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- FoodTech Weekly #238 by Daniel S. Ruben
FoodTech Weekly #238 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
March 21, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes
#238
Hi there,
I was recently sent a bottle of the world’s first commercial batch of orange juice that had been sugar-reduced using an innovation from Israeli startup BlueTree Technologies. Their tech removes naturally occurring sugars (disaccharides) while preserving taste and nutritional value.
The company says it can cut total sugar in orange juice by 50%, in pineapple juice by 60%, in milk by 75%, and in beer by 100%. I find this tech pretty cool. The OJ that I drank had 33% less sugar, and tasted great. BlueTree raised $2.2M last year, and is already in full commercial production.
BlueTree orange juice, with 33% less sugar
What else is new? I provided some reflections on the AgriFoodTech investment landscape to Forward Fooding ahead of their FoodTech 500 launch (more on that below).
❗Oh, one more thing! I’m Future Food curator for THE HEAT (Sept 19, 2025 at Harwell Science Campus in Oxford, U.K.). We’re looking for cutting-edge food startups to exhibit at this fantastic ClimateTech festival (it’s not a conference, it’s a festival where founders, investors, and creative thinkers in ClimateTech convene for idea-sharing, networking, and celebrating innovation). Check out this video from last year’s event, which was a blast.
All startups at the festival get a free booth/stand to showcase their work. Startups providing substantial free food samples may also receive a free event ticket. All others can use the code DANIELFRIEND for a 20% ticket discount. Get in touch!
This week's rundown:
💵 GigaCrop banks $4.5M for tech boosting photosynthesis
😳 None of the 20 top food retailers have set methane emissions reduction targets
🍳 The U.S. asks Denmark to send eggs, amid a major shortage. Qu'ils mangent de la brioche…
Let's go!
💰 Funding
🇬🇧 UK AgTech startup Elaniti has closed a funding round, backed by Biotope Incubator by VIB, Planetary Impact Ventures and PINC. The company is launching a digital decision tool that uses AI and DNA sequencing to decode the microbial composition of soil. This allows farmers to optimize productivity while reducing reliance on synthetic inputs.
🇮🇹 Biorsaf, which develops digital solutions for food quality and safety, has closed a €1.4M ($1.5M) funding round joined by Maia Ventures, Farming Future, CDP Venture Capital, ToSeed & Partners and Fondo Toscana Next.
🇬🇧 Bioniq, which provides personalized supplements based on blood biomarker data, has scored €1M ($1.1M) in new funding from football player Diogo Dalot. This follows a 2024 investment by Cristiano Ronaldo, and a €13.7M ($14.8M) Series B led by HV Capital and Unbound.
🇺🇸 GigaCrop has harvested $4.5M in pre-seed funding led by Playground Global. The company uses machine learning and enzyme engineering to improve photosynthesis, aiming to double crop yields.
🇸🇪 Hooked, which develops plant-based alternatives to meat and fish, has reeled in SEK 8.4M ($830K) in a mix of equity investment from local angels and debt/grants from EIT Foods and other EU institutional backers. In total, the company has raised over SEK 56M ($5.6M) (full disclosure: I’m an advisor to Hooked).
Hooked Foods
🎙️ Investment Climate: Ali Wing of Oobli shares how to get funded in 2025
This week, Alex Shandrovsky met with Ali Wing, CEO of Oobli, a scaleup that brings sweet proteins to replace sugars in our food. Oobli recently raised a $18M Series B from Ingredient Ventures, Coastal Ventures, and PIVA.
Top three findings from this conversation:
Regulatory Approvals Create Investor Confidence. OoblI secured two "no questions" letters from regulatory agencies, which was a major factor in gaining investor trust and landing commercial agreements. Investors wanted proof that the product was not only novel but also scalable and legally approved for sale. "We were definitely the first movers and people were paying attention, but that doesn't necessarily mean somebody thinks you're ready to scale.”
B2C2B Model: Using a Consumer Product to De-Risk B2B Adoption. Oobli launched its own chocolate products as an educational tool to introduce consumers to sweet proteins while simultaneously building confidence among corporate partners. This de-risked adoption for CPG companies by proving consumer acceptance and product viability: " The whole idea that proteins don't just build muscle, but can sweeten, is a pretty new concept. So we put a high sort of bar on the brand that we have to help CPGs derisk their adoption of using sweet proteins by having consumers understand proteins can sweeten.
Speak the Language of Your Customers & Investors. If you're in FoodTech, stop talking about fermentation yields—instead, show how your product makes financial sense for the companies that will buy it. " What we do really well is we don't spend a lot of time pitching our customer pipelines or investors. We talk about COGS and our ability to deliver margin. And that's really the CPGs world, right? So I will always speak in terms of their language," Ali emphasized.
🧐 Noteworthy
🏆 Forward Fooding just launched their annual FoodTech 500 ranking, the ‘Fortune 500’ of AgriFoodTech. Also check out their new white paper, here.
🌡️ A new report by the Changing Markets Foundation and Mighty Earth has found that none of the top 20 food retailers globally — including Ahold Delhaize, Carrefour, Lidl, Tesco, and Walmart — report on their methane emissions or have set methane emissions reduction targets.
🥩 The South Korean government is investing $10M to open a 2,600 sq. m (28K sq. ft.) cultivated meat research center, in Uiseong-gun, a city in the Gyeongsangbuk-do province. The new Food Tech Research Support Center is slated to open in 2027, and is part of the country’s FoodTech drive, Green Queen reports.
🥛 Biohacker Bryan Johnson (known from e.g. Netflix documentary Don’t Die) wants to start foodome sequencing, testing 20% of foods that constitute 80% of the American diet (note: he should just check out Periodic Table of Food Initiative, which is already up and running).
🤖 As Japan is struggling with a massive labor shortage, the service robot market in e.g. the foodservice and aged care sectors is expected to triple in the next five years. By 2040 the country will face a 11M people labor shortage. The restaurant chain Skylark for example uses around 3,000 cat robots that help e.g. carry heavy plates of food to guests.
🌍 How gum arabic, a key ingredient in e.g. M&Ms and Coca-Cola, is smuggled from war-torn Sudan.
🏪 Tesco is running a pilot giving away unsold food for free after 9:30pm in select Express stores in an effort to cut food waste (h/t FoodHack).
🥛 Milk is headed for its strangest year yet.
💡 Shane Thomas has written some great takeaways from World AgriTech Innovation Summit, on investor sentiments, exit potentials, and more. And don’t miss this long but great conversation between Rhishi Pethe and Mark Brooks, ex-CVC at FMC, on whether AgTech is truly VC backable.
🫰 Novo Nordisk Foundation’s obesity head works as paid adviser to chocolate maker Ferrero, the Financial Times reports.
🌍 News from the FoodTech Weekly community
👨🏻💻 EAT, together with Antler, Katapult and Norrsken, has launched Global Call for Startups, a global competition for start-ups that drive the food system transformation. Based on the EAT-Lancet scientific framework for healthy and sustainable diets and adding a commercial lens, the initiative is set to identify pre-seed to series A ventures from across the world that can accelerate the change to a healthy, sustainable and just food system. Winners will be invited to pitch at the EAT Stockholm Food Forum 3-4 October, unlocking investor networks, residency opportunities and global support from Antler, Katapult and Norrsken. Startups are asked to submit their business plans before April 30, 2025.
Global Call for Startups
🇨🇭 HackSummit returns to Lausanne on May 15-16, bringing together top Climate Builders, Investors, Scientists, and Operators to double down on Climate DeepTech. Across two action-packed days, expect game-changing talks, rapid-fire pitches, hands-on workshops, and city-wide side events to accelerate investment into impact. Save 20% with discount code FOODTECHWEEKLY when you book your place.
🇫🇮 The 12-Week BioBoosters Accelerator Programme 2025 application period is open in March — apply now.
🇫🇮 AgriVenture Finland, The Nordic's largest agrifoodtech event, is coming — bigger than ever — on May 27-28, 2025, at Bioeconomy Campus, Saarijärvi, Central Finland! Register now (tickets are free).
✔️ Startup UpManure is seeking legal verification in the key regions of Texas (USA) and Brazil to assess the regulatory status of using their innovative technology to process chicken litter/manure into a protein feed ingredient for fish, pigs, and/or cattle. They aim to identify markets where their protein product can be legally introduced with minimal risk of “long legal processes”. Read their Request-for-Proposal here.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
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🎲 Random Stuff
☀️ The amount of new solar power added worldwide could jump from 177% from 2022 to 2025 cumulatively, a nearly 3x increase in three years (h/t: Azeem Azhar). On the same theme:
💸 What it’s like to plan a $50K party for a 5-year-old (h/t Nordic9).
👮 A U.S. 4-year-old called 911, wanting his mother jailed for eating his ice cream. The police showed up.
🍽️ Automatic dish-cleaning contraption. I need this.
🥚 The U.S. has reached out to Denmark and other European nations asking if they can export eggs, among surging U.S. egg prices. Cue memes:
I love you.
Daniel
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🎵 This issue was produced while listening to Mirrors by Justin Timberlake.
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