Food Delivery Services: the Challenges of Getting Food to your Front Door

Posted on June 14, 2019June 19, 2019 by Chris Sworder

Direct to consumer (D2C) delivery models have disrupted consumer product industries from books and electronics to retail stores, web services and increasingly food. Online sales of food and beverage growing at 19% year-on-year, making it one of the top five fastest growing online sales sectors in the US. The market size equates to $17.5 billion in 2018 and is expected to rise to $30 billion by 2021. Peapod and Ocado - online food delivery is older than Amazon There are examples of... Read More »

Standout Fundraising Achievement of the Year 2019 awarded to Agtech company

Posted on June 12, 2019June 13, 2019 by Chris Sworder

Ÿnsect, a company that breeds insects for feed and non-food applications was awarded the Fundraising Achievement of the Year 2019 for Europe and Israel. Co-Founder, Alexis Angot, was at the recent Cleantech Forum Europe in Stockholm to collect the award following the impressive $125 million Series C the company announced in February, raised from investors including Astanor Ventures, Demeter, Quadia, Talis Capital, Idinvest Partners, Credit Agricole Brie Picardie, Caisse d'Epargne, Picardie Investissement, Finasucre, Compagnie du Bois Sauvage, Happiness Capital, VisVires... Read More »

Are Indoor Agriculture and Vertical Farming Growing up?

Posted on April 24, 2019May 1, 2019 by Chris Sworder

Urban agriculture and vertical farming, are they viable? There are question marks on efficiency, availability of useful and reasonably priced real estate, and demand for the leafy greens and herbs that are most often the crop of choice. That said, there are several high-profile companies in the U.S. that have been around for several years, e.g. AeroFarms, Plenty, and Bowery, which have raised at total of over $400M. Alongside these farm developers, we are seeing more indoor agriculture-specific technology (see iUNU’s... Read More »

Innovation in Logistics: From a Supply Chain to a Demand Chain

Posted on April 3, 2019April 10, 2019 by Chris Sworder

A massive industry rife with inefficiency, short on data and long on GHG emissions, global logistics represents opportunities for innovation to power it toward a more digitized, de-carbonized and resource-efficient future. Last week Cleantech Group, along with Silicon Valley Bank and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, hosted a Power Breakfast to explore key innovations in the logistics industry. Our speakers included: John Urban, Co-Founder and Former President, GT Nexus Kelly Chen, Principal, Data Collective Earnest Sweat, Investment Manager, Prologis Ventures... Read More »

Food News: Motif Ingredients – Microbes to Meat, the Race is on…

Posted on March 1, 2019March 6, 2019 by Chris Sworder

The news about Ginkgo Bioworks spinning out Motif Ingredients signals an acceleration in the race to create an alternative meat. Plant-based meat has opened the door to consumer acceptance. Now the challenges are overcoming production bottlenecks and improving the taste, feel and versatility of the products. With $90 million of fresh capital, an impressive set of investors and a pedigree from Ginkgo Bioworks, the race is on. Spotlight on burgers Plant-based burgers are making the news, with the latest offerings including the UAE-based... Read More »

Meat Alternatives on the Move

Posted on February 7, 2019February 12, 2019 by Chris Sworder

An FAO estimation says we are on track for a 9 billion-person planet by 2050, and along with the people comes a 50% increased appetite for protein. Traditional protein for human consumption comes from animals and fish, with soy increasingly part of the landscape. The non-traditional or alternative proteins market ($4.2 billion in 2016) is around 1% of the traditional protein market, but is expected to grow more than 25% by 2022. The drivers are both perceived health benefits and... Read More »

Food Safety: From Problems to Opportunities

Posted on January 10, 2019January 23, 2019 by Chris Sworder

Anyone growing, selling or eating food in the US could not have missed what seems like a growing number of recent pathogen outbreaks. There have been two outbreaks of E. coli in romaine lettuce. A cyclosporiasis outbreak was linked back to a McDonald’s restaurant. A badly timed salmonella outbreak affected Thanksgiving turkey products while another salmonella outbreak in ground beef led to the largest food recall in US history as over 12 million pounds were recalled before Christmas. However, despite... Read More »

Fixing Food Waste with Packaging Innovation

Posted on November 29, 2018December 19, 2018 by Chris Sworder

Only two-thirds of food grown makes it to the consumer, at which point up to half of what’s left goes to waste. Innovation in food packaging is an effective way to tackle food waste, as extending shelf life of a product reduces waste throughout the supply chain. We spoke to two innovative companies to understand more about the market: Apeel Sciences and Food Freshness Technology. We discovered that there are three significant drivers for innovation in packaging. The first is reducing... Read More »

What’s New at the Big 3? A Look at the Innovation of Bayer-Monsanto, Corteva, and Syngenta-ChemChina

Posted on November 1, 2018November 12, 2018 by Chris Sworder

We have been speaking to innovation teams from the Big 3 players in plant science, Bayer-Monsanto, Corteva (DowDupont's agricultural business), and Syngenta-ChemChina, to gain insight into their approaches to engaging innovation, how this is changing with the mergers, and where else in the ecosystem they scan for agtech inspiration. Bayer-Monsanto Bayer Growth Ventures will incorporate approaches from both organizations' previous efforts to expand into new areas. Bayer previously focused on collaborations and partnerships, exemplified best by Joyn Bioworks, a joint venture between Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks. Monsanto has a traditional... Read More »

Technological Innovation in Aquaculture

Posted on August 27, 2018August 27, 2018 by Chris Sworder

We need more seafood to meet demand for protein. It took over a generation to industrialize livestock processes, and the environmental and social consequences of that development are being brought into sharp focus. The aquaculture industry is much further back on that curve, with environmental concerns beginning to come to light. Whether it is ecologically damaging aquaculture practices in Southeast Asia or the environmental consequences of large fish escapes or managing problems like sea lice, many factors are driving innovation in... Read More »