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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

food tech startups

IKEA Gets In The Startup Game With Bootcamp Accelerator

In the last several years, we’ve seen major home, tech and food brands reach out to the startup community in the form of VC funds and accelerators to try and harness the massive innovation taking place in their markets. From General Mills, Kellogg and Google, companies are looking at hot areas like food, agriculture and housewares to find the disrupters to bring into their ecosystems.

IKEA, the maker of popular furniture and home goods – and most recently, smart lighting products – is getting into the mix, announcing the IKEA Bootcamp for startups looking to solve the world’s “Big Problems.” It’s clear IKEA is looking to cultivate and support entrepreneurs in hot innovative areas right now – including IoT, virtual reality, chatbots, food tech, drones and Big Data.

The Swedish home design conglomerate is no stranger to pursuing partnerships in search of the next big thing; last year they worked with IDEO and design students School of Industrial Design at the Ingvar Kamprad Design Centre at Lund University to come up with the Concept Kitchen 2025, a prototype of what kitchens of the future might look like.

“We are looking for startups to help us solve the IKEA ‘Big Problems’ around being truly affordable for the many people, reaching and interacting with the many, and enabling a positive impact on the planet, people and society.” -IKEA

The perks IKEA is offering startups are pretty enticing – fifteen companies will be selected to work and live in Almhult, Sweden with a stipend of 20,000 EU and free housing from September through December. Selected innovators will work in IKEA’s prototype shop and test labs and be able to tap into expertise within the IKEA Range & Supply group.

They’ll also have access to workshops, courses and mentorships from senior IKEA global business leaders. And maybe most appealing? IKEA is not looking to take any equity in accelerator startups but rather see it as an opportunity to collaborate, saying “We may end up being a customer, licensing your technology or even investing in your company, but first and foremost we want you to be working on the Big Problems and to share our vision to create a better everyday life for the many people.”

Applications are due August 6 to be part of the fall cohort, which runs from September 8 to December 18.

Are you a startup in food tech or the smart kitchen? Apply to demo at the Smart Kitchen Summit in the Startup Showcase on October 10 and 11 in Seattle, WA. Selected finalists will receive an opportunity to showcase their innovation to decision makers across tech, food, housewares and appliances, retail and commerce.

Apply by August 15 for a chance at a spot at the only event in North America dedicated to the future of food, cooking + the kitchen. 

 

 

We Use 50 Billion Water Bottles Per Year. Here’s An Edible Container That Can Stop The Insanity

It’s hard to deny that the food industry is experiencing lots of disruption from startups around the globe who are trying to solve the market’s tough problems. Things like delivery, supply chain, sustainability, waste and sourcing are all on the minds of startups like Skipping Rocks Lab. The particular problem they’re trying to tackle? The proliferation of plastic bottles and the waste they generate.

Skipping Rocks Lab isn’t just minimizing plastic production or coming up with new ways to recycle water bottles – they’ve created a product that basically redefines the way water can be delivered and consumed. Meet Ooho, the water “bottle” that delivers single serve gulps of water and can actually be eaten.

Ooho Short Web from Skipping Rocks Lab on Vimeo

The Ooho balls look like a cross between a gross Jello-based dessert and one of those plastic stress balls you can squeeze to get out frustration. But the balls are in fact edible – made by dipping frozen balls of ice into an algae concoction – and biodegradable, meaning they won’t sit in the ocean somewhere for eternity but rather disintegrate after about 4-6 weeks. Given that 50 billion plastic bottles are used by humans every year (EVERY. YEAR.), it stands to reason that this type of innovation would attract lots of interest.

And so far, it’s working. Skipping Rocks has successfully funded their first campaign on CrowdCube and the videos of people popping spherical water into their mouths have gone viral. The company is mainly serving Ooho at events and festivals – and you can see why. They are small and are perfect for quick hydration where storage isn’t a factor. The product is great for things like marathons and sporting events as well.

But Skipping Rocks vision is to become THE go-to seaweed-based packaging company in the world; they clearly have plans to move beyond water and adapt this packaging to all types of beverages that might be served in plastic. How they move the concept from small balls of water to actual practical implementation remains to be seen. For one, people generally like to consume more than one sip of a beverage in any given setting, and the packaging as it stands cannot be resealed. Once you’ve bitten into it, you’ve committed to consuming whatever is inside in one shot.

The other issue is distribution – the idea that they could be sold widely to consumers in stores means the balls themselves will likely need some type of packaging around them. The membranes are edible and therefore can’t just be left to sit out in the open on shelves. The retail model definitely leaves some questions around sustainability and the impact of the product as a whole.

But for now, it will be interesting to see how the startup uses the investment money and what types of unique implementations they come up with next. And of course, we’ll keep our eyes out for any Ooho balls in the wild – and be sure to document the experience.

The Sidewalk’s Getting Crowded As Marble & Yelp Launch Starship Robot Delivery Competitor

While Amazon’s trying to figure out how to deliver Prime packages using drones, other startups are making land grabs for the sidewalk delivery market. We wrote last year about Starship, the robot delivery vehicle made from the brains of Skype co-founders, Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis. Starship was the first to start actively piloting robot delivery drivers around the streets of London; the robots were equipped with sophisticated onboard software that allowed them to autonomously navigate city streets to deliver goods door-to-door.

Now Starship has some competition in the form of a new partnership from Yelp’s food delivery service Eat24 and Marble, a startup that’s creating a “fleet of intelligent courier robots” made for urban delivery usage. Yelp Eat24 and Marble are together bringing robot food delivery to the streets of San Francisco. TechCrunch spotted the Marble vehicles earlier in the month and the duo made their official announcement late last week.

The Yelp Eat24 use of the Marble robots works the same as their normal delivery service; the company works with about 40,000 restaurants but offers delivery as an opt-in feature the restaurant can use for an additional fee. Marble effectively becomes another delivery vendor for Yelp, collecting a fee for each trip and yes – robots do accept tips.

CNET takes a look at both Starship and Marble sidewalk delivery robots.

Marble’s robots are built to be modular – these particular models are designed for quick food delivery, with a pod that can hold a bag that keeps food cold or warm. But the cargo area could also be designed to carry other goods like medicine and could even be outfitted to have an onboard oven to actively cook food as it travels.

Marble is a direct competitor to Starship and offering delivery in San Francisco is upping the game; Starship announced earlier this year that it would start delivering in Washington, D.C. via delivery partner Postmates and in Redwood City, CA using DoorDash.

Both Marble and Starship have committed to sending human “chaperones” with the sidewalk robots for their early journeys. Marble said it was in order to answer questions about the robot to interested pedestrians, but it’s probably also to gather qualitative data about how people react to the robots and what real life risks they might encounter.

It’s not a surprise that the market for food delivery in the U.S. is so hot – 2015 was the first year that Americans spent more on takeout food than they did on traditional groceries. Not only that, but millennials – the generation quickly taking over the baby boomers in size and buying power – indicate that they are more eager than most to order prepared takeout food. If companies can figure out how to reliably deliver that food without lots of overhead and outsource a lower skilled job to friendly robots, the way we get our food a decade from now will be drastically different.

Robot food delivery is probably just the beginning; as Marble’s modular build suggests, the opportunity for having other goods delivered is real and could easily be accomplished by a partnership with a healthcare system (medicine) or a retail giant like Target or Walmart. Amazon competition, anyone?

The Robots Are Coming, And They’re Bringing Salads

The restaurant salad bar is often a mixed bag – sometimes it’s great, other times the ingredients are sad, with wilted lettuce and less-than-fresh cucumbers side-by-side. And sometimes the salad options at traditionally fast food chains are just downright sad.

That’s where Sally comes in. She’s the robot from Chowbotics Inc., a robotics and AI company that’s creating perfectly portioned salads and positioned as an alternative to the casual dining salad restaurants. Chowbotics, formerly known as Casabots, has  raised $6.3 million in funding from notable venture capital sources as Techstars and Foundry, the company behind Fitbit and 3D printers.

Sally takes up minimal space (about the size of a dorm room refrigerator) and uses 21 popular salad ingredients like romaine, kale, seared chicken breast, Parmesan, California walnuts, cherry tomatoes, and Kalamata olives that will create thousands of salad combinations in a mere 60 seconds.

In many ways, Sally is like a 3D printer for salads, spewing out prepared ingredients to create a ready to eat dish. In case you’re worried about Sally just being another automation nail in the food service coffin, you’ll be glad to know that Sally actually requires human interaction to do her job. Workers as the restaurant, airport or hotel will have to chop and wash the vegetables before putting them into the machine – at least for now.

“Sally is the next generation of salad restaurant,” said Deepak Sekar, founder of Chowbotics. “For one thing, a robot can make salad faster than a human can. Also, you will know precisely how many calories your salad is delivering; there won’t be the problem of consuming one piled high with garnishes that turn out to be more fattening than a burger.”

Sally is making her debut in a fast-casual restaurant in Silicon Valley and at a corporate cafeteria in Texas, with the public launch slated for April 13 at co-working space Galvanize in San Francisco. The robot was designed as a solution for hospitality settings, convention centers, airports and gyms where customers want healthy quick service options, as well as an option to install in fast food chains to bolster their fresh food options.

Automation in front of house restaurant operations is a growing trend, as Michael Wolf wrote in The Spoon back in January, with a focus on how fast food companies are adapting. “Companies like Panera, Wendy’s and McDonalds are rolling out self-order kiosks nationwide, making fast food one of the fastest growing categories in what some predict will be a $73 billion self-serve kiosk market in 2020.”

Sekar, for his part, isn’t concerned about the effect Sally and other food preparation robots like her will have on the restaurant industry. “It’s happening in every industry now. You can either fight it, or be on the team that makes it happen.”

Maine’s Forager the Latest to Use Tech as a Farm-to-Table Solution

Much like the zeitgeist term “Internet of Things, the use of the popular slogan “farm to table” is confusing marketing speak widely subject to personal interpretation. The farm part is fairly easy to understand, but table conjures up the image of local tomato grower driving up to your home and placing a pound of heirlooms on your kitchen counter. If only that were the case. Yes, it’s a “Portlandia” skit come to life.

In broad brush strokes, the world of farm-to-table is two businesses—tech-driven B2B logistics platforms that connect farms to retailers and restaurants, and the far-more-challenging niche world of home delivery of farm-fresh produce.

Speaking of Portland—the one in the Northeast part of the U.S.—a new enterprise called Forager is an app-based ecosystem that offers a farm-to-table solution connecting local growers to retailers, restaurants and market vendors. Forager allows commercial buyers of fresh farm goods to see what local farmers are growing and have in stock, and then place orders accordingly. Forager CEO David Stone says the system eliminates what he calls a “manual, paper intensive, error-prone process.”

“More and more people are putting local food on their plates,” Stone told a local Portland TV station. “[The farm-to-table movement] is growing really fast, but the technology hasn’t really focused on it yet.”

Stone’s goal is to make Forager a nationwide platform, but in its early days the technology is being utilized by farmers in Maine and New Hampshire. His immediate goal is to get the technology in the hands of growers throughout New England and upstate New York.

B2B farm-to-table solutions abound focusing on the part of the value chain that put fresh goods into the hands of resellers. Pointing to the glut of innovators looking at this growing part of the food tech industry, the 2017 Food + City Challenge featured such F-2-T solutions providers as Bucketload, Farm Fare, and Origintrail. There also are plenty of tech newcomers to support this new-ish-IoT supply chain. Companies such as Fresh Surety provide technology that calibrates freshness of goods as they travel from grower to marketplace.

A few daring entrepreneurs have attempted to tackle the business of delivering those farm-fresh goodies to consumers—essentially a specialized grocery delivery service. Any of the countless supermarket-to-home services will deliver a bunch of celery or a pound of oranges, but those selections hinge on the untrained eye of your average Instacart employee. For field-to-home goodness, subscription-based startups such as New York’s Farm to People and Texas-based Farmhouse Delivery have heavily curated weekly services that bring seasonal produce to your door.

Cost is the significant issue for bringing that ear of corn picked that morning directly to your kitchen. With low margins and an elusive target market, companies such as Farmhouse Delivery charge a one-time membership fee and weekly or bi-weekly service of a medium bushel (five-seven items) for $27.00 or a large bushel (nine-11 items) for $39.99. For better margins and a higher per-customer order, Farmhouse also delivers prepared foods, meat, poultry and dairy items. The target for such services is the subset of families who want to eat healthy and have the resources to buy local and organic without a weekly trip to the farmers market.

At the other end of the farm-to-retail-to-table spectrum is a potentially large and socially responsible opportunity, but one that is far less sexy. Solutions for getting fresh food to underserved “food deserts” attracts neither visionaries nor startup capital, leaving such programs as the St. Louis Metro Market, a non-profit that converts city buses into mobile farmers markets, as a placeholder for future social entrepreneurs.

When Food Producers Borrow Techniques From Breweries

The future of food discussion is often focused on ways to make popular food products and ingredients in a sustainable and healthier way. The road to meeting the demand for more natural foods is filled with constraints; a supply chain that can’t always deliver natural ingredients and prices that consumers don’t always want to pay. That’s why some companies are turning to a well-worn technology, used commonly by brewers to make beer and cider.

Food companies like faux-meat startup Impossible Foods and cow-free milk producer Perfect Day are using fermentation-like processes along with food science to create natural ingredients in unusual ways.

A recent piece from Fortune explains,

Scientists identify the desired genes in a plant or animal and insert them into a host such as yeast. The yeast is fed sugars and nutrients to stimulate fermentation. Then the yeast and its genes are filtered off, and the desired ingredient is purified out of the remaining broth.

When we think of food technology, we often think of gadgets and instruments used to cook and order our food, but the work happening in food science to create foods that taste and look like the real thing is perhaps some of the most interesting. If we think about the food system broadly and the challenges the world faces – including shortages and harmful climate impact, this kind of food tech will lead the way in driving real solutions.

The big question, as Fortune points out, will be whether or not consumers will buy into fake meat that’s meant to look and taste like the real thing, or cow’s milk that’s made without the cow – or sugar that doesn’t come from a plant.