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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Funding

Bone Broth’s $103M Funding Shows Food Supplements Are A Hot Industry

How would you like to have your bone broth and drink it too?

Ancient Nutrition, a company best known for its bone broth-based protein supplement powder, just snagged a $103 million investment. The funding round was led by private equity firm VMG partners along with Hillhouse Capital and Iconiq Capital. It also included participation from over 100 current and former players in craft food companies such as Noosa Yogurt, The Honest Company, and Stone Brewing.

Ancient Nutrition’s new boost in funding shows that the market for supplements—especially ones that are “natural”—is still booming. The company’s main product is powdered bone broth, a trending meal supplement (which is essentially broth) sipped by health fiends and hipsters alike. Bone broth has particular appeal to people on the ketogenic diet, who believe that we should be eating more like our ancestors: high fat, lots of protein, and minimal carbs. The rising popularity of this and other low-carb diets, such as the paleo diet, have led to a higher demand for protein supplements.

Ancient Nutrition also offers bone broth-derived supplements such as protein powder, which comes in flavors like “French Vanilla” and “Greens.” These can be used in your post-workout smoothies or as a meal replacement, which is another category that has been on the rise lately thanks to veteran Soylent and startups like Bear Squeeze and Ample.

Ancient Nutrition has a serious health food pedigree. Co-founder Jordan Rubin started Canadian dietary supplement and probiotic company Atrium Innovations, which was acquired by Nestlé last year for $2.3 billion. He then took his natural products know-how to start Ancient Nutrition in 2016 alongside Josh Axe, the man behind the popular health & fitness website Dr.Axe.

This funding indicates a strong consumer market for health supplements, especially ones derived from natural products instead of chemicals. Throw the words “superfood” and “whole food” in there, and Ancient Nutrition is capitalizing on three consumer trends: natural, unprocessed foods, miracle health ingredients, and low-carb, high-protein diets. Plus they’ve got convenience going for them; by turning bone broth from a beverage that takes hours to cook into an instant, portable supplement, they’ve made it uber accessible.

Ancient Nutrition plans to use their funds to develop new healthy lifestyle products like fungi, probiotics, and essential oils, presumably all of which will come in French Vanilla.

Grocery-Packing Robots Get Funding Boost with $20M for CommonSense Robotics

We already know that robots can harvest our crops, cook us a medium-rare cheeseburger, bring us our takeout, and even make us a cappuccino (extra foam). In fact, it seems that every time we turn around there’s another story about some company making robots to perform some task within the food system (or a podcast!). And now they’re coming for your groceries—and then they’re going to deliver them to you.

Tel Aviv-based startup CommonSense Robotics is betting that they can change the future of grocery by developing AI-powered robots to help online grocery retailers speed up their fulfillment and delivery. By constructing on-demand supply chains, they promise online grocer clients profitable, 1-hour delivery. This comes at a time when grocery giants seem to be dominating the market, squeezing out smaller retailers with their speedy delivery times and low prices, CommonSense Robotics hopes to even the playing field.

They just got a lot closer to their goal. The Israeli startup just raised $20 million in Series A funding in a round led by Playground Global and supported by Aleph VC and Innovation Endeavors (who also contributed to CommonSense’s $6 million seed funding). This round brings CommonSense’s total funding to $26 million.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen robots involved in the grocery and delivery sphere. Wal-mart is planning to deploy shelf-scanning robots to manage inventory, and San Francisco recently instituted laws restricting delivery robots.

Interestingly enough, CommonSense’s business model doesn’t cut homo sapiens out of the supply chain—not totally. Instead, their robots will work in tandem with human employees. The robots will store products until an order is placed, at which point they’ll bring the correct goods to a human “coworker” who will pack it. The robot will then transport the order to a delivery vehicle for dispatch.

This system may, at first glance, might seem more complicated than just having a human execute all the tasks themselves, but CommonSense claims that it will lead to more efficiency in the grocery fulfillment sphere. This is at least in part because robots are, well, inhuman: they can lift and transport heavy boxes much more quickly and effectively than people. They also don’t need breaks, sick days, or a certain standard of working conditions. In short: they’re more efficient.

CommonSense Robotics CEO Elram Goren told TechCrunch that their robotics and AI were designed to “maximise space efficiencies (how small we can have the warehouse), labor efficiencies (how little we can have human labor in the process), how fast we can deal with an average grocery order (usually less than 3 minutes, where a completely human process takes about 10x that), and how close we can have the centers to the customers.”

This language would imply that CommonSense is working towards a grocery delivery system staffed entirely by robots. If smaller retailers want to compete with the low prices and quick delivery turnaround of grocery giants like Amazon and Walmart, that might be necessary. (Yes, there’s the whole “robots are taking our jobs” issue—but that’s a whole other post.)

What I found most interesting about CommonSense’s business model is not the robots themselves (though robots are always cool), but how the company will use robots to maximize grocery storage efficiency. Capitalizing off of robot’s ability to work within smaller and taller spaces, the startup is setting up a framework of high-capacity micro-fulfillment centers in underutilized urban spaces, such as underground car parks. By moving the warehouse into city centers, CommonSense hopes to be able to supply fresher groceries with a tight turnaround and low cost. They’re even open to the possibility of building facilities within grocery company’s buildings, optimizing packing efficiency even further.

CommonSense’s newest round of funding will help them as they work to deploy the first generation of their robots and open a micro-fulfillment center. If all goes well, the startup has plans to establish more facilities in the U.S., U.K. and their home country of Israel by the end of 2018. Start making your grocery lists now.

You can hear about CommonSense’s Robots in our daily spoon podcast.  You can also subscribe in Apple podcasts or through our Amazon Alexa skill. 

The Food Corridor Raises $555k to Bring Sharing Economy to Commercial Kitchens

Say you’ve spent the last months or years perfecting the world’s best recipe for Sriracha-flavored popcorn or drinkable soup (yes, that’s a thing) and now you want to bring it to the masses. Your family and friends love it, you’ve saved up some money or secured a line of credit, and while you’ve never started a food business before, you’re ready to strike out on that path to become the next Chobani or Stumptown.

What’s the first thing you need to do?

Ashley Colpaart, CEO of The Food Corridor

Chances are, it’s making the move out of your own kitchen and into a commercial space, a hurdle that often stops budding food entrepreneurs in their tracks. A shame really, since the typical commercial kitchen goes unused over 50% of the time. Enter The Food Corridor: an online platform where food businesses can connect with and choose commercial production spaces and gain access to tools like scheduling and booking, payment processing, and health code documentation. Airbnb is a co-living space, WeWork is a co-working space, and TFC bills itself as a “co-cooking space”—one which hopes disrupt the speciality foods industry much as Airbnb has disrupted the hotel industry.

They’re now one step closer to their goal. Earlier this week, TFC closed their seed round and officially raised $555,000, all from within their home state of Colorado. Co-founder and CEO Ashley Colpaart told the Spoon that they will use their funds to add additional revenue generating features to TFC platform, grow the number of kitchens powered by their software over the next year, pay sales and marketing expenses, and hire key personnel.

Colpaart first got the idea for TFC when she was a PhD student at Colorado State University and got invited to Washington to a USDA event about food systems. After an onslaught of proposals which focused on infrastructure but didn’t come with a well-thought-out business plan, her frustration grew. “I got a little weary of allocating funds to something that didn’t seem like the right answer,” she said in an interview last year. While in an Uber (her first!) back to her Airbnb, she started thinking about ways to apply the sharing economy that’s so integral to vacation rentals and transportation to the food system.

“I was, like, ‘are we using the resources we have efficiently before we go build new ones?'” The answer was no—or really, not yet. Thus TFC, the online marketplace connecting shared-use kitchens with food entrepreneurs, was born.

In the past few years, the sharing economy has started to democratize food creation through shared kitchen spaces and food business incubators. TFC hopes to capitalize on this trend and facilitate its growth. “The goal is to create a resource that is an enduring contribution to the sustainability of shared kitchens,” said Colpaart.

TFC is hoping to become a key innovator in this emerging industry. They are planning a meetup later this year to bring together the leaders in the cottage foods disruption space. “I also think there is an opportunity to leverage the infrastructure of the kitchen to support more food entrepreneurs through technology,” said Colpaart. “For example, cloud kitchens or delivery only restaurants.” As long as it gets us more Sriracha popcorn faster, we’re in.

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The Spoon had a chance to ask Colpaart a few questions about the news and her plans for TFC. You can see our interview below.

Tell us a little about the Food Corridor?

Colpaart: The mission of TFC is to enable efficiency, growth, and innovation in local food… We provide a real solution to a real problem in the food system by using a proven, scalable concept applied to a new vertical.

We’ve seen a bunch of interest and growth in shared kitchen, kitchen incubators, in the last few years as the sharing economy has started to democratize food creation. How will TFC add to this conversation?

Colpaart: In addition to bringing the sharing economy to specialty foods, we are supporting local policy to increase shared use kitchens and grow the industry. We also facilitate the largest network of shared kitchens (900+) in the country, the Network for Incubator and Commissary Kitchens, which we are using to become the trusted thought leader in the space by providing content, industry reports, white papers, and a curated community to support the industry.

We are currently developing a Shared Kitchen Toolkit (SKT), as a collaboration between Purdue University, The Food Corridor, and Fruition Planning & Management, with funding from the USDA North Central SARE. The SKT is a web-based resource (both downloadable and dynamic) that will include guidance on feasibility and planning for new kitchen projects, as well as best practices for the day-to-day operations of shared-use kitchens. The goal is to create a resource that is an enduring contribution to the sustainability of shared kitchens.

How did food become such a focus for you?

Colpaart: My mom was a food entrepreneur (had a hot sauce company and catered out of our house). My dad was a hardware engineer (designed microprocessor chips) in Silicon Valley during the boom. I was raised on food tech.

What do you want Food Corridor to be in 5 years?

Colpaart: The mission of TFC is to be the world’s virtual food hub, enabling efficiency, growth, and innovation in local food systems across the globe. We want the platform to be a one-stop-shop for food entrepreneurs looking to start and scale food businesses by leveraging network assets and ecosystem services.

Drop Kitchen Nabs $8 Million In Funding As Kitchen Tech Investment Heats Up

Drop Kitchen, a smart kitchen software startup based in Ireland and San Francisco, just received an $8 million Series A funding round led by Alsop Louie Partners. The round, which also included investments from Frontline, WI Harper and Irish celebrity chef Ross Lewis, brings the total investment in Drop to nearly $12 million.

According to Drop, the company plans to use the funds to “continue development of Drop’s KitchenOS platform for connected appliances in the smart kitchen of the future as well as to support the company’s partnerships with appliance manufacturers worldwide.”

The news is further indication the market for kitchen tech investments is heating up. Just yesterday we heard that June had received additional investment through Amazon’s Alexa fund, while a couple weeks ago The Spoon broke the news that Tovala had raised $9.2 million in Series A funding.

For Drop, the funding is a validation of the company’s new strategy, which marks a departure from the company’s initial focus on creating its own hardware (the Drop scale) and instead focusing on developing a software platform (Drop KitchenOS) for partners such as Bosch and GE.

As part of the announcement, Drop also indicated that well known venture capitalist Stewart Alsop, founder of Alsop Louie, will join the board.  The company also indicated that Chef Ross Lewis will help lend his expertise in developing the company’s platform and wants to utilize Drop technology in his own kitchen.

“I have always known that smart technologies were going to become incredibly important in the kitchen — so much so that I built my own digital recipe system for Chapter One’s kitchen,” Lewis told The Spoon. “When I saw Drop’s app, I knew it was the future and I wanted to integrate it into our kitchen here. I am working closely with the team to share my culinary expertise to guide all future developments, and look forward to adding recipes myself.”

I had a chance to ask Drop CEO Ben Harris a few questions about the news. You can see our interview and the full announcement below.

You indicated the capital will be for further expanding Drop’s kitchen OS and to support its appliance partners – can you be more specific on this? (hire headcount/developers, etc)?

Harris: We have been incredibly efficient with the small bit of capital we have brought in to date, by working both hard and smart. We intend to continue in that vein by investing in areas that we feel is most important to our partners and users.

There seems to be an increasing number of efforts to provide kitchen software platforms to big appliance makers. How is Drop different from other companies in terms of technology?

Harris: The kitchen is getting more and more complicated, not less. We have cooking food processors, pressure cookers, temperature probes, steaming ovens – and much more to come as more sensors are being added to the kitchen. Yet recipes (one of the most popular content medias online) know nothing about individual kitchens or their owners. They are therefore only shared with the lowest common denominator of functionality, leveraging the most basic and generic of appliances e.g “roast in an oven for X time at temperature Y”. Even non-connected kitchen appliances are capable of so much more. Drop’s responsive recipe format and technology adapts recipes to you and your kitchen – to allow those you and your appliances to shine. Through this adaptation, we ensure users get to fully benefit from the decades of research and development that manufacturers have been putting into their appliances, and through an incredibly intuitive experience. Resulting in an equivalent leap of turning a featureful WAP phone into an iPhone.

When will we see GE and Bosch products with Drop software?

Harris: Right now you can connect and control over 100 models of GEA, Bosch, Siemens and Neff ovens from the Drop Recipes App, with more to come.

Amazon announced the cooking capabilities built into the Alexa Smart Home API today – how is Drop working to build in new interfaces such as voice to enable people to cook in new ways?

Harris: Right now, all I can say is – we understand how important voice is for the kitchen.

The Drop Scale is still available for sale on Amazon – is Drop continuing to produce its own hardware?

Harris: The Drop Scale is simply a reference design as to how well hardware and software should integrate in the kitchen. We are 100% focused on the software platform right now, with our appliance partners building the hardware.

Any particular plans or ways in which Chef Lewis will be involved?

Harris: Yes – Ross is now involved in our development cycles. His culinary expertise is guiding our features and appliance integration/control strategies.

Drop Kitchen’s Full Announcement:

Smart Kitchen Company Drop Secures $8M in Funding Led by Alsop Louie Partners

San Francisco, CA and Dublin, Ireland (January 4, 2018) – Smart kitchen company Drop, today announced that it has closed $8 million in Series A venture financing, led by Alsop Louie Partners with participation from internal investors Frontline and WI Harper, and Ireland’s top chef, the Michelin-starred Ross Lewis. Drop also announced that Founder and lead Partner, Stewart Alsop has joined the company’s board of directors.

The money will be used for working capital to continue development of Drop’s KitchenOS platform for connected appliances in the smart kitchen of the future as well as to support the company’s partnerships with appliance manufacturers worldwide.

In 2017, Drop launched partnerships with Bosch and GE Appliances, making it possible for owners of connected ovens to control them straight from a recipe on the Drop platform. This coming year, the company will be announcing multiple new partnerships with the world’s largest appliance brands.

“This investment will allow us to accelerate our trajectory towards becoming the de facto platform for the smart kitchen that empowers anyone to make delicious food at home,” said Ben Harris, CEO and co-founder. “We found the perfect investor in Stewart Alsop and the team at Alsop Louie, who bring experience in growing global platforms such as Twitch, and Stewart himself has a wealth of indispensable experience, leading NEA’s investment in TiVo and sitting on Sonos’ board for seven years.”

“We invested in Drop Kitchen because Ben and his team have a real vision for how to transform the basic cultural experience of cooking and consuming food in the home, as well as making it more entertaining and engaging,” said Stewart Alsop, partner, Alsop Louie Partners. “We think Drop can make that experience magical by partnering with every consumer appliance maker around the world.”