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Funding

March 25, 2021

Cell-Cultured Fish Startup Bluu Biosciences Raises €7 million

Bluu Biosciences, a startup making cell-based fish, has raised a €7 million (~$8.24M USD) round of funding. TechCrunch was first to report the news, writing that Manta Ray Ventures, Norrsken VC, Be8, CPT Capital and Lever VC all participated in the round.

The Berlin, Germany-based Bluu is working on creating cell-based versions of salmon, trout and carp. Though there are more companies tackling the creation of cell-based beef and chicken, there is an emerging wave (pardon the pun) of startups making cultured fish protein. Bluu is focused on salmon, trout and carp. Here in the U.S. BlueNalu is working on cell-based mahi-mahi and bluefin tuna. And in Asia, the Hong-Kong-based Avant Meats is developing fish maw and sea cucumber, while Singapore-based Shiok Meats is making cultured shellfish.

Funding for cell-based protein startups continues to be heavy. A recent report from the Good Food Institute found that cultured meat startups raised $360 million in 2020. Just this week, Eat Just, which makes cell-based chicken that is actually for sale in Singpaore, raised an additional $200 million.

While cell-based fish products aren’t for sale yet, they are getting closer to market. BlueNalu is building out its pilot production facility, which will make 200 – 500 pounds of commercial grade cultured fish. Shiok plans to have it shrimp commercially available by 2022. And Avant recently announced a 90 percent cost reduction in the production of its fish maw.

All of this funding and progress is helping narrow the availability window of cultured meat products with some experts predicting it will hit price parity with traditional animal protein in five years.

March 25, 2021

Germany: Gorillas Raises $290 Million for its Dark Grocery Store Chain

Gorillas, which operates a chain of dark grocery stores that offer fast delivery, has raised a $290 million Series B round of funding, according to TechCrunch. The round was led by Coatue Management, DST Global, and Tencent, with Green Oaks, Fifth Wall, Dragoneer, and Atlantic Food Labs also participated. Gorillas raised a $44 million Series A round of funding in December of 2020.

The Berlin-based Gorillas is among a cohort of startups building out small, delivery-only grocery stores deep inside residential neighborhoods. Thess dark stores carry a limited inventory (that can be customized per neighborhood location), and have a limited delivery radius, so orders can be fulfilled and dropped off, usually in less than fifteen minutes. Gorillas currently operates stores in more than 12 cities across Europe including Berlin, Munich, Amsterdam and London.

A funding round this big and this fast following a recent Series A for a grocery related startup is not at all surprising. As noted, Gorillas is just one player in the speedy grocery delivery space. Similar startups in Europe that have recently raised funding include Weezy, Jiffy, and Flink. Here in the U.S., DoorDash is building out a chain of DashMart stores, Fridge No More is making deliveries in New York City, and GoPuff, which delivers many household items in addition to groceries, raised $1.5 billion this week.

As we have written a lot lately, the big question for these stores is whether they can scale. On paper, the ability to get last-minute groceries delivered in just minutes is great. But it also needs a certain population density to make the economics work, and we have yet to see those economics scale on a national level. If Gorillas can use its funding to do so, then it could become, well, an 800 lbs gorilla in the space.

March 25, 2021

Chipotle Invests in Self-Driving Delivery Vehicle Company Nuro

QSR chain Chipotle announced today that it has invested in autonomous delivery vehicle startup, Nuro. The amount invested was not disclosed and according to the press announcement, Chipotle’s investment is part of Nuro’s Series C round, which was announced last November.

Chipotle has been playing the digital long game, adding features like advanced “Chipotlanes” for drive-thru customer. That shift was one reason it was able to weather the pandemic relatively well. According to today’s press release, Chipotle’s digital business grew over 174% year over year in 2020. On top of that, Chipotles also got into the ghost kitchen game last November as dining rooms remained closed thanks to COVID.

Tying these threads together, it’s not hard to see how digital ordering, high-tech drive-thrus, ghost kitchens and self-driving vehicles could all work together. An autonomous Chipotle pod pulls into a Chipotlane, a human (or conveyor belt!) puts the order in the pod, which then drives off to make the delivery. Repeat all day long.

The good thing about Nuro’s low-speed vehicles is that they travel faster and can go farther than a sidewalk robot like Starship or Kiwibot. Plus, Nuro’s technology has gotten approvals from both the federal government and the State of California. Nuro’s self-driving pods have actually been operating without human intervention for some time now.

But! Nuro’s pods are half the size of a regular car and have two compartments that can haul a week’s worth of groceries. The Nuro pod seems… excessive for carrying a burrito across town. I wonder if Chipotle will outfit its own Nuro pods with an automat-like cubby system to hold multiple orders. Or, perhaps they will initially reserve the use of Nuros for corporate catering, which bundles together a bunch of orders.

Regardless, a big QSR brand like Chipotle investing in autonomous vehicles is not just a feather in the cap (and money in the bank) for Nuro. It could help boost the overall autonomous delivery sector.

If you are curious about the future of autonomous vehicle food delivery, be sure to attend our ArticulATE food robotics virtual conference on May 18!

March 25, 2021

Nourish Ingredients Raises $11M for Fermented Plant-Based Fats

Australian startup Nourish Ingredients, which makes plant-based fats, announced today that it has raised $11 million (USD) in initial funding. The round was led by Horizon Ventures and Main Sequence Ventures (a venture firm founded by Australia’s national science agency).

Nourish Ingredients has developed a proprietary yeast fermentation process that recreates the molecular structure of animal fats without using animal products. Additionally, Nourish’s process does not use existing materials such as coconut or palm oils, the harvesting of which is controversial because of the resultant deforestation and unethical labor practices.

In addition to being potentially more environmentally friendly, Nourish says that it’s fermentation process allows it to create flavor profiles and mouthfeel that more accurately mimic animal proteins such as seafood, pork, beef and chicken products.

Fermentation has been called “the next pillar of alternative proteins,” alongside cultured meat and plant-based proteins. We’ve already seen fermentation tech being applied in variety of ways including bee-free honey, animal-free cheese, and sausage patties.

At the same time, we’ve also seen a number of startups creating ingredients that help enhance non-animal proteins. Hoxton Farms is cultivating animal-free fats, and Swedish researchers are using electricity and carbon dioxide to turn air into fats.

According to a recent report from Boston Consulting Group and Blue Horizon Corporation, the market for alternative proteins is projected to hit $290 billion by 2030, but that ambitious figure comes with some caveats. First, alternative proteins much reach price parity with traditional animal meats, and there are a number of startups tackling that issue. Equally as important, however, is that alternative proteins must reach taste and texture parity with animal meat as well. If Nourish Ingredients’ technology works as promised, it will help alternative protein companies do just that.

March 24, 2021

SuperBrewed Foods Uses Fermented Microbes to Create High-Protein Plant-Based Alternatives

The Good Food Institute called fermentation the “third pillar” for alternative proteins, and $435 million was invested in fermentation companies in the first seven months of 2020. Fermentation itself is not a new technology and has been used since B.C. times to produce beloved products like beer, cheese, sauerkraut, and yogurt. This process can be used to modify the flavor and texture of plant-based ingredients to make them behave more like animal-based ingredients. An emerging start-up in the fermentation and alternative protein space is SuperBrewed Food, which ferments microbes to create a vegan protein powder that can be used as a key ingredient in plant-based cheese spreads, milk, and yogurt.

Bryan Tracey, the CEO and Founder of SuperBrewed Foods, was focused on how a gorilla is an herbivore, but could somehow bulk up to have such a large body mass on diet consisting of only plants. The answer was found in its gut-lining; a certain microbe in herbaceous animals allows them to thrive on a plant-based diet. “We went searching into the microbiomes of many different animals and found what we like to call the protein specialists, which are helping you digest the food that you eat to deliver you the nutrition that you thrive off of,” Tracey told me by phone last week.

The original microbe discovered by SuperBrewed was extracted from the gut lining of an undisclosed herbivore animal, and then multiplied using plant-based sugars to feed the growth. SuperBrewed Food uses a low-cost anaerobic environment to grow its bacteria, which is the same process that beer breweries use. Once the bacteria is multiplied, it is washed, separated, and dried to create SuperBrewed Food’s protein powder.

The company is focused on appealing to both flexitarians and vegans, and one appeal to its protein is the B12 content. Vegans typically have to take B12 supplements, but a single teaspoon serving of the protein powder contains 25% of the daily recommended serving of B12.

SuperBrewed Food sent me some prototypes to try that showcased the applications of its microbe-based protein. I sampled three plant-based cheese spreads made by Superbrewed that used its protein, and I was pleasantly surprised by the fluffy texture and creaminess of the cheese spreads. Other vegan cheese spreads I’ve sampled are dense or gummy, but the SuperBrewed spreads had a texture similar to whipped cheese spreads I ate in my pre-vegan days.

In 2020, companies using fermentation to produce alternative protein products raised a total of $837 million in capital, so there are certainly more players emerging in this space. Perfect Day produces flora-based alternative dairy products by fermenting yeast. Nature’s Fynd applies fermentation to a microbe that was originally extracted from the geothermal pools of Yellowstone National Park, and recently unveiled its first product line that incorporates its proprietary Fy Protein. Change Foods uses a process called precision fermentation to create alternative dairy products and is currently developing mozzarella and cheddar.

To date, SuperBrewed has raised $45 million in capital from private investors. The company is about to open its first round of funding to outside investors and will use this to launch its first products in the market in early 2022. The first products brought to market will be plant-based cheese spreads, cream cheese, and hard cheese.

March 24, 2021

iFoodDS Raises $15 Million for Fresh Food Supply Chain Management

iFoodDs, a startup that provides fresh food supply chain management software, announced today that it has raised a $15 million Series A round of funding led by Insight Partners.

Based in Seattle, Washington, iFoodDS has developed a cloud-based system to give retailers, foodservice chains, processors, shippers, packers and growers more visibility into the fresh food supply chain. The iFoodDS platform helps supply chain constituents to better track food safety, traceability, quality management and transparency.

In May of last year, iFoodDS acquired HarvestMark and its food traceability and quality inspection solutions. Terms of that deal were not disclosed.

iFoodDS’s funding fits into a larger trend around improving supply chain management, and we’ve seen a number of startups tackling this issue from a different angles. Varcode uses temperature sensors and blockchain to validate food as it moves through the cold chain. Earlier this month, Shelf Engine raised $41 million to help retailers better forecast and order fresh food. And the non-profit, GS1 is working with companies like IBM Food Trust and Ripe.io to develop interoperable food traceability systems.

Shortcomings in the U.S. supply chain were laid bare last year as the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent panic buying and hoarding left supermarket shelves empty across the country. Enabling better insights into the supply chain not only helps alleviate these types of product outages but can also help reduce food waste. By bringing enhanced management tools to the supply chain, food can be routed to destinations more efficiently, monitored throughout the process, all while ensuring authenticity and quality.

March 23, 2021

GoPuff Raises $1.5 Billion to Deliver You Goods in Under a Half Hour Around the Clock

GoPuff, the service that delivers food and other goods in under a half hour any time of day, announced today that it has raised $1.5 billion in new funding. Investors in the round include D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Baillie Gifford, Eldridge, Reinvent Capital, Luxor Capital and SoftBank Vision Fund 1. This brings goPuff’s total amount of funding to roughly $2.5 billion.

GoPuff operates more than 250 micro-fulfillment centers that service more than 650 cities in the U.S. These fulfillment centers stock groceries, alcohol, pet supplies and other household goods for home delivery 24 hours a day. Because these micro-fulfillment centers are delivery only, they can be placed deeper within residential areas and closer to customers to facilitate fast delivery. GoPuff doesn’t guarantee 30-minute delivery, but says that’s the average time it takes to fulfill an order.

The company made headlines in November of last year when it acquired brick and mortar retailer BevMo for $350 million. Not only did that acquisition give goPuff access to BevMo’s customers, it also provided 161 physical stores from which goPuff could establish new micro-fulfillment centers.

This funding almost feels like the apotheosis of the dark store/fast delivery trend we’ve been watching for the past few month. Since the beginning of the year, a number of startups promising grocery delivery in as little as fifteen minutes have gotten funding including Weezy, Fridge No More and Jiffy. GoPuff’s $1.5 billion haul, however, blows all those other funding rounds out of the water.

With is warchest now bursting at the seams, you have to wonder if DoorDash is going to step up its own dark convenience store ambitions. The company launched its DashMart delivery only stores last year, but has been quiet about their rollout since.

The concept of dark grocery stores with super-fast delivery is a new concept, and honestly, it is something that will only work in dense residential areas where multiple orders can be completed per hour. But if the concept catches on, these startups are poised to change our relationship with grocery shopping. Baking cookies and realize you’re out of sugar? A few taps on your phone and fifteen minutes later you have it. Guests coming over and you’re out of wine? A few more taps and problem solved. Groceries, in this scenario, become a utility, always on and available any time of day or night.

March 23, 2021

Eat Just Closes $200M Funding Round

Food tech company Eat Just announced today it has closed a $200 million funding round led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which is the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar. Charlesbank Capital Partners and Vulcan Capital also participated in the round, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. Eat Just’s total funding to date now exceeds $650 million.

San Francisco-based Eat Just said it will use the new funds to “build capacity for Eat Just’s pioneering products,” which presumably means the company’s cultured protein business GOOD Meat. Funds will also go towards accelerating research and development programs and continuing to expand internationally.  

Speaking of that international expansion, the funding news comes on the heels of Eat Just expanding distribution of its plant-based egg products north of the border, into Canadian retail and foodservice outlets. The company said in today’s press release it will bring its egg product to “millions more” retail and foodservice locations in 2021. 

Stateside, Eat Just officially debuted its JUST folded egg product in breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks and Peet’s this year. 

Most worth watching is the company’s continued development of its cultured meat business Good Meat. Eat Just won the world’s first regulatory approval to sell cultured meat at the end of 2020, and followed that milestone up by actually selling its cultured chicken product at a restaurant in Singapore.

The company said today that it will “dramatically” lower production costs for its cultured meat, which is a goal for many these days. The company says cultured meat could become a $13 billion market by 2030 and that GOOD Meat’s chicken is on a path to price competitiveness with conventional chicken by that time. 

The new funding will also be used to scale Eat Just’s commercial manufacturing operations, and further develop other types of meat in addition to its existing chicken product. 

March 23, 2021

Cultured Meat Startup Meatable Raises $47 Million Series A

Dutch cultured meat startup Meatable announced today that it has raised a $47 million Series A round of funding. Investors include Dr. Rick Klausner, Section 32, Dr. Jeffrey Leiden, and DSM Venturing, with participation from existing investors including BlueYard Capital, Agronomics, Humboldt, and Taavet Hinrikus. This brings Meatable’s total funding raised so far to $60 million.

Founded in 2018, Meatable’s technology allows it to grow meat from a single cell quickly, without the need for the controversial fetal bovine serum. As we wrote back in 2019:

They do this by using pluripotent stem cells, which can proliferate faster than regular stem cells and are malleable, meaning they can be coaxed to turn into any type of animal cell (muscle, fat, etc). Meatable claims that with its unique technology it can make large batches of animal tissue cells in a matter of days to weeks, whereas most companies need months.

All that speed comes at a cost, however. Meatable told TechCrunch that its meat currently costs $10,000 per pound. Obviously a price that high is untenable, but thankfully, there are a number of startups around the world working to bring the price of cultured meat down through various methods. In Israel, Future Meat announced this year that it has brought the price of its chicken down to $7.50 per quarter pound, a big milestone in the industry. If current industry predictions hold true, cultured meat could reach price parity with animal meat in five years.

Meatable’s funding continues the funding hot streak for cultured meat startups in 2021. Other cultured meat companies that have received funding rounds so far this year include BlueNalu, CellulaREvolution, and fellow Dutch startup Mosa Meat.

Meatable says that it will use its new funds to advance small scale production at the Biotech Campus Delft and diversify its product lineup.

March 23, 2021

Pani Launches Crowdfunding Campaign for Its Countertop Hydration System

What should we call Pani, the forthcoming hydration system that officially launched its crowdfunding campaign today?

It’s a water filter, because it removes bad stuff like chlorine and mercury from your tap water. It’s also a mineralizer, because it adds good stuff like calcium and potassium back into your water. But it also sports a pod system to infuse flavors and enhancement boosts into your water.

At the end of the day, Pani creator, Allen Tsai just wants to improve the water you’re drinking. Pani (the word) means “water” in Hindi, and Tsai was inspired to launch Pani (the company) in 2018 after spending time digging water wells in Nepal. Pani’s first product was an IoT water flow meter that tracked water usage. That product turned out to be more of a B2B play, but for this new hydration system, Tsai is focused on the consumer market.

In addition to filtering, mineralizing and flavoring water, the countertop Pani device also dispenses said water hot and cold, between 40 and 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pani is launching at a time of growth for the bottled water industry. Even soda giant PepsiCo got in on the action a few years back with its acquisition of SodaStream. So the timing is right to catch on with audiences that still want flavored/mineral water but don’t want to buy single-use bottles and contribute to the world’s huge plastic waste problem. In addition to eliminating the need for bottles, Pani’s flavor pods are multi-use and the plastic housing is reusable, so it avoids Keurig-like waste problems as well.

All of this, however, does not come cheap. Early Pani backers can buy a Pani for $199 (while limited supplies last). When it comes to retail in the Spring of 2022, a Pani will cost $399. That’s a lot for a single-use countertop device. It does however, offer more functionality than the Mitte, which just mineralizes water, or the Rocean, which only creates fizzy water.

In the end, the Pani is many things, now it just needs to see if it’s the right thing for consumers.

March 22, 2021

Flytrex Raised $8M to Expand U.S. Drone Delivery Operations

Drone delivery startup Flytrex announced last week that it has raised $8 million in new funding. According to Bloomberg, most of the round came from previous backers including Benhamou Global Ventures and European venture fund Btov, and is part of a bigger round that will close later this year. This brings the total amount of funding raised by Flytrex to $20.3 million.

Tel Aviv-based Flytrex has been making commercial drone deliveries since 2018. As of 2020, Flytrex had completed more than a thousand deliveries in Reykjavik, Iceland. The company has also been operating on a limited basis here in the U.S. Last year it was making deliveries at King’s Walk golf course in North Dakota, and announced a pilot program with Walmart to make deliveries in Fayetville, North Carolina.

As Bloomberg pointed out, the only FAA-approved drone delivery operators in the U.S. are Alphabet’s Wing, Amazon and UPS. But the FAA also issued new rules around drone safety and nighttime flying rules at the end of 2020, which should allow for more approvals for startups such as Flytrex and Deuce Drone, which is doing grocery deliveries in Alabama.

Though there are sill a number of regulatory and safety hurdles to be worked out, we’re starting to see drone delivery literally take off in different parts of the world. In Ireland, Manna is doing 50 – 100 drone deliveries a day. In Brazil, iFood is aloft, and in Israel, Dragontail Systems has partnered with Pizza Hut for pizza drone delivery.

As rules are clarified, and assuming these pilot programs prove themselves economical, we should start to see an acceleration of similar announcements around done delivery funding and expansion here in the U.S.

If you are interested in the future of drone delivery, be sure to attend our ArticulaATE food automation and robotics virtual conference on May 18!

March 18, 2021

Online Grocery Weee! Raises $315M Series D Round

Weee!, an online grocer with a focus on Asian and Hispanic communities, announced today that it has raised a $315 million Series D round of funding. The round was led by existing investor DST Global, with participation from new investors including funds managed by Blackstone, Arena Holdings, and Tiger Global. Weee! has raised more than $415 million in funding in total.

Founded in 2015, Weee! initially offered products for the Asian community, but the company recently added Hispanic foods to its roster. In its press announcement today, the company referred to itself as an “Ethinic Grocer,” and said it serves 14 key regions across the country. According to Weee! website, the company offers more than 3,500 products and has fulfilled more than 8.8 million orders.

Weee!’s funding comes during what appears to be salad days for investment in grocery-related startups. A raft of startups in the space have raised big funding amounts just since the start of the year. Part of the reason for all of this frothiness, of course, is the pandemic. With restaurants closed, and various lockdowns, record numbers of people turned to buying food online last year and retailers of all sizes scrambled to keep up.

What’s worth noting with Wee!’s funding is how the online grocery market is starting to segment. In addition to more general grocery startups like Instacart and Good Eggs getting funded, we are starting to see more focused startups raise lots of money too. Weezy and Fridge No More create hyperlocal stores that offer fifteen minute delivery, Imperfect Foods focuses on food surplus and rescue, and Weee! focuses on specific demographic audiences.

The question now is whether that is all money well spent. We’ve already seen a drop in the use of grocery e-commerce between January and February of this year. As more people get vaccinated and feel free to move about more, will they stop their online food buying habits in favor of getting out of the house and back into the store?

Wee!’s focus on serving Asian and Hispanic communities could actually help it weather any potential downturn in the grocery e-commerce market. By offering delivery of items that may not be stocked at general grocery stores in suburbs across the country, Weee! could become a go-to resource for Asian and Hispanic communities looking for particular types of food, but unable to get it at their local retailer.

With its new funding, Weee! says it will continue to add products and features and expand nationwide, with plans to reach 30 cities across North America by 2024.

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