Find here a curated outline of the latest information driven technological innovations in the food industry. We will publish updates to this list regularly in our newsletter. You can sign up here.
All citations from company’s website which is linked to this article.
Agriculture:
Vision Systems and Automation – Case Study – Bowery Farming
Value Promise: “Reimagining farming from the ground up”
Problem: sustainable agriculture and food supply in urban environments
Solution: automated, indoor farms
Commentary: Bowery has developed their own operating system, powered by machine learning, that allows for the optimization of the whole process.
Ingredients and Raw Materials:
Ingredient technology, prebiotics – Case Study – Prenexus
Value Promise: “Prenexus’ flagship prebiotic PRENEXOS™ has been clinically studied and has shown efficacy at 1 gram per day, making it the most versatile prebiotic ever.”
Problem: formulation challenges and efficacy of prebiotics
Solution: clean label, US grown and manufactured, clinically backed, lower dosage
Commentary: they are championing R&D and education about prebiotics.
Plant-based food – Case Study – Notco
Value Promise: “Real Food, Real plant-based food that is f*ng delicious”
Problem: per NotCo eating animal products has negative impacts. Western diet is only using 200 of 300,000 edible plants.
Solution: through the algorithm called Guiseppe they are finding plant combinations to replicated animal products.
Commentary: NotCo has raised over $350M USD per Crunchbase. Series D funding looks at Asia and Europe expansion. The company is originally from Chile.
Cell-based food – Case Study – Good Meat
Value Promise: “Under a microscope, these cells are like the cells in the chicken we eat today and the jungle bird of yesterday. The meat is high in protein and essential amino acids. And it’s entirely free of any genetic modification.”
Problem: the sustainability of meat production with the rise in population and the human driven redefinition of wild spaces
Solution: meat made from a single cell, without disrupting any natural environment or killing any animal
Commentary: Good Meat claims the cells are genetically identical to that of the chicken, and they are not genetically modified.
Bioactive natural compound discovery – Case Study – Brightseed’s Forager
Value Promise: “Brightseed’s Forager® is the first and only artificial intelligence to map the world’s bioactives and predict which of them have the greatest impact on critical health areas. Forager’s discoveries have implications for how we grow, process, and consume plants in order to optimize their natural potency”.
Problem: More than 450,000 living plants, more than 10 million natural compounds, less than 0.1% explored.
Solution: Forager analyzes hundreds of thousands of natural compounds to discover ingredients to improve health.
Commentary: their first discovery supports the health of the liver and hence metabolism.
Nature Based Ingredients – Case Study – Evolva
Value Promise: “A biotech company researching, developing and commercializing nature-based ingredients.”
Problem: an ingredient can represent 0.001% of a plant’s weight. Natural ingredientes are scarce and subject to external factors.
Solution: through biotechnology, Evolva mimics natural ingredients at an affordable price and at any scale.
Commentary: Evolva is publicly traded since 2009, has acquired 4 companies and on 2020 raised CHF12M, per Crunchbase.
Manufacturing:
Robotics as a service – Case Study – PickNik
Value Promise: “PickNik’s mission is to dramatically reduce development time and costs for your advanced robotic applications.”
Problem: long cycle times, non-optimal motion, quality-robustness, technical debt
Solution: custom robotic software built on open source
Commentary: PickNik promotes the use of open source systems. Currently works with two solutions MoveIt and ROS (Robot Operating System). They have robots that assist rapid autonomous harvesting and advances warehouse logistics, amongst many others for different industries.
Supply Chain:
Automated Supply Chain – Case Study – Collectiv Food
Value Promise: “With our unique delivery model, automation and by going direct to the source, we are able to offer market-beating prices and reliable service, all underpinned by a commitment to sustainability.”
Problem: sourcing food to big city kitchens is pricey and unsustainable
Solution: Collectiv Food sources directly from 100’s of producers, directly to London’s professional kitchens
Commentary: per Tech EU, this food distribution platform raised ￡12M
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JD Rico is the founder of Holistics and Partner and Editor of the Digitalist Hub. He is a researcher and entrepreneur in the topics of Business Intelligence, Digital Media and Venture Capital. He holds degrees in Anthropology (BA), Economics (BSc), Project Management- Innovation (MSc), Cultural Studies (Min) and Artificial Intelligence Product and Service Design (Cert.). He serves at the board of companies in Emerging Tech, Wellness, Food Tech and Cultural Impact. He writes Cap∙Hackers, a newsletter for 33,000 business owners and investors.
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