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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Funding

Walmart Invests in Self-Driving Car Company, Cruise

Walmart announced today that it has invested an undisclosed sum in autonomous driving company Cruise. Walmart’s investment is part of a larger $2.75 billion round of funding being raised by Cruise.

The investment comes after five months of the two companies working together. In November, Walmart announced it would pilot the use of Cruise’s self-driving vehicles for grocery delivery in Scottsdale, Arizona.

As we reported back in November, its partnership with Cruise ticked off a couple of boxes for Walmart. First, the retailer has been adding automation throughout its logistics and fulfillment stack to keep up with the increase in grocery (and other) e-commerce. Walmart is using Gatik trucks for middle-mile deliveries, adding automated fulfillment centers to its stores, and robotic curbside pickup kiosks.

But the Cruise relationship also helps with Walmart’s environmental goals. Cruise’s self-driving cars are 100 percent electric, and Walmart has a goal of achieving zero emissions across all its operations by 2040 and using 100 percent renewable energy by 2035.

Commercial use of self-driving vehicles is certainly getting a big push this year. One of Walmart’s middle-mile delivery routes in Arkansas will go full driverless this year. And just this week Udelv announced an entirely new line of Transporter autonomous delivery vehicles, while Domino’s announced it would be using Nuro’s self-driving pod vehicles for pizza delivery in Texas.

Self-driving cars on public roads still have a ways to go before they become mainstream, as there is still plenty of regulation that needs to be ironed out. But getting a financial push from giants like Walmart will certainly go a long way to getting self-driving vehicles on the road and to our doors (with groceries).

If you’re interested in the future of self-driving vehicle delivery, be sure to attend ArticulATE, our food robotic summit on May 18. Gatik, Pix and other players in the space will speak!

Atlast Food Co. Secures $40M Series A Round to Expand Whole Cut Plant-Based Meat Analogues

Atlast Food Co., which uses mycelium to produce plant-based meat alternatives, announced today in a press release that it has raised a Series A round of $40 million USD to create new whole cut meat alternatives. This latest funding round was led by Viking Global Investors and saw participation from 40 North, AiiM Partners, Senator Investment Group, Stray Dog Capital, Footprint Coalition, Applegate, Stonyfield, and Whole Foods.

This new funding will be used to scale the company’s technology, production, and team to bring its product to a commercial scale. To create the new whole cuts of alternative meat, Atlast is partnering with Ecovative, its parent company. Using Ecovative’s AirMycelium manufacturing platform, Atlast is currently building the largest aerial mycelium farm in the U.S. to supply its production of meat alternatives.

Atlast offers its first product, mycelium-based bacon, through its brand MyEats. Dubbed MyBacon, it consists of six plant-based ingredients, is cholesterol-free, and the serving size of two slices contains 4 grams of protein. The Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany, New York is the only retailer that carries MyEats bacon right now, but the product will be distributed to more grocery retailers as production picks up.

Mycelium works well as an ingredient for plant-based meat alternatives because of its fibrous texture that can mimic the muscle texture of animal proteins. Additionally, mycelium grows quickly, and its neutral flavor allows for any desired flavor to be absorbed. Meati is another start-up that produces mycelium-based meat alternatives, and the company trialed its mycelium-based steak last summer and is also developing mycelium-based chicken and jerky.

Atlast was not able to disclose exactly what variety of meat analogs it will be developing, but did say that mycelium gives them the opportunity to create a wide variety of meat alternatives like filet mignon, chicken breast, and even fish. The products will be made available to CPG, foodservice, and grocery industries, and Atlast plans on distributing its mycelium meat alternatives to these industries this year.

Territory Foods Raises $22M for its Chef-Created Prepared Meal Subscription Service

Territory Foods, a marketplace where local restaurants can sell their meals for delivery via subscription, announced yesterday that it has raised a $22 million Series B round of funding. The round was led by U.S. Venture Partners, with participation from Upfront Ventures, Lewis & Clark Ventures, DF Enterprises, S2G Ventures, Gaingles, Middleland Capital, Finistere Ventures and Rethink Food Capital. This brings the total amount of funding raised by the company to $44 million.

Territory is a different from other fresh meal delivery services in that it partners with and sells meals from local chefs and restaurants as a weekly subscription. So instead of going to a restaurant once or twice a week, a customer can choose to order a number of meals in advance. The meals arrived prepared and packaged up, so they only need to be re-heated, adding to the convenience factor.

The company’s subscription service really became important during the pandemic last year, as restaurants were forced to close their dine-in operations. Territory offered those restaurants and chefs an added revenue stream by creating and assisting with this D2C shipping channel. The chefs and restaurants make the meals and Territory takes care of all the logistics like ordering, packaging and delivery. Not only could Territory provide more orders, but those orders were also frontloaded and batched. This smoothed out revenue volatility from night to night and gave chefs more time to prepare.

In addition to creating another sales channel for chefs and restaurants, Territory can also extend their geographic reach. A San Francisco restaurant may only deliver hot meals to certain neighborhoods, but Territory can delivered the packaged versions meals more widely throughout the Bay Area.

As we come out of the pandemic, one has to wonder what will happen to prepared meal delivery services like Territory Foods and Freshly (which was acquired by Nestlé). With the ability to once again eat out at restaurants — and with other people — will consumers still want to order a week’s worth of prepared meals? Or have they gotten so hooked on prepared meal delivery that they won’t let their subscription go? We’re about to find out.

Territory already serves 20 markets across the U.S. including Miami, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. The company told Crunchbase News that it will use its new funding to expand into new cities as well as invest in technology and food as medicine initiatives.

Finistere Ventures Launches New Agrifood Fund in New Zealand

Food tech-focused firm Finistere Ventures announced today the launch of its Finistere Aotearoa Fund done in partnership with New Zealand Growth Capital Partners. The $40 million NZD (~$28.1 million USD) fund will support early-stage companies developing technologies for agriculture, alternative protein, supply chain, and other areas of food tech.

Finistere is no stranger to food tech, having invested in the past in CropX, Memphis Meats, Plenty, and several other well-known innovators in the food world. The goal of the Aotearoa Fund, besides supporting more such innovation, is to invest in specifically New Zealand startups to get them the help they need to make an impact worldwide. 

“While more than $46B has been invested in agrifood tech over the last decade – a trend likely to increase with the growing focus on sustainability – New Zealand hasn’t had the connected capital players necessary to help our companies take full advantage of this trend,” said Dean Tilyard, founder and director of Sprout who will now lead the new fund. “Our innovation cluster here is as good as anything in the Netherlands or Israel, but has been less well known. That is changing.”

Finistere, of course, already has offices in New Zealand. The new fund’s operations will be based in Palmerston North at R&D incubation center The Factory, which Finistere already has a longstanding relationship with. The fund will focus on a number of areas within food tech, including crop protection technologies, nutrient management, alternative proteins, food delivery, and supply chain advances. 

The launch comes the same week another fund, PeakBridge FoodSparks, launched in Europe with a focus on early-stage agricultural and food tech startups in that region. Both funds underscore the recent growth of the food tech sector, which nabbed more than $4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to Pitchbook data.  

Finistere hasn’t yet said how many companies it is looking to invest in with the fund, but did note that over the next year, it plans to garner more investment from partners including Rabobank, RIV Capital, and Yamaha. 

Revo Foods Raises €1.5M to Advance its 3D-Printed Alternative Salmon

Austria-based Revo Foods crafts 3D-printed salmon made from plant-based ingredients, and over the weekend the company announced that it has raised €1.5 million euros (~$1.78 million USD) in funding. This is the company’s first round of funding, and it included participation from Hazelpond Capital, Eva Summer (CPO of Peace of Meat), Friends2grow, Jens Schuman, MKO Holdings, and national support from the FFG Austrian Research Promotion Agency and Vienna Business Agency.

Revo Foods’ funding will be used to accelerate its 3D food printing process, as well as expand its team. The company has several plant-based salmon products that its plans on launching in Europe this year. Its smoked salmon strips and smoked salmon spread is made from pea protein, citrus fiber, and algae oil (these products are not made through 3D printing). The plant-based salmon sashimi is still being developed, and is created using a 3D printing process to create complex structures similar to real salmon.

The company held the first live tasting of its plant-based salmon products at the beginning of March. The tasting was held in Vienna, Austria and Revo Foods partnered with Budapest Bagels to serve its smoked salmon strips in the bagels. Only a handful of journalists were able to attend in person, and one food vegan food writer said, “It tastes too similar like fish, I can hardly eat it.”

There are a few other notable players in the plant-based fish space, however, these companies do not use 3D printing like Revo Foods. In the U.S., Gathered Foods (the parent company of Good Catch) raised $26.35 million in a B-2 bridge funding round at the beginning of April. Hooked is a Swedish-based company that produces plant-based tuna and shredded salmon alternatives. New Wave Foods announced the last week of March that its’ plant-based seafood alternative is now available for foodservice companies and restaurants.

Revo Foods plans on launching its smoked salmon strips first in Europe within 2021. In the next two to three months, the company expects to finalize the development of its plant-based salmon sashimi.

Hazel Technologies Raises $70M in Series C Funding to Fight Food Waste

Hazel Technologies announced today it has raised $70 million in Series C funding. The round was co-led by the Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund and Temasek. S2G Ventures, Pangea Ventures, Rhapsody Venture Partners, Asahi Kasai Ventures, Jordan Park Group, and the Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Foundation also participated. Including the Series C round, Hazel has raised $87 million to date, according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

Hazel is among those companies using technology to extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables and in doing so cut down on food waste. Its packaging insert, called a sachet, gets placed in bulk boxes of produce after harvest. The sachet emits 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) gas to inhibit ethylene, which plants produce they age. Different crops have different respiration rates and production levels of ethylene, so there are different sachets for different produce types. Currently, Hazel has sachets for 14 different produce types, including avocados, mangos, plums, pears, and cantaloupe. In December of 2020, the company announced Hazel Root, designed to slow the growth of sprouts in potatoes and other root vegetables.  

The company said that in 2021, its products will be used with “over 6.3 billion pounds” of fresh produce, preventing more than 500 million pounds of food from going to the landfill. 

In 2019, 35 percent of all food in the United States went unsold or uneaten, according to the most recent numbers from nonprofit ReFed. Both national and international goals aim to cut food waste in half by 2030. To do that, waste will have to be reduced at every step of the supply chain, from the farm itself all the way down refrigerators inside the average person’s home.

Hazel’s technology currently aims to prevent loss and waste earlier in the supply chain, just after harvest. Apeel is the other notable competitor here, though it has a completely different approach to extending the lifespan of produce that involves coating individual pieces of produce with a plant-based protection.

Hazel hinted that funds from the Series C round could go towards commercializing a solution meant for further down the food supply chain, at consumer-facing levels like retail and restaurants. 

PeakBridge and EIT Food Launch FoodSparks, a New European Agri-Food Tech Investment Fund

Venture fund PeakBridge and the European Institute of Technology (EIT) Food announced today the launch of PeakBridge FoodSparks, a new fund that focused on European seed and early-stage agricultural and food tech startups.

The new fund will invest up to €30 million Euros (~$35.7 million USD) over the next four years. FoodSparks will look to invest in roughly 10 European startups per year, with a check size of €500,000 (~$595,000 USD). According to the press announcement emailed to The Spoon, startups interested in receiving funding must be domiciled in Europe/EFTA and Israel, and have “protectable and scalable technology, and align with EIT Food’s mission of making the food system more sustainable, healthy and trusted.”

PeakBridge explained to me in a phone call last week that they are not looking to invest in CPG companies, but rather in companies creating innovative technology. In addition to funding, recipients will also receive access to advice and mentorship from the EIT food community.

FoodSparks is certainly launching at the right time, as investment in agrifood tech has never been higher. According to data from PitchBook, food tech companies raised more than $4 billion in Q4 of 2020. And recently released numbers from the Good Food Institute show that there was $3.1 billion invested in just the alternative protein space throughout 2020.

We’ve actually seen a lot of funding activity in the European agrifood tech space just since the start of the year. In particular, online grocery has seen massive funding rounds for delivery startups like Gorillas, Glovo and Getir. And a number of European cell-cultured meat startups have received funding this year including CellulaREvolution, Mosa Meat, Mirai Foods, and Future Meat.

The FoodSparks fund will be managed by PeakBridge Manageing Partner, Yoni Glickman. Investors in the fund include Ordway Selections, CPT Capital, Givaudan, Puraot and Gullspång Re:food.

Cultured Decadence Raises $1.6M to Make Lobster in a Lab

Wisconsin-based cellular agriculture company Cultured Decadence announced today it has raised $1.6 million in an oversubscribed round of pre-seed funding. Investors include Bluestein Ventures, Joyance Partners, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, gener8tor, GlassWall Syndicate, Bascom Ventures, and China-based Dao Foods. The company also received non-dilutive funding from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation administered by the Center for Technology Commercialization (CTC). 

Cultured Decadence will use to the new funds to create what it says will be the first cell-cultured lobster meat in North America. This financing follows work by Cultured Decadence in developing novel cell lines and reducing the cost of its cell-culture media. Cell-culture media is typically one of the key elements driving up the cost of a cultured meat product, so any company making progress on this step is good news for the whole industry.

Lobster may be the first dish Cultured Decadence is recreating in a lab, but the company said its technology can be applied across a range of seafood analogues, including carp, shrimp, and scallops. The goal is to help decrease the planet’s reliance on traditional seafood. Overfishing, ocean pollution, and human rights abuses are just a few of the issues plaguing the industry, and they were around long before “Seaspiracy” hit Netflix.  

The promise of cell-cultured seafood is that it doesn’t require the actual ocean to produce — a point underscored by Cultured Decadence’s Wisconsin headquarters, which is thousands of miles away from any major body of water. 

The company joins Singapore-based Shiok Meats in the quest to provide more sustainable lobster meat to consumers. Shiok unveiled its lobster meat to the world for the first time at an invite-only taste-testing event in 2020.

Besides today’s, other recent fundraises in the cultured seafood space include Avant Meats’ $3.1 million round, also in December 2020, and BlueNalu’s $60 million fundraise in January 2021. While all of these companies focus on different products and specific processes, they share the end goal of advancing the cultured seafood industry, which is still an extremely nascent one.

Cultured Decadence said it would use the new funds to continue developing its lobster prototype and eventually launch commercially. No specific timeframe was given. 

Numilk’s Home Plant-Based Milk Machine Blows Past Kickstarter Goal

I love my oat milk in the morning, but I don’t love the big plastic jugs it comes in. It just feels wasteful, especially since so little plastic actually gets recycled. With that in mind, could the Numilk Home be the key to more conscientious plant-based milk consumption? Given how quickly the company has blown past its Kickstarter goal, a lot of other people seem to think so.

The Numilk Home is a countertop version of the Numilk kiosk, which is a large plant-based milk dispenser installed at grocery stores across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. For the kiosk installations, users place an empty Numilk glass bottle under a dispenser and choose from a selection of plant-based milks.

For the Numilk Home, the main concept remains the same, only on a smaller scale. The countertop devices uses a combination of ingredient pouches and special bottles. The ingredient pouches contain a variety of different plain and flavored milks (almond, soy, oat, chocolate, etc.). The Numilk bottles have a special emulsifier at the bottom.

To make milk, users place the ingredient pouch in the top and push a button. The ingredients are dispensed with water into the special bottle. Special technology built into the base of the machine emulsifies the milk. We reached out for more details about how this emulsifying technology works (e.g., Are bottles single use?) and will update when we hear back.

Numilk founders actually pitched their device and company on a March episode of Shark Tank, accepting an investment offer of up to $2 million from Mark Cuban. Now Numilk is reaching out through Kickstarter to crowdfund the rest, and is off to a strong start. As of today, Numilk has pulled in nearly $210,000 in pledge funding, more than doubling its initial goal of $100,000. The campaign still has 27 days to go.

In some ways, the Numilk feels kinda like the Juicero, the infamously expensive juicing machine that flamed out a few years back. You’re not just buying a machine, you’re buying into the Numilk ecosystem, and will be reliant on their pouches. And, as with any hardware crowdfunding campaign, there is the chance that Numilk won’t be able to move from prototype to scaled production, a very real problem on the platform.

But if you want to back the project, a Numilk Home machine will set you back $199. Numilk ingredient pouches will cost between $3 and $5 and will be available through the Numilk website. The company says it will ship the devices in August of 2022.

Mercato Raises $26M to Help Indie Grocers Sell Online

Mercato, an online platform that helps smaller groceries establish e-commerce stores, has raised a $26 million Series A round of funding. TechCrunch was first to report the news today, writing that the round was led by Velvet Sea Ventures with participation from Team Europe and returning Seed investors Greycroft and Loeb.nyc.

As we have covered extensively over the past year, the pandemic accelerated consumer adoption of online grocery shopping. And while the number of people using grocery e-commerce has come down from the record highs of last summer, the most recent data from Brick Meets Click showed that U.S. consumers spent $6.1 billion on grocery pickup and delivery in February of 2021.

As a result, the big retailers in the space have ramped up their spending to keep up with demand and eventually encourage online grocery shopping. Giants like Walmart and Albertsons have and are investing in automated e-commerce order fulfillment and expanding curbside pickup and delivery options.

That’s great for big, publicly traded grocery retailers, who have the money to implement multi-faceted online shopping experiences. But what about the smaller, local, independent grocers without a huge market cap? That’s where Mercato comes in.

Mercato’s platform handles all the operational functions of running an online store for the smaller grocer. Mercato takes care of order management and processing, online marketing and even connects stores with a network of delivery drivers across the country. During the pandemic’s first big wave last year, Mercato launched a rapid on-boarding process that it now says can get grocers online in as little as 24 hours.

Mercato told TechCrunch that it has 1,000 merchants across the country on its platform, up from 60 in March of last year. The company said it will use its new funding to expand its team and its data analytics services.

Solar Foods Receives €10M to Scale Production of its Protein Made Out of Air

Solar Foods, which literally makes protein out of air, announced today that it has received €10 million (~$11.98 million USD) in funding from the The Finnish Climate Fund. The subordinated load will go towards revving up commercial-scale production of the company’s product, Solein. This brings the total amount of funding raised by Solar Foods to €35 million (~$41.6 million USD).

Based in Finland, Solar Foods uses a combination of captured carbon dioxide, bacteria and electricity to create Solein, which can make multiple food items including alternative proteins. A big promise of Solein’s is its narrower impact on the planet than traditional animal agriculture or even plant-based protein. It doesn’t require land or water, and is not dependent on weather. According to today’s press announcement, Solar Foods said that Solein creates roughly one percent of the greenhouse gas emissions of meat protein and 20 percent of those from plant protein production.

The technology was borne out of research from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and LUT University of Finland. Solein is now in the commercialization stage, and the new funding will be used to build a pilot production facility. The new facility will include a food bar and is scheduled to start operations in early 2023.

The nothingness of air is really turning into something in the alternative protein space. In addition to Solar Foods, the aptly named Air Protein does much the same thing and recently raised $32 million. Deep Branch calls itself a carbon dioxide recycling company because it turns CO2 into protein for animal feed, and recently raised nearly $10 million. And Swedish researchers at RISE have developed technology to turn air into fat.

For more on this nascent science and protein sector, check out our The Spoon Plus Insider Guide to Air Protein.

Cell Ag Startup Mission Barns Raises $24M for its Cultivated Fat

Mission Barns, a cellular agriculture startup creating cultured fat, announced today that it has raised a $24 million Series A round of funding. Investors in the round include Lever VC, Gullspang Re:Food, Humboldt Fund, Green Monday Ventures, and Enfini Ventures. This brings the total amount of funding raised by Mission Barns to more than $28 million.

Mission Barns is focused on cultivating animal fat, just without the animal. The company’s technology starts with pork, poultry or beef cells and grows them using plant-based feedstock in a cultivator. The result, the company says, is an animal fat that brings the same mouthfeel and flavor of meat without animal slaughter, and does so in a more environmentally friendly way than conventional animal agriculture.

Mission Barns has developed its own meat as well as in collaboration with other meat and plant protein partners. The company says applications include bacon, breakfast patties, burgers, nuggets, and more. In August of last year, Mission Barns held curbside taste tests of its cell-based bacon outside restaurants in San Francisco and Oakland, California.

The alternative fat space has steadily been growing over the past year, with a number of startups developing their own technology. Here in the U.S., Motif Foodworks is developing its own plant-based fat. Hoxton Farms is working on cultivated fat in the U.K. And in Australia, Nourish Ingredients is using yeast fermentation to create plant-based fat.

In today’s press announcement, Mission Barns says that it will use the new funding to scale up its production and build a pilot production facility in the San Francisco Bay Area.