What did 2022 cook for us in the Food-tech scene?

Over the past several years, I have established a practice of gathering notable transactions within the industry I’m working in. I’ve made a habit of compiling this information and sharing it with friends and colleagues in the industry. This is what this post is all about. A view of the main deals made in 2022 in the food-tech market, and my take on it (and I’m going to do my best refraining from food-analogies). 

This post focuses on the food-tech market and is based on information that's readily available to the public. My "aha" moments and conclusions are my own, and I'm always eager to hear other perspectives - whether it's through comments, or a chat over coffee, or a beer.

So, let's strap on our snorkels and dive into some of the more interesting deals of 2022:

My database has 221 deals made in the food-tech scene, from which around 100 deals are in the plant-based field, 70 deals are in cell-cultivation, 22 deals in fermentation, and 16 deals are tech-related (others can be related to funds or other sub-segments).

Before we dive too deep, a few interesting insights that came to me from the data:

1. Some food giants are taking a (very) active part in the industry, based on the amount of deals they were involved in, such as ADM (7 deals), Cargill (5 deals), CJ CheilJedang (4 deals), Nestlé (2 deals), and Kerry (2 deals)
2. We see a growing trend towards scaling up operations and experimenting with different models, particularly in the fermentation sector
3. The use of AI technology is making its mark in the industry
4. Asia remains a highly attractive market
5. Interest in Latin America is growing

Why do I say this?

Let’s look at the some of the main deals per segment: 

Cell-cultivation

The cell-cultivation industry has recently seen a major boost with the $400 million funding raised by UPSIDE Foods , led by Temasek and Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Synthesis Capital, Cargill, and Tyson. The announcement mentioned that “This raise will help unlock the industry's biggest opportunities around scale” and to “build a commercial production facility with a planned annual capacity of tens of millions of pounds of cultivated meat products”.

In Asia, there have been partnerships to scale-up production, such as Meatable and Mosa Meat , each signing with ESCO ASTER PTE LTD in Singapore. There is also  Shiok Meats and Minh Phy Seafood, partnering to develop a combined R&D facility for seafood.

We can see other versions of scaling up, with CJ CheilJedang partnering with KCell Biosciences to construct a cell culture media facility in South Korea. We will see more deals coming from CJ CheilJedang, hinting at Korea as a territory becoming a more active player in this field. 

In other regions, Wildtype and Orbillion Bio (YC W21) , partnered with Solaris and Solar Biotech (respectively) to establish large-scale bioreactors for their operations, and SCiFi Foods partnering with Michigan State University to test the scaling of hybrid products. 

There were other deals which got less attention, such as CellulaREvolution, which is a Newcastle University biotech spin-out, which raised $2.38 million, focusing on bio-reactor technologies. This is interesting as we don’t see many start-ups operating in this field (a shout-out to Ark ).

Another interesting deal is the partnership between Tnuva , one of Israel’s largest food companies, and Pluristem Therapeutics, forming a JV in the field. This is interesting as Tnuva is making a direct move, not linked to FRESH START FoodTech Incubator IL , the food-tech incubator it is a stakeholder in.

Fermentation

Exciting developments in the field of fermentation are taking place as we witness a growing trend of partnerships aimed at scaling up operations. ADM has joined forces with Nurasa , formerly Asia Sustainable Foods, to form ScaleUp Bio, the first company in Singapore to offer precision fermentation services for the food industry. This strategic move positions ADM as a leading provider of scale-up services for startups and the industry in Asia.

In addition, Liberation Labs has received a $27 million investment to serve as a contract manufacturing organization for companies looking to scale up, while Planetary has secured an $8.1 million for similar services. These investments are further fueling the growth of the fermentation industry.

Plant based

The race to scale up operations continues here too, as ADM partners with Benson Hill to expand their ultra-high protein soy offerings for North American food ingredient markets. This collaboration further strengthens ADM's position in the soy supply chain.

On the other side of the ring, Cargill has joined forces with Fuji Nihon Seito Corporation to drive innovation and bring food ingredient solutions to the Japan and Asia-Pacific markets. This partnership is a testament to the growing appeal of the Asia-Pacific region as a hub for the food industry.

Tech

When we look at cross-industry tech-related deals, we can really call it: AI, as the food industry is embracing AI as a key player in their technological advancements.

One company doing a lot of work around this is NotCo , which raised $70 million to create a new B2B platform, to give manufacturers, ingredient companies and tech providers the opportunity to use NotCo’s Giuseppe platform. NotCo also entered into a JV with giant Kraft Heinz to establish Kraft Heinz Not Company, to develop a global plant-based AI portfolio where NotCo’s AI system will be charged with uncovering new plant-based formulations for future Kraft Heinz products.

ICL Food Specialties has also teamed up with Protera to use AI to create new protein ingredients, and New Harvest and Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) are exploring the potential of AI and machine learning in the development of lab-grown meat.

An earlier stage company out of Israel, BioRaptor has raised $3 million to provide AI-based insights to scientists and companies. 

On a different note, CJ CheilJedang has partnered with Start Life to bring European innovations to the global market, further solidifying Korea's place in the food-tech scene. And on the other side of the world, Givaudan , Cargill, and Buhler have also joined forces with Food Tech Hub Latam and the Institute of Food Technology to establish a food innovation center in Campinas, Brazil, opening up opportunities in the Latin American market. 

Summary

2022 was a year of production scale-up and expansion into new supply chains and geographic regions. Production scale-up and AI will bring the industry to the era of operations scale-up, not only production: How do companies in the industry scale in a smart and cost-effective manner, and maintain this over time as the industry grows to a mature stage of rolling out commercial products. What’s for sure is that the  industry will continue to cook up new and exciting things for us to chew on, figuratively and literally ! (sorry, couldn't’ help it)