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It Looks Like Betterland Foods, Maker of Candy & Milk With Animal-Free Whey, Has Shut Down
It appears that Betterland Foods, a startup launched last year to create dairy and chocolate using Perfect Day’s precision fermented animal-free whey, has closed its doors, The Spoon has learned. Sources close to the company have told The Spoon that Betterland closed down earlier this year. The websites for...
Food Tech Founders Navigate Turbulence of SVB Collapse & Subsequent Fed Intervention
If you’ve ever traveled overseas when big news happens at home, it can feel disorienting. I felt that to a certain degree last week when The Spoon team was in Europe to attend the HIP conference in Spain and to travel to the Basque Culinary Center. Like many of you, I was trying to keep on top of the news about SVB’s collapse and wondering whether the bank’s collapse would lead to a 2008-like contagion, but all the while doing so from a different time zone and a foreign country.
Food Rocket Comes Down To Earth As Yet Another Speedy Grocery Startup Closes Its Doors
It seems almost a lifetime ago when, in 2021, a gaggle of ultra-fast grocery store startups with interesting names like GoPuff and Gorillas raised gonzo amounts of cash. We all know what happened since the go-go funding days of the quick grocery boom. While I wouldn’t call last year’s pullback a canary in the coal mine, it was one of the first segments in the broader food tech market to send a signal that the era of easy money ended.
Video Sessions: Food Robotics Outlook 2023
Last week, we brought together experts, investors, operators, and inventors to hear what will happen in the food robotics marketplace in 2023 and beyond. We heard from Benson Tsai, who after leaving his job at SpaceX started building a pizza robot. Four years later, he's dishing up pizzas every day at USC.
‘It’s Tough for Robotic Companies’: VCs Talk About the Funding Landscape for Food Automation
It’s not a secret that the tech industry is going through a challenging time when it comes to venture capital. The food tech sector is no exception, and, according to Vebu Labs managing partner Buck Jordan, food robotics has been hit especially hard. “It’s tough for robotic companies,” said...
Food Tech Weekly: Restaurant Subscriptions, DeSci + Food, Microreactor-Powered Unagi
Is it me, or does every restaurant have a subscription program nowadays?. Some, like Panera, have been at it for years, but last year seemed to be when restaurants caught membership fever. Taco Bell kicked off 2022 by announcing its Taco Pass. Soon after, Subway launched its subscription for half-price footlongs to its 10 thousand biggest fans. P.F. Chang’s soon joined the party with its points-driven Platinum program.
Umami Meats Partners with TripleBar to Accelerate Cell Line Development for Cultivated Fish
Triplebar, a biotechnology company, and Umami Meats, a cultivated seafood company, have signed a letter of intent to collaborate on developing cell lines for sustainable cultivated seafood, starting with the Japanese eel according to a release sent to The Spoon. Triplebar utilizes a microfluidics platform that it says can process...
This Beloved Pizza Joint is Reinventing Itself With Robotics and a $149-a-Year Subscription Program
Andrew Simmons and Wayne Stadler acquired Mamma Rosa’s Italian restaurant in January 2020. The two, which cofounded a restaurant delivery service startup called Orange Crate, had learned through social media the restaurant’s owner, Mindy Arbaca, was planning on closing the beloved restaurant’s doors and quickly convinced her to sell it to them.
Podcast: How the DeSci Movement Will Change The World of Food
Don’t feel bad if you don’t, especially if, like me, food is your primary focus. A16Z’s publication Future describes DeSci as a movement in which “a growing number of scientists and entrepreneurs are leveraging blockchain tools, including smart contracts and tokens, in an attempt to improve modern science. Collectively, their work has become known as the decentralized science movement, or DeSci.”
After Years of Building His Robot, Stellar Pizza Founder is Having Fun Dishing Pies to USC Students
Back in 2019, Benson Tsai decided to attend a food robotics conference. The engineer had spent the last five years working for Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, applying what he had learned about battery technology as a member of the technical staff for electric vehicle startup Lucid Motors to space travel, but now he had a vague idea of launching a new startup that builds food robots.
Japan Prime Minister Wants to Develop Cultivated Meat Industry To Help Create Sustainable Food Supply
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced plans to start developing Japan’s cellular agriculture industry with the aim of producing cultivated meat and fish, according to a story published today by the Japan news bureau, Nikkei. “We will develop the environment to create a new market, such as efforts to...
Vertical Farmer Oishii Doubles Down on Unique Japanese Varietals With the Introduction of the Koyo
Vertical farming startup Oishii has introduced another strawberry cultivar, The Koyo Berry, which will join the brand’s Omakase Berry offering introduced in 2018. The Koyo Berry is a Japanese varietal grown outside Tokyo during winter. The berries will be grown first in Oishii’s east coast vertical farms, which use advanced robotics and traditional Japanese farming methods to produce the fruit. The Koyo Berry will be available through online grocer FreshDirect in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut for $15 MSRP per tray. The product is expected to expand to other markets, including Los Angeles, later this year.
Vertical Farmer Plenty Announces $1B Financing Deal With REIT Reality Income
Vertical farming company Plenty has entered into a strategic alliance with REIT Realty Income to fund Plenty’s vertical farm development. Under the agreement, Realty Income will acquire and provide development funding for properties that will house Plenty’s indoor farms, which will be leased to Plenty under long-term net leases. The agreement provides for up to $1 billion of development opportunities.
Is Kiwibot’s Sale & Leaseback Deal a Way For Food Tech Startups to Traverse the Venture Capital Winter?
Interesting bit of news today from sidewalk delivery robot startup Kiwibot: The company announced it has signed a $10 million financing deal in the form of a sale and leaseback arrangement with Kineo Finance, an asset financing company based in Switzerland. According to company founder Felipe Chavez, the deal is...
This Finnish Company Uses Radio Waves to Monitor and Reduce Dairy Waste
Dairy plants around the world are facing a new set of challenges as they grapple with rising raw milk costs and increasing pressure to reduce their carbon footprints as plant-based competitors try to draw a contrast with animal milk. A Finnish startup named Collo wants to help on both fronts using what it describes as liquid fingerprint technology.
Do You Have Thoughts on the Impact of Robotics & AI on The Food Biz? Fill Out Our Survey!
Last week, The Spoon hosted an insight-filled day talking with founders and operators about how new technology like generative AI will change the food business. And next week, we’ll bring together investors, restaurant operators, and technology builders to get a pulse on the state of the food robotics market.
Belgian Precision Fermentation Specialist Paleo Raises €12m Series A
Belgian precision fermentation company Paleo has secured €12m in a Series A funding round the company announced today. The round was led by DSM Venturing and Planet A Ventures, alongside Gimv, SFPIM Relaunch, Beyond Impact, and Siddhi Capital. According to the release, the funding will be used to scale...
Picnic CEO Departs Just Weeks After Pizza Robot Startup Has Significant Layoffs
Clayton Wood, the CEO of pizza robot maker Picnic, is departing the company, according to a post made by Wood on Linkedin. Wood joined the company – originally named Otto Robotics and Vivid Robotics before it eventually settled on Picnic – in 2019 after it parted ways with its founding CEO, Garett Ochs. Since then, Wood has led Picnic through significant growth and a couple of funding rounds.
Video Sessions: How ChatGPT & Generative AI Will Change The Food Biz
Here they are, the full video replays of the Spoon's recent mini-summit, How ChatGPT & Generative AI Will Change The Food Biz. This insight-filled summit included four panels covering the impact of generative AI on the restaurant industry, novel protein innovation, customer service, and more. Each session will include a link to a transcript from Otter.AI.
Miyoko’s Creamery Parts Ways With Namesake Founder, Sues for Stolen IP
Last week, it came to light that pioneering vegan cheese entrepreneur Miyoko Schinner had not only parted ways with her namesake company, but that the split between the founder and the company she started had turned acrimonious with Miyoko’s Creamery suing Schinner for stealing company information, including the formulations for some of the brand’s products.
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