Top stories on the FFF investment radar week 3
By David Stevenson on Monday 24 January 2022
By David Stevenson on Monday 24 January 2022
FutureFoodFinance cherry-picks the stories we think should be on the radar of investors.
Worth closely watching: First cultivated beef to hit shelves this year
In an interview with Food IngredientsFirst, Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO, Aleph Farms, confirmed Aleph Farms’ cell-based steaks will be ready (regulatory approval dependant) for consumption by the end of this year. “The US market is a priority market. And we’re working closely with regulatory agencies to make this happen,” he explained.
https://plantbasednews.org/news/science/cell-cultured-beef-debut-industry/
QSR chains and grocery retailers are nothing if not margin-clever. Paying top-shelf prices to plant-based meat companies is not an attractive long term plan for shareholder returns. Beyond, Impossible and the like come at a high cost premium, even with the wholesale discount. Which is why US-based Mexican fast-casual chain Chipotle created its own vegan chorizo and sofritas in-house, and why UK/European supermarkets can’t launch enough own-brand plant-based foods (UK supermarket behemoth Tesco boasts over 600 items in its line). Note: US supermarkets are behind on this.
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QSR chains and grocery retailers are nothing if not margin-clever. Paying top-shelf prices to plant-based meat companies is not an attractive long term plan for shareholder returns. Beyond, Impossible and the like come at a high cost premium, even with the wholesale discount. Which is why US-based Mexican fast-casual chain Chipotle created its own vegan chorizo and sofritas in-house, and why UK/European supermarkets can’t launch enough own-brand plant-based foods (UK supermarket behemoth Tesco boasts over 600 items in its line). Note: US supermarkets are behind on this.
Across experiments with a total of 1,587 volunteers, around 35 percent of meat-eaters and 55 percent of vegetarians said that they felt too disgusted by cultured meat to even take a taste.
https://www.sciencealert.com/many-people-seem-disgusted-by-the-thought-of-eating-cultured-meat
CULT Food Science Corp announced that it has been listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) and has begun trading under the ticker symbol ‘CULT’. The Vancouver-based company also said that its portfolio company, MeliBio Inc has provided a commercial update, highlighting its sales, research and development (R&D) pipeline, fundraising, and public relations efforts.
It is thought the total for last year will top £630 million once the final data has been calculated despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Founded in 2020, Trellis Road is a micro venture capital fund focused on investing in the high-impact foodtech sector. The brain child of Anna Ottosson and Erik Byrenius, both previous founders who exited startups, the fund was born out of a desire to support early stage food tech startups that are looking to transform the global food system to make it more sustainable, ethical and healthy. Initially using their own money, the two invested in projects to fast-track their knowledge. Now, two years later, Trellis Road is a fully fledged operation with an $18 million micro fund at its disposal and the fund has invested in 16 startups across four continents.
Starfield says the funding will be used to significantly increase production capacity. R&D capabilities will be improved, too, specifically to enhance taste and texture profiles of plant-based meats. Team expansion, wider marketing, and brand awareness campaigns are all set to be bolstered by the capital investment.
According to the Good Food Institute China’s alternative protein sector is being increasingly better funded to support scale-up and product development. Previous recipients of similar financial allocations in China include solar panel developers and electric vehicle manufacturers. Given that both of the latter industries have become global leaders on the world stage, this is an encouraging sign for the mainland’s growing ecosystem.
The Tokyo-based startup claims its CulNet System “emulates natural animal body endocrine systems to produce cultured serum,” enabling cultivated meat manufacturers — as well as producers in industries such as cosmetics, healthcare, and industrial biochemicals — to effectively make their own growth factors on-site, rather than having to purchase them from external sources.
https://agfundernews.com/integriculture-scores-7m-for-outside-factor-free-cell-ag.html
WayCool Foods, a startup which helps farmers sell their produce to enterprise customers online, has raised $117 million in Series D funding. The Chennai-based startup said it will use the funds to boost its “deeptech” and automation capabilities.
French veggie bacon maker La Vie, formerly known as 77 Foods, has announced a successful Series A funding round totalling €25 million ($28.3M) today. The round, which was led by VC fund Seventures, is the largest single alternative protein raise for a French food tech company to date.
Vegan fried chick*n brand VFC Foods has announced the closure of a successful seed round led by impact VC fund Veg Capital. The £7.5 million (approx. $10.2 million) investment brings the young alt meat company’s total funding to date to £10.5 million. Previous pre-seed funding was also led by animal charity-supporting Veg Capital.
Remilk, founded in 2019, produces milk proteins via a fermentation process that renders them “chemically identical” to those present in cow-produced milk and dairy products.
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