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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Future Food

Review: BLOOM is a Speedier Pourover Coffee Maker for Homes and Cafés

When I worked as a barista, my absolute least favorite drink to make was a pour over. Essentially a single-serving cup of coffee made individually, the process was fussy and usually took five minutes, which held up the line and stressed me out.

Coffee design company ESPRO has developed a new single-serve coffee brewer called BLOOM meant to improve on the traditional pour over method. BLOOM is currently wrapping up a successful Kickstarter campaign. This week I got to try it out myself to see what all the fuss is about.

Based in Vancouver, ESPRO had already made its own versions of several tried-and-true coffee brewers, including French Press and Cold Brewer. “Now we’re tackling the pour over,” ESPRO’s co-founder and President Bruce Constantine told me over the phone last week.

The main innovation by the BLOOM brewer is its flat bed — that is, the base of the brewer where the coffee comes out. BLOOM’s is larger than average and has 1,500 tiny holes, which means it can brew coffee faster than a traditional pour over device. According to Constantine, this shape also means that the coffee extracts more evenly, so the end result is more consistent. “It’s the first time the pour over has been reinvented in 30 years,” he told me.

Since the BLOOM has a non-traditional shape, it also requires specialized paper liners. ESPRO currently has patents out for both the paper and the BLOOM brewer itself. 

Photo: The parts of ESPRO’s BLOOM brewer [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

Constantine says he expects that the BLOOM will be a 50/50 product in terms of customers: 50 percent consumer, 50 percent foodservice in coffee shops and cafes. With COVID keeping more people at home, however, he said that they’re going to focus on the consumer market first. 

Home brewers certainly seem to be interested in the BLOOM brewer. ESPRO launched the Kickstarter for BLOOM on April 15 with a goal of $20,000. It was fully funded after eight hours. At the time of writing this, the Kickstarter had raised over $63,000 with eight days to go.

Kickstarter backers can get the BLOOM and 50 papers for $35. Constantine said when the device debuts in retail, it will cost $50 for the device and 10 papers. Packs of 100 papers will sell separately for $10 each. The company plans to sell the BLOOM directly through their website, and have already confirmed placements at retailers like Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table, and Nordstrom. 

Constantine said they expect to start shipping BLOOM to backers in July. As with any crowdfunded hardware product, there’s no guarantee that ESPRO will be able to hit that timeline — especially as COVID is disrupting manufacturing supply chains around the globe. But Constantine said that since they’re producing in China, which is over the worst of the virus, they actually aren’t experiencing any manufacturing slowdowns right now. 

In these uncertain times, things can change moment to moment. But it is comforting that ESPRO has already helmed four Kickstarter campaigns, all of which successfully shipped their products.

I got to give the BLOOM a try to get my caffeine fix this week. The process is extremely simple: put a filter into the brewing cone, place it over a coffee mug, add your ground coffee, then pour in the water. Coffee convention recommends that you “bloom” your coffee first (hence the name), which basically means pouring just a little bit of water into the grounds and letting it sit for thirty seconds to make space and let bitter carbon dioxide escape. After the bloom, I poured in the rest of the hot water and had a tasty cup of coffee in a minute and a half.

The BLOOM brewer ready for hot water. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

A minute and a half is a speedy brew time for specialty coffee. My typical Chemex routine takes around six, and regular pour overs take four to five. The coffee itself was delicious, and cleanup was a snap thanks to the paper liner, which gives it a definite edge over the French Press for me.

There’s no question that the BLOOM is easy to use and looks beautiful. However, after trying it out I was left wondering: “Is it really worth it?”

Sure, a traditional pourover and Chemex both take a few extra minutes to brew. But the amount of required active time is essentially the same. A Chemex costs around $45, on par with BLOOM, while a regular ceramic pourover is roughly half that. I’m not sure if a slightly faster brew time justifies purchasing a BLOOM in addition to these other brewers.

I think that the bigger opportunity for BLOOM is in cafes — where time actually is of the essence. But since COVID-19 has basically nixed pour overs from the menu — and might shutter some coffee shops for good — that might not happen for a while.

Until then, if you’re looking to speed up your morning coffee routine, or just add a fun new gadget to your collection to spice up quarantine, BLOOM could be a good fix.

Rebellyous Launches Plant-based Chicken Nuggets in Seattle Grocers

Rebellyous Foods, the Seattle-based plant-based meat startup, announced today that it would begin selling its meatless chicken nuggets at Seattle retailers next week.

Since it was founded in 2017, Rebellyous has been selling its plant-based chicken wholesale to spots like corporate cafeterias, universities, and hospitals in the Pacific Northwest and Bay Area. Obviously, most of those were crowded gathering spaces, but are now shut down or severely limited due to social distancing and shelter-in-place orders.

As a result, Rebellyous has pivoted to move into CPG. Last month, as Rebellyous announced its $6 million Series A funding round, the company’s CEO Christie Lagally told me that they were accelerating their retail launch in response to COVID-19.

Next week, Rebellyous nuggets will make their retail debut in the freezer section at Leschi Market and Vegan Haven in Seattle. The nuggets will be sold in one-pound packs with 30 nuggets each and cost $5.99. The package includes instructions to bake, pan fry, or deep fry (it warns you not to microwave them).

Up next, the company will expand to other West Coast retailers and launch new products. Lagally told me last year that they have a plant-based chicken patty in the works. At the same time, Rebellyous is still working towards its overall goal; to improve plant-based meat manufacturing technology to make alternative protein more scalable and affordable.

If you’re in the Seattle area and try out Rebellyous’ nuggets for yourself, drop us a line and let us know what you think!

Over Sourdough? Your Next Quarantine Activity Could be Growing Meat

At this point we’re all over making sourdough, right? The needy sourdough starters, the shortages of flour… even for the fermentation-curious, it’s getting to be more trouble than it’s worth.

So for your next foodtech quarantine project, may I suggest growing your own meat?

If you don’t know where to start, Japanese company Integriculture has your back. Earlier this month the startup laid out the details of its new CulNet System; a technology that allows individuals and businesses to culture their own animal tissue.

Democratizing cultured meat has always been a goal for Integriculture founder Yuki Hanyu. In fact, Integriculture spun out of Shojinmeat, a DIY maker community focused on cultured meat founded in 2015. Interested hobbyists can already follow Shojinmeat’s guide — which is formatted to look like manga — to grow their own meat, right now.

The new CulNet system builds on Shojinmeat’s DIY framework to introduce a more sophisticated technology. It will allow everyone from restaurants to farmers to, yes, home hobbyists to grow their own animal tissue in larger quantities, with more precision.

Photo: Integriculture

Unlike Shojinmeat though, the CulNet System is not quite available yet. Integriculture is still in the R&D phase. It plans to begin licensing out the CulNet System — which includes hardware, animal starter cells, and media to feed cell growth — within the next two years or so. Until then, curious makers can still follow Shojinmeat’s guide to grow their own meat in a small scale.

Hanyu also mentioned at last year’s SKS Japan that the company was planning to release a product called Space Salt, essentially a dried version of cell culture media containing a blend of salt and amino acids, to help home enthusiasts grow their cells more easily. Hanyu said that they weren’t able to launch SpaceSalt last year because of difficulty sourcing ingredients from a factory that would give them a “legally food grade” mark. They’re still working to commercialize it.

The CulNet System is obviously geared to serious at-home makers who have the patience and motivation to tackle something like growing their own meat. But with meat processing plants closing and a meat shortage on the horizon, more and more people are taking a long, hard look at where our meat comes from.

This awareness could help accelerate consumer acceptance of new technologies like cultured meat — whether it’s made at home or by startups like Integriculture, Memphis Meats and Aleph Farms. For its part, Integriculture hosted a private taste test of their first product, cell-based foie gras, in 2019, and plans to start selling it commercially in 2021.

If growing your own animal tissue at home seems like too much work, you could always use this time to learn a new restaurant-worthy recipe, make good use of your smart kitchen gadgets, or even go all-out and develop a new connected appliance. Or just go back to yeast and make something besides sourdough.

Food Tech News: Plant-based Meat Making International Moves, Plus a New Fermented Sweetener

The world keeps turning, the sourdough starters continue to demand our attention, and food tech news is always popping up. So it goes.

This week’s roundup is heavy on the plant-based protein. We have stories about Cargill’s moves to expand alt-meat in China, a Spanish plant-based meat startup’s new funds, as well as innovations in sugar-free sweeteners and sunscreen for plants. Enjoy!

New Crop Capital invests in plant-based meat startup Heura
Unovis Asset Management announced this week that it had made an investment in plant-based meat startup Heura via its New Crop Capital fund, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. The investor led the convertible note round, and the exact amount of funding was not disclosed. Heura makes plant-based meat analogs, specifically chicken and meatballs, which sell in Europe and Canada. With its new funding, the startup will focus on international expansion.

Cargill expands plant-based meat offerings in China
Starting next month, Cargill will offer its plant-based meat alternatives to consumers in China (h/t Reuters). Called PlantEver, the new line will be available both in brick-and-mortar retail as well as online. This announcement comes just a week after Cargill partnered with several KFC locations in China to sell their plant-based fried chicken for a three-day trial. According to Cargill, the trial was a success and the chicken quickly sold out.

Cultiva gets $2.94 million in funding for plant preservation coating
Las Vegas-based biotech startup Cultiva announced this week it had raised $2.94 million from Advantage Capital (via AgFunder). The company makes a biofilm product, called SureSeal, which coats plants to help regulate their moisture and keep them from drying out or getting burned (sort of like sunscreen). SureSeal is meant to increase produce lifespan and reduce spoilage. It’s already used commercially on several crops. With its new funding, Cultiva will grow its team and develop a new line of produce coatings.

Ingredion unveils new fermented sugar substitute
This week ingredient company Ingredion’s EMEA branch launched Erysta, a new zero-calorie sweetener made from erythritol (h/t FoodIngredientsFirst). Erythritol is made through fermentation and can be found naturally in some fruits and vegetables. The new sweetener is 70 percent as sweet as sugar and apparently has a similar mouthfeel, so companies can use it to help reduce the sugar content of their products.

Perfect Day’s Ice Cream, Made with Animal-Free Dairy, Debuts in SF

Perfect Day, the company which uses fermentation to make animal-free dairy from microbes, announced its first official retail partner today. The startup is working with Smitten Ice Cream in the Bay Area to create a line of ice creams — dubbed Smitten N’Ice Cream — featuring Perfect Day’s fermented protein. Perfect Day provides the flora-based dairy base, while Smitten develops the flavors and churns the pints.

N’Ice Cream is available in four flavors: Brown Sugar Chocolate, Fresh Strawberry, Root Beer Float and Coconut Pecan. Those in the Bay Area can do a socially distanced pick up of Smitten N’Ice Cream pints from Smitten Ice Cream stores for $12 each, or order them for delivery for $13. Consumers on the West Coast can also pre-order a four-pint bundle of N’Ice Cream for delivery. Orders will ship on May 15 and cost $52.00 plus shipping.

You might recall that Perfect Day has already tested its flora-based dairy in ice cream. Last July, the company did a limited-edition sale of 3,000 pints available through its website and sold out.

I was lucky enough to sample Perfect Day’s flora-based ice cream last year and thought it was nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. One thing I was curious about at the time was labeling. What language would Perfect Day use to communicate that its dairy was animal-free but made from microbes, not plants?

At least with the N’Ice Cream partnerships, they’ve decided to add “Perfect Day clean-label base” to the ingredient list of each co-branded. The pints are also labeled “vegan” and “lactose-free.”

One thing has changed from Perfect Day’s launch last year: its price point. Last year’s limited-edition ice cream cost $60 for three pints (plus almost double that for shipping). At $12 a pint, their new price point is much more reasonable, and on par with some of the fancier vegan ice creams on the market. The lower price could be because Perfect Day teamed up with Smitten to actually produce and package the ice cream, instead of doing it all themselves.

The N’Ice Cream launch comes just a few weeks after the FDA officially approved Perfect Day’s flora-based protein as GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe). When I spoke with Perfect Day co-founder Ryan Pandya after the news broke, he told me that the company had “numerous product launches” coming up with partners “across different product categories and channels.” He also noted that COVID-19 had not dramatically altered any of these timelines.

Add to that Perfect Day’s $200 million in funding, and my guess is that we’ll be seeing flora-based dairy show up in a lot more than just ice cream very soon.

Impossible Foods Accelerates Retail Rollout with Kroger, Now in 2,700 Grocery Stores

Impossible Foods is massively expanding its retail footprint. Starting today, the plant-based burgers will be available at an additional 1,700 Kroger stores and banners. According to a live press release from the company, this puts Impossible at more than 2,700 retailers total nationwide.

Impossible’s plant-based beef will be sold in 12-ounce packages and priced between $8.99 and $9.99. It can be found in the frozen, fresh, or plant-based sections of Kroger stores. The Impossible beef will also be available on Kroger.com.

This news comes just a few weeks after Impossible began selling its plant-based beef in 777 supermarkets in the Albertson’s portfolio in California, Indiana, Illinois and Nevada. That expansion put its retail footprint at roughly 1,000 grocery stores nationwide. Now, with the new Kroger news, Impossible has more than doubled that number.

Restaurant dining room shutdowns have been devastating for Impossible’s thousands of foodservice partners. Some restaurants are selling uncooked 5-pound bricks of Impossible Foods’ beef directly to customers to supplement their revenues, though it’s not clear if they’ll continue to do that as Impossible amps up its retail footprint.

Since their foodservice sales are no doubt taking a hit right now, it’s no surprise that Impossible is making a hard pivot to focus on retail. In fact, a press release emailed to The Spoon notes that the company plans to expand its retail presence “more than 50-fold” in 2020.

Coronavirus actually offers a prime opportunity for the company to roll out in grocery stores. As COVID-19 disrupts meat manufacturing and shortages loom, plant-based meat is experiencing a bit of a boom — making it a smart time for Impossible to accelerate its retail rollout.

Impossible has been adamant that, unlike traditional meat producers, the coronavirus will not affect their supply chain. In fact, the company announced a $500 million Series F round back in March at least partially intended to help them weather the volatility of the coronavirus pandemic. With its hefty warchest and robut retail presence, it seems like Impossible will come out of the coronavirus pandemic stronger than when it went in.

Bug Ingredient Company Insectta Nabs Funding as Investors Flock to Alternative Protein

One foodtech area that seems to be chugging along nicely, despite the pandemic? Alternative protein.

And just not plant-based protein. The Trendlines Group, an Israel-based commercialization company, announced today that it had invested an undisclosed amount in Insectta, a Singaporean startup that extracts biomaterials from insects.

When it was founded in 2017, Insectta was originally focused on cultivating insects for use in animal feeds. However, recently the company pivoted to extract an element from insects, called chitosan, for use in industries like food, packaging and pharmaceuticals. Insectta is currently developing a way to turn black soldier flies into both protein and probiotic, specifically for animal feed.

According to a press release from The Trendlines Group, Insectta will operate out of Trendlines’ Agrifood Fund offices. The startup is aiming to have its first products on the market by the end of the year.

Since we don’t know the exact amount of funding at play here, this is a piece of news we might normally gloss over. But in the past thirty days, we’ve seen an eye-catching amount of investment in not only bug-based protein, but alternative protein in general.

Last month Hargol FoodTech, an Israel-based company making commercial grasshopper protein, raised $3 million. In the plant-based protein space, the past month has seen alternative chicken startup Rebellyous raised $6 million, Singaporean alt-meat company Growthwell Group grab $8 million, and Israeli chickpea protein producer Innovopro raise $25 million.

New funds, like Eat Beyond Global and Big Idea Ventures’ Generation Food, also show that COVID isn’t slowing investment in alternative protein. In fact, if anything it’s accelerating it. Outbreaks at meat processing plants and corresponding shortages have pushed investors to channel their funds into other protein sources — ones with more sustainable supply chains. Insects, with their low environmental footprint and high protein output, are clearly one of the spaces that investors think could have potential in our post-pandemic world.

Novameat Develops 3D-printed Pork Alternative to Feed Plant-based Meat Demand

Spanish startup Novameat announced today that it had developed a realistic plant-based pork product with the same texture as real meat. And it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.

The coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc across all sectors of the food supply chain, but the hardest hit area might be the meat industry. Employee infections are forcing processing plants to shut down, which is spurring meat shortages. At the same time, some consumers are worried about the link between eating animals and infectious diseases.

But all these misfortunes for the meat industry mean that the plant-based meat industry could be at the cusp of its heydey. That’s especially true for pork. The pork industry was already struggling with the outbreak of African Swine Fever, which decimated the pig population in China. Now major manufacturing plants, from Tyson to Hormel, are facing a new enemy with COVID-19.

Novameat, which uses 3D printing technology to create realistic meat alternatives, sees this as an opportunity. That’s why they recently developed a plant-based pork prototype. The meatless pork is made with pea and rice protein isolates, olive oil, seaweed extract and beet juice and produced with Novameat’s signature micro-extrusion technology to mimic the texture of meat.

So far, Novameat has chiefly been focusing on developing 3D printed steaks, though it has yet to bring any of its products to market. The startup raised an undisclosed amount of funding last year and has plans to sell its plant-based meat to restaurants as well as to license out its printing technology to bigger companies.

Novameat’s 3D printed meatless pork prototype

In an email, Novameat CEO Giuseppe Scionti told me that they decided to create this pork prototype “in a moment of the need for flexibility and adaptability in the proteins market, and seen the global disruption in pork meat supply.”

But the new product isn’t just motivated by the coronavirus pandemic. Scionti also noted that Novameat is trying to demonstrate that their tech is versatile enough to create a wide range of plant-based meat and seafood products.

Scionti told me that, despite the pandemic, they’re still sticking with their original timeline to sell 3D printed plant-based steak to a few restaurants in Europe by the end of 2020. That might be ambitious depending on when restaurants reopen, and what they look like when they do. I’m not sure if high-tech vegan steaks (or pork) fit into that new normal, with restaurants operating at reduced capacity and slimmed-down staff numbers.

However, Novameat’s other sales channel could actually be nudged forward by COVID-19. The company plans to license out its 3D printing technology to plant-based meat manufacturers. Scionti told me in January that would be over the next two to three years, but considering how alternative protein companies gaining investment left and right, and Big Meat companies like Cargill are investing more and more in plant-based, I could see that timeline getting moved up.

One selling point for 3D printed meat in particular is that its production is largely automated. In fact, Scionti noted that they developed the pork alternative entirely while working from home. In a time social distancing orders are keeping many from their R&D labs, 3D printing doesn’t have to slow down. That could make it printed meat alternatives a more appealing option in the post-coronavirus world.

Plantible Raises $4.6M to Accelerate Production of Protein Made from Aquatic Plants

Plantible Foods, a San Marco, California-based startup making alternative protein from aquatic plants, has raised a $4.6 million seed round. The round was co-led by Lerer Hippeau and Vectr Ventures, with participation from FTW Ventures and eighteen94 Capital, the corporate venture arm of Kellogg’s.

Founded in 2018, Plantible processes lemna, also known as duckweed, to create a high-protein powder called Rubi Protein which it sells to B2B partners. As we wrote when we profiled Plantible earlier this year:

Plantible’s scientists developed a proprietary process to extract the grassy flavor from lemna, leaving a protein that’s on par with pea or soy nutrition-wise, but is completely colorless, odorless, and flavorless. The perfect blank canvas for a variety of animal alternative products. 

Speaking to me on the phone this week, Plantible’s co-founder Tony Martens said the company has now raised a total of $5.8 million in funding. He also told me he and the Plantible team had decamped to live out of trailers on their two-acre lemna farm as soon as California enacted its shelter-in-place measures. Despite the circumstances, the small team is continuing to produce the Rubi Protein and push forward with R&D.

The company plans to use the fresh funding to scale up production. Right now Plantible is only able to utilise about 4 percent of the lemna grown on the farm, which they process in a lab on wheels (“like something out of a Breaking Bad episode,” Martens said). The goal is to be able to invest in a larger processing facility so that they can start turning all of the lemna from the aquatic farm into Rubi Protein.

Of course, our conversation quickly turned to the coronavirus pandemic. Martens said that for now, they’re still planning to plow forward with commercialization. For the past few months Plantible has been testing its Rubi Protein Powder with several corporate partners and they still hope to have a product featuring Rubi Protein out in the market by late 2020 or early 2021.

But Plantible isn’t immune to the effects of COVID-19. “Lots of plant-based foods are priced at a premium,” Martens told me. “Smaller brands might have a tough time surviving the recession that could result from the pandemic.”

Indeed, Plantible will be more costly than some other plant proteins, at least initially. But Martens is confident that they’ll quickly be able to undercut the price of egg whites — one of the ingredients that Rubi Protein can replace — and will eventually be cheaper than pea protein.

CPG companies are looking for ways to cash in on the plant-based foods craze. With this new funding, it looks like Plantible will have a chance to prove its worth in the canon of alt-protein ingredients — coronavirus or no.

Eat Beyond Global’s CEO on Why Now is Prime Time to Invest in Food Tech

With so much instability in the world right now, it may seem like a tricky time to be raising money for an investment fund. Especially in a burgeoning space like food tech.

But according to Patrick Morris, CEO of Eat Beyond Global, COVID-19 actually presents a ripe opportunity for investment in food innovation. Eat Beyond Global is a Canadian fund focused on food tech, particularly in the alternative protein realm. Morris told me that they plan to make 10-20 plant-based investments ranging in amount from $1 million to $10 million CAD over the next four years with a minimum ownership goal of 5 percent.

Right now Eat Beyond is raising the second half of its initial fund, which will be between $5 million and $7 million CAD. By the end of the year, Morris hopes to raise as much as $30 million CAD.

The fund has whittled down their initial potential investment companies to 5 options and will deploy capital over the next several months. They’re targeting early-stage companies, ones that are “just starting to make an impact,” according to Morris. He hopes the fund will be public on the Canadian stock exchange by Q2 of this year.

Morris wouldn’t divulge the names of the five companies they’re considering, but said that four were focused on plant-based foods (eggs, milk, bread, and ice cream), with one concentrating on cellular agriculture. True to its name, Eat Beyond Global isn’t limiting its investments to Canada; Morris named the U.S., Japan, and England as other areas it’s exploring.

Despite the looming economic uncertainty brought on by COVID-19, alternative protein is one area that has actually seen a lot of investment recently. Over the past month alone, plant-based chicken startup Rebellyous raised $6 million, Singaporean alt-meat company Growthwell Group nabbed $8 million, and Israeli chickpea protein producer Innovopro raised $25 million.

Venture funds are also taking notice. In the U.S. Big Idea Ventures (BIV), which raised $50 million for its New Protein Fund last year, is in the midst of raising a whopping $250 million fund for investment in new technologies throughout the food system.

Clearly, the global pandemic isn’t putting a damper on Tom Mastrobuoni, a Venture Partner at BIV, who told me last week that the coronavirus could actually shed some light on the shortcomings in our food system — and the need for sustainable, tech-driven solutions.

Morris agrees. “The fact that we could close the first half of our financing during COVID-19 — when all hell is breaking loose — shows the strength of the category.”

Singaporean Alternative Meat Co. Growthwell Group Raises $8M, Will Develop Chickpea Protein Products

The Growthwell Group, a plant-based protein company based in Singapore, announced today that it had raised $8 million (h/t Deal Street Asia). The investment was led by Singaporean sovereign fund Temasek with participation from DSG Consumer Partners, Insignia Ventures, Genesis Ventures, and others. Growthwell also announced it had made its own investment in ChickP, an Israel-based startup developing chickpea protein.

Founded in 1989, The Growthwell Group owns a portfolio of alternative protein companies aimed at Southeast Asian consumers, including OKK (plant-based meat), Su Xian Zi (vegan mutton), and gomama (ready to eat dishes made from plants). As of today, that lineup will also include ChickP, maker of super high protein chickpea powder for use in meat and dairy alternatives. It sells products to roughly 1500 retailers and 3000 foodservice establishments.

Growthwell plans to use ChickP’s proprietary protein isolate to develop new products for the Asia-Pacific market. According to AgFunder, the new chickpea-powered foods will include plant-based shrimp and squid meat, as well as a vegan crab burger. Next up, it’ll develop chickpea milk and ice cream.

In addition to bringing ChickP’s protein to Asia, Growthwell will also use its new funding to open a new R&D center in Singapore with fully automated production lines. The facility is slated to open in 2021. The company is also working to bring its suite of plant-based foods to new markets, specifically China and Australia.

For its part, Temasek is all over the alternative protein space. This year alone they’ve already made investments in cultured meat startup Memphis Meats, Impossible Foods, and Califia Farms. In 2019 they put some major capital into Perfect Day’s flora-based dairy technology.

Asia is a burgeoning market for alternative protein, especially as the African Swine Fever decimated pork production and COVID-19 has thrown a wrench into meat manufacturing. Singapore in particular, with its goal to produce 30 percent of its food within its borders by 2030, has invested quite heavily in the plant-based food space.

At the same time, U.S. players are making their own play for the alternative protein market in Asia. Beyond Meat began selling at Starbucks in China last week and Cargill has a limited-time launch of plant-based chicken at KFC China. Impossible Foods isn’t far behind.

These three are peddling vegan beef, chicken, and pork, so Growthwell is focusing on less crowded markets like seafood and dairy. We’ll have to see if their new funding can help the company push through the challenges of COVID-19 and become a plant-based powerhouse on the other wise.

Israel: InnovoPro Snags $15M to Boost Chickpea Protein Production

Chickpea protein is bulking up. Today Israel-based company InnovoPro announced it had raised a $15 million funding round led by Jerusalem Venture Partners with participation from CPT Capital. This brings the total amount raised by the company to just under $20 million.

InnovoPro makes a chickpea-based protein powder for B2B use. Called CP-Pro 70, the powder is 70 percent chickpea protein (chickpeas naturally have about 20 percent protein). It’s also non-GMO and has the added appeal of being free from common allergies like soy, dairy and gluten. The company claims that CP-Pro 70 has a neutral taste and is versatile enough to be used to make a variety of hot and cold vegan products, from ice cream to burgers to mayonnaise.

So far, products using CP-Pro 70 have launched in Israel, Europe, and the U.S. Innovopro is also developing an organic version of CP-Pro 70 as well as a Chickpea Starch product.

InnovoPro isn’t the only chickpea protein peddler on the block. Last year ChickP, also based in Israel, unveiled a 90 percent chickpea-based protein intended to go into dairy alternatives like milk and yogurt. In the U.S., Nutriati and ProEarth are both making chickpea powder for a variety of food and bev use cases.

It’s no wonder that chickpeas are having a bit of a moment in the alt-protein space. Most raw ingredients for plant-based meat and dairy — soy, wheat, and nuts — are major allergens. Chickpeas and pea protein, however, are not. They’re also cheap, plentiful, and a familiar product for consumers who might shy away from edgier ingredients, like air protein or grasshoppers.

InnovoPro will use its new funds to expand its B2B partners. We’ll see if it can establish a firm foothold in the alternative protein market before the other chickpea companies edge them out.