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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Tyson Ventures

Soft Robotics Raises $10M to Add 3D Vision and AI to its Octopus-like Grippers

Soft Robotics, which is best known for making octopus-like grippers for robots, announced today that it has raised a $10 million extension to the $23 million Series B round it raised in January 2020. The round was co-led by Material Impact, Scale Venture Partners and Calibrate Ventures, and adds Tyson Ventures (the venture arm of Tyson Foods) to the syndicate. ABB Technology Ventures and Tekfen Ventures participated as well. This brings the total amount of funding raised by Soft Robotics to $58 million.

Soft Robotics uses rubber tipped grippers with “air actuated soft elastomeric end effectors” that mimic an octopus, allowing robotic arms to pick up odd-shaped and delicate items like eggs and bread without crushing them. The company says the new capital will help Soft Robotics launch its new SoftAI technology, which adds layers of 3D vision and artificial intelligence to its gripping solution.

According to Soft Robotics’ website, “SoftAI will evaluate the pick scene and automatically choose the best grasp and ideal robot trajectory to optimize rate and reduce product damage.” It’s easy to see how this type of automated discernment would come in handy for a company like Tyson Foods (which was already using Soft Robotics before it invested), which needs to pick up and pack all different types of animal products of varying shapes and sizes.

Chicken Wing and Poultry Automation with mGripAI

In addition to its new technology, Soft Robotics said its new funding will go towards commercial expansion to keep up with pandemic-driven demand. Last year COVID-19 exposed shortcomings in our food supply chain, with meatpacking facilities, which were already a dangerous place to work, becoming hot spots for the virus. Implementing robots in a meatpacking or other food-related factory can help add additional safety and social distancing to the work environment. Robotic arms can work all day without fatigue or injury, and placing robots on a line can help space out workers, so people aren’t working right next to each other.

During our first ArituclATE food conference back in 2019, a robotics researcher told me that robotic “grippers all suck.” But that appears to be changing. In addition to Soft Robotics’ octopus approach, new technologies based on origami (paper folding) and kirigami (paper cutting) are creating entirely new types of gripping technology that can be used for odd-shaped and delicate items. The combination of the pandemic and investor interest could help fuel accelerated development and implementation of this new gripper technology and unlock new areas and uses for robots in food production.

Days Before Its IPO, Beyond Meat Parts Ways with Tyson Foods

Poultry giant Tyson Foods has parted ways with plant-based protein company Beyond Meat, Axios reported this morning in its newsletter. This news comes just days before the El Segundo, California-based startup is expected to go public with a valuation of up to $1.2 billion.

Tyson had a 6.5% ownership stake in Beyond and had invested a total of $23 million in the company between 2016 and 2017. Axios discovered the break when it noticed that Tyson was listed on Beyond’s April 15 amended regulatory filing, but not in one on April 22.

And things started off so well! We were fascinated to see Tyson, the second-largest meat processing company in the world, invest so heavily in Beyond, a company out to disrupt the industrial meat industry altogether. As Tom Mastrobuoni, CFO of Tyson Ventures, pointed out onstage during our Smart Kitchen Summit Europe last year, they’re very aware of that. “We’re onto disruption now,” he told the audience. “The startups that we’re focusing on are, in some ways, out to get us.”

The meat giant seemed fine with that initially, but things must have shifted at some point. Likely after Tyson announced in February that it would be developing its own line of plant-based protein products, which it plans to have in retail by this summer (see statement below). It makes sense that Tyson wouldn’t want to compete directly with one of its portfolio companies in the B2C alternative protein market, and vice-versa.

We don’t know if Tyson had already decided to develop its own line of plant-based products before it invested in Beyond. Otherwise, maybe they saw the numbers and realized the potential of the protein market, then decided to jump in themselves.

If the latter, it’s no wonder that Beyond Meat got a bee in their bonnet. As we mentioned Tyson is the second largest meat processor in the world. They have an incredible amount of capital, manufacturing abilities, R&D teams, and retail partnerships in place that will let them scale their plant-based protein business quickly. It’s easy to see why Beyond Meat wouldn’t like the idea of having such a giant, well-financed competitor in the meat aisle.

A rep from Tyson sent us the following statement (the same one it shared with Axios):

Tyson Ventures is pleased with the investment in Beyond Meat and has decided the time is right to exit its investment. Beyond Meat provided an early opportunity for Tyson Ventures to invest in plant-based protein products that many consumers are seeking. We wish the leadership of Beyond Meat all the best.

Tyson Foods continues to be committed to providing alternative protein as a choice for consumers and recently announced the creation of a new business focused on combining our creativity, scale and resources to make great tasting protein alternatives more accessible for everyone. We plan to launch an alternative protein product soon with market testing anticipated this summer.

According to Axios, there were multiple buyers for Tyson’s stake in Beyond Meat as no new 5% shareholder was listed in the new statement.

Other Big Food companies have also been investing in plant-based protein. However, instead of buying stakes in prominent startups like Beyond Meat, they’re chiefly acquiring smaller vegan companies (Unilever, Maple Leaf Foods) or developing their own products (Nestlé). Maybe Tyson tried to take over Beyond Meat and were rebuffed, then decided to change course and make their own line of plant-based proteins.

Beyond isn’t Tyson’s only venture into the alternative protein space. The poultry giant has also invested in cell-based meat company Memphis Meats as well as Future Meats, a biotech company creating animal-free fat and muscle cells. Though cultured meat is still a ways away from entering your grocery store, it’ll be interesting to see how Big Food companies like Tyson react once they do get to market — and if they’ll be friend or foe.

It’s also worth asking if the break from Tyson will impact Beyond’s IPO, which is set for just days from now. Potential investors might be more wary to buy stock in a company that was backed by a giant like Tyson, but no longer. Then again, I don’t think this will have too much of an effect. People are still ravenous for plant-based protein, and interested parties attracted by Beyond’s inspiring message or growing revenues will likely still buy shares in the company, regardless of any Tyson drama.

We’ve reached out to Beyond and Tyson for comment and will update this post when we hear back.

Big Food Invests In The Future: A Talk With Tyson Ventures’ Tom Mastrobuoni

If you’ve listened to an investor conference call for a big food company lately, there’s a good chance you know the following:

  • Consumers are asking for healthier options and want to understand better where their food comes from.
  • The world’s population continues to grow in the face of an increasingly stressed food ecosystem.
  • Food brands are increasingly establishing direct relationships with consumers and exploring new business models that represent big departures from traditional food retail.

In short, big food is being forced to think about the future.

Some of the ways they are doing this are through partnerships, incubation and accelerator initiatives and establishing direct investment arms. Tyson Foods is doing all of the above, and one of the people at the heart of the company’s investment efforts is Tom Mastrobuoni, the CFO for Tyson Ventures, our guest for this week’s episode of the Smart Kitchen Show podcast.

One of the things I talk to Tom about Tyson’s recent investment in Tovala. The deal was interesting to me because it was Tyson’s first investment in a connected kitchen and food delivery startup, joining the group’s other investments in clean meat startups Beyond Meat and Memphis Meats.

Tom and I also talk about how Tyson and other companies are thinking about technologies such as AI, Blockchain and much more.

Have a listen below, download here or subscribe on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen).

Tyson Bets On Home Food Delivery & Smart Kitchen With Investment In Tovala

Today Tyson Foods announced they have invested an undisclosed amount in Tovala, maker of smart steam ovens that pair with ready-to-cook home delivered meals. The investment comes on the heels of a $9.2 million series A announced in December. As part of the deal, Tyson will add an observer to Tovala’s board in Tyson Ventures managing director Reese Schroeder.

According to Tovala CEO David Rabie, the deal made sense for them as they started to look toward expanding the Tovala platform beyond their own meals.

“Over time, we will have other brands on the platform where we can automate the cooking, similar to how it works with Tovala meals,” said Rabie in an interview with The Spoon. “This (Tyson) is the first brand and harbinger of what’s to come.”

The move comes at an interesting time for big food companies like Tyson. Consumer packaged good providers are continuing to look for ways to reach the consumer as Amazon continues to wreak havoc on the retail landscape and consumers are increasingly exploring fresh food choices. Home food delivery is seen a potentially interesting – if still yet somewhat unproven – route to the consumer. The move by Tyson follows investments by other big food companies like Nestle, Unilever and Campbell into the home food delivery space.

What’s different about the Tyson’s investment is that with Tovala, they are also moving into the connected kitchen space. Tovala, an alum of the 2016 Smart Kitchen Summit startup showcase, is part of a growing trend of startups looking to pair food delivery with a smart cooking appliance.  Sous vide circulator startups like Nomiku and ChefSteps have both ventured into food delivery, and just this week Suvie, a new startup from the founder of Reviewed.com, is kicking off a Kickstarter campaign for a cooking robot that pairs with the company’s own meal kit delivery. Smart kitchen operating system startup Innit has hinted they will be working with white-label meal kit company Chef’d later this year.

It will be interesting to see where this trend combining automated, assisted cooking combined with meal delivery goes. For companies like Tovala and Suvie, meal delivery provides a form of recurring revenue that more hardware-specific startups like June struggle with. On the other hand, the logistical challenges of building out meal delivery services add more complexity to creating a company. Long term, all of these companies are chasing the idea of creating greater convenience for the consumer. It will no doubt be interesting to see which companies get the combination right and begin to see traction in 2018 and beyond.