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Podcast: Why Are CPG Brands Freaking Out About Ozempic?
On this week’s Spoon Podcast, SuperGut CEO Marc Washington joins me to talk about why new GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy keep CPG brand CEOs up at night. These new drugs, which got their start as a new class of pharmaceuticals that help control type 2 diabetes, have become very popular in recent years as weight loss miracle drug. They are hugely effective in suppressing appetites and reducing the overall calorie intake of those taking them, so much so that some speculate that they could have a significant impact on the overall demand for food if, as predicted, tens of millions begin to take them in coming years as prices come down and they become available in more accessible formats.
Amazon’s Roving Robot Gets a Job. Will Restaurants & Retail Bite?
In 2021, Amazon surprised company watchers when it rolled out a house-roving robot named Astro. At launch, Amazon’s cute little robot was primarily intended for domestic duties, helping out as a home security and as a roaming Alexa speaker. Reception was tepid, however, mainly because the robot didn’t seem...
Restaurants Offering Subscriptions Up 54% Over Past Year According to Square
According to a new report from payment processing company Square, the number of restaurants offering some form of active subscription plan to its customers has grown by 54% over the past year. These subscriptions – anything from a wine club to a taco lover’s pass – have become increasingly popular (among some, at least) in recent years as restaurants look for ways to create more stable revenue through automated payments and increase customer loyalty.
Sold! Mystery Company Acquires Assets of Beverage Printing Startup Cana
Perusing the website of the Production Board earlier this week, I noticed the company that gave birth to the Cana beverage printer listed the business as “sold.”. Interesting, but not surprising. Cana, which ran into trouble trying to raise funding to build out its hardware and consumables production line, created quite a buzz the past couple of years and had filed for a bunch of IP before closing its doors this spring, so the chance to pick up the assets for a song could be a potentially intriguing prospect for a big CPG or tech brand.
Cafe X’s Robot Barista is Now Slinging Coffee in Tesla’s Berlin Giga Factory
This week, Cafe X CEO Henry Hu retweeted Elon Musk, who had tweeted out a video showcasing a flythrough video of Giga Berlin. The reason? Tesla’s newest Giga Factory serves coffee and tea using one of Hu’s robotic coffee shops. While the robot barista’s arms are painted red...
Bear Brings Its Robots To Hospitals Through Partnership With Sodexo
When John Ha started Bear Robotics, he was a computer scientist with a restaurant side hustle who thought he might make the lives of his servers easier through automation technology. Since then, his robots have shown up in restaurants across the globe to lift some of the burden of physically demanding restaurant service jobs.
Drone Delivery Operator Flytrex Receives FAA Go Ahead to Fly Without Visual Observers
Drone delivery startup Flytrex and its partner Causey Aviation Unmanned (CAU) announced today they have been granted an exemption by the FAA to operate drones ‘Beyond Visual Line of Sight’ (BVLOS) without the requirement of visual observers. The newly acquired authorization enables both companies to scale their delivery...
Key Takeaways From The First-Ever Food AI Summit
Last week, we convened some of the leading voices in AI and food at the inaugural Food AI Summit in Alameda, California, to discuss how this technology is transforming the food industry. The conversation spanned the entire food system, examining the impact of AI on farming, food development, restaurants, personal...
Cow NFT Platform CattlePay Paves the Way for Direct Sales With Heartland Deal
The last time we checked in with Rob Jennings of CattleProof, he was getting his cattle NFT platform off the ground. The idea was to create a permanent record of the life of a cow that followed it along the supply chain so that current and prospective owners all the way to a restaurant down the line that purchased beef would have a record of age, genetics, ranch of origin and more.
Want to Try AI-Powered Cheese & Sausage? Join Us on October 25th at the Food AI Summit
Next week at the Food AI Summit, you’ll have a chance to find out! That’s because not only will we have sessions by founders, inventors, and executives exploring how to bring food to our plates using the latest in artificial intelligence, but we’ll also get a chance to taste it!
Pitchbook: Food Tech VC Deals Inch Up After Receding For the Past Two Years
Like many segments across the venture investment landscape, the food tech sector has seen a significant pullback in investment over the past couple of years. However, according to a new report from Pitchbook, there are early signs that investors who have kept on the sidelines may slowly be pushing their chips back on the table.
Elo Health Partners With Nourished For Launch of 3D Printed Gummy Supplements
This week, Elo Health, a personalized nutrition startup, has partnered with UK-based Nourished to offer Elo customers an option to take their personalized supplements in gummy form. The new partnership, which will allow Elo customers to replace up to 7 pills with a single 3D-printed gummy as part of a...
Three Years After CES Debut, ColdSnap Readies Launch of Countertop Ice Cream Making Appliance
Nearly three years after it stole the show at CES 2021 with its countertop ice cream machine, ColdSnap has readied itself for a commercial rollout of its system this fall. In a recent blog post, the company shared a glimpse of the product’s development over the past few years, detailing its pod production capacity expansion, the development of its production partner ecosystem, and the continuing refinement of the ColdSnap machine itself.
A Conversation With BioCraft On Building an AI to Accelerate Cultured Meat Development
Over the past few years, companies in food tech product development have begun to utilize machine learning and other AI techniques to accelerate the development of their products. One of those companies is Biocraft, a company focused on developing pet food utilizing cultured meat as its primary protein input. The...
Survey: Parasite & Mercury-Free Fish Are Key Attributes of Cell-Cultured Seafood According to Sushi Eaters
According to a report published by cell-cultured seafood startup BluNalu, consumers value the absence of parasites and mercury in cell-cultured seafood, especially among those who frequently eat sushi. The data, sourced from a survey conducted by a market research specialist in 2022 and featured in a comprehensive report by BluNalu this week, displays how consumers prioritize specific qualities of cell-cultured seafood, like BluNalu’s toro tuna.
As Online Grocery Sales Flatten Post-Pandemic, Shoppers Lock In on Pick-Up as Preferred Method
As the world continues to normalize and behaviors regress to the mean post-pandemic, online grocery shopping is no different. According to a new report from online grocery research firm Bricks Meets Click, online grocery shopping in the U.S. dropped 3.1% in September vs last year, going from $7.8 billion in September 2022 to $7.5 billion this year.
Ben Leventhal Discusses Raising $24M for Web3 Restaurant Loyalty Platform, Blackbird
This week, Blackbird, a startup building a Web3-powered restaurant loyalty platform, announced it had raised a $24 million Series A funding round led by a16z’s crypto team with participation from Amex Ventures and Bolt by QED, among others. With the news, the company lifted the curtain around its platform...
We Must Still Define Regenerative Agriculture
This guest post was written by Nate Crosser, J.D., is a food and agriculture technology investor. Imagine a sandwich that actually made you – and the world – healthier by virtue of making it. This dream is held by hard-nosed ranchers, coastal vegans, corporate types, and hippy homesteaders alike. The term they often use to describe the dream is “regenerative agriculture.” Leo DiCaprio even has a venture capital fund that evokes the term. Surely we can’t all want the same thing for once, right?
As More Tech Comes to the Drive-Thru, Will Consumers Agree to T&Cs Regarding Their Privacy?
Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a flood of new technology making its way into the restaurant customer experience in everything ranging from mobile ordering apps to digital touch screens. And now, with perhaps the biggest wave of new technology yet, we’re seeing new ways in which restaurants will use tech to reinvent the customer drive-thru experience.
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The Spoon provides daily reporting and insight into the food tech revolution. We talk to the innovators, disruptors and creators helping to reinvent food, cooking and the kitchen and bring those conversations to you in the form of interviews, deep dive analysis, newsletters, podcasts and videos
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