile Raised $78.7M to Expand Internationally

French startup Swile, previously known as Lunchr, announced today it has raised a $78.7 million (€70 million) Series C round, according to TechCrunch. The round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from Bpifrance and Idinvest. This brings Swile’s total funding to €115 million.

Since 2018, Paris-based Swile has been on a mission to disrupt the meal voucher market. In France, employers typically pay part of the value of these tickets, which can be used at most restaurants. And nowadays, more companies are adopting digital replacements to the old paper meal voucher. 

Swile provides one such version of this digital meal voucher via a prepaid card and app. Companies top up employees’ cards each month, and cards can be associated with a person’s bank account. Roughly 200,000 employees across 7,500 companies use Swile right now.

Part of Swile’s new funds will go towards expanding its service internationally. The company says it is looking at Brazil as well as other European countries. Additionally, new funds will go towards offering other non-food benefits to employees, such as reimbursements, gift cards, and events.

Changing up the corporate meal game is something we’re seeing a lot of these days — and with good reason. Thanks to the pandemic, a huge number of employees still working from home, and traditional forms of office lunches, whether vouchers, or catering, have been thrown into uncertainty. Companies have responded with everything from direct-to-consumer meal delivery services for employees to customizable meal plans for virtual sales meetings and events.

As the workforce gets more disparate in terms of location and the state of corporate lunches remains in flux, Swile may be wise to try and diversify its offerings right now.

Barilla’s Venture Arm Opens Up Applications for its Fall 2020 Accelerator

BLU1877, the venture firm of Barilla, announced a call for food and agtech startups to participate in its Fall 2020 accelerator program. Dubbed Good Food Makers, the program is a collaboration between BLUE1877 and startup incubator, KitchenTown.

Good Food Makers will be a primarily-remote 8-week program for startups to work directly with Barilla. In a forthcoming press release, BLU1877 said this iteration of the Good Food Makers program will focus on kids’ snacking, alternative channels, traceability systems and regenerative agriculture. Participants should already have a product or solution in the market.

This is the second cohort for the Good Food Makers program, which announced its first batch of participants earlier this year. As we wrote when the program launched:

While there’s no financial investment for startups participating in Good Food Makers, chosen companies get mentorship and collaboration opportunities with Barilla, as well as access to a wider industry network.

Though like so many other accelerators and incubators in this space, the global pandemic has pushed Good Food Makers to go mostly virtual, which, as my colleague Jenn Marston has reported, isn’t all bad. Except, in this case, participants miss out on the chance to visit Parma, Italy.

For those interested in applying for Good Food Makers, applications are open now and will close on August 8, 2020.  To apply and for more information go to goodfoodmakers.net.

We aim to cover food tech accelerators extensively here at The Spoon. So be sure to check back often to learn about new opportunities (and deadlines) for startups.

Report: DoorDash Raised $400 Million Amid Surge in Demand and Costs

DoorDash has raised $400 million in new funding, giving the third-party delivery service a $16 billion post-money valuation, according to a report in Axios’ Pro Rata newsletter. This latest round was led by Durable Capital Partners, with participation from Fidelity and existing investor T. Rowe Price.

Today’s Axios story follows a Wall Street Journal article last week that said the company was close to getting funding that would value the company at $15 billion. This round would bring the total amount of funding DoorDash has raised to $2.5 billion.

Back in February of this year, DoorDash had confidentially filed to go public. Around that same time, the COVID-19 coronavirus erupted into a global pandemic. With shelter-in-place orders instituted around the world, demand for food delivery skyrocketed. As Axios points out, along with this surge in demand came increased costs for DoorDash, which needed to implement new contactless delivery features and provide PPEs to its delivery drivers.

In addition to rising costs, DoorDash’s new funding comes amidst new regulatory and competitive issues. Just yesterday the San Franciso DA sued DoorDash over how the company classifies its workers as contractors and not employees (which would give them overtime pay and other worker benefits, which would cost DoorDash a lot of money). There has also been some consolidation in the third-party delivery space as last week Just Eat Takeaway acquired Grubhub.

There are still a lot of unknowns about how this pandemic will or won’t permanently alter our relationship with restaurants. A recent spike in coronavirus cases where states have re-opened may keep patrons away from dining out and drive them deeper into delivery. The question now is whether the massive amount of money DoorDash has raised is enough to keep it going through all of this change.