FH Ventures: 3 Winning Pitches, 2 New Portfolio co's

Hey Hackers,

Yesterday marked the close of our second edition of the FoodHack Demo Day.

26 startups came to pitch what they’re building and their raises - in just 2 minutes.

After a round of pitching and Q&A from the judges - 3 startups were selected as the batch highlights.

Find info on them and their current rounds below in today’s edition of FH Ventures.

The 3 selected Demo Day startups inc.

🍭 Inulox (Highest impact potential)

HQ: United Kingdom 🇬🇧Raising: £1.5M GBPStatus: Lead CommittedPitch: "Inulox is developing an active food ingredient that converts 30% of ingested sugar from foods into a vegetable fibre after consumption, without compromising the taste or texture. We believe Inulox can have a real impact on widespread consumer health, while helping CPGs achieve their innovation goals."Traction: 

• Pre-seed funding raised (2021).

• Proof of concept achieved.

• Validated in two different gold standard gut models.

• Consistent activity across a range of sugar and enzyme concentrations.

• Performance validated with off the shelf milk chocolate.

• Filed PCT application and confirm freedom to operate (FTO).

Competition: Better Juice, Lamu, Supplant, Doux Matok, Bonumose, Joywell Foods, CAMBYA, BiolumenLearn More / View Deck / Request Intro (sign up/sign in required)

 🍄 Bosque Foods (Most likely to oversubscribe)

HQ: Germany 🇩🇪Raising: €1M EUR Status: Lead CommittedPitch: "Bosque Foods is a biotech company on a mission to create the next generation of meat alternatives grown naturally from mycelium. We are creating clean-label, minimally-processed whole-cuts like 'chicken' and 'pork' fillets that deliver on the entire taste experience and nutrition without compromise."Traction:

• Achieved proof of concept of unique solid-state fermentation method.

• Optimised fermentation process to double efficiency.

• Cultivated our first edible fungal strains.

• Developed next generation of product formulations.

• Developed and debuted several initial flagship products, including chicken and pork alternatives

Competition:  AtLast Food Co, Meati, Nature's Fynd, Prime Roots, Quorn, Chunk Foods, Redefine Meat, MushLabs, Libre FoodsLearn More / View Deck / Request Intro (sign up/sign in required)

🍝 Hyfé Foods (Best overall pitch)

HQ: United States 🇺🇸Raising: $1.5M USDStatus: Newly opened - Searching LeadPitch: "Using fungi to produce low-carb, protein-rich foods from wasted food-industry side streams. Hyfé Foods is starting by producing healthy flour-product alternatives, where every pound of Hyfé flour diverts five pounds of CO2e from being emitted, and will later use the same fermentation platform to enter different product categories in the $764B health and wellness foods market."Traction: 

• Letter of intent from Freshly, who delivers 700K meals per week in the US and ~1/3 are pasta meals.

• Speaking invitations at Future of Food SXSW, Fermentation Enabled Alternative Proteins conference, UN Women Chicago.

• FoodHack Demo Day 2022 winner 🙌

Competition: Mycorena, The Protein Brewery, Enough Foods, The Better Meat CoLearn More / View Deck / Request Intro (sign up/sign in required)

7 Runner-ups:

🌿 Biotic/Bio-circular - Fully biodegradable polymer (PHBV) from marine biomass.

 🥚 Evo Foods - Affordable and delcious plant-based eggs made from Indian crops.

🥛 Opalia - Making whole milk from mammary cells.

🌱 ProProtein - Producing dairy proteins from yeast, without cows.

 🍦 FairFlavor Foods - Plant-based cheeses, gelatos and desserts with a unique creaminess and mouthfeel.

🌿 FlexSea - Fully compostable bioplastic from seaweed.

🍭 Ambrosia Bio - Converting common sugars into low-calorie rare sugars and dietary fibers.

2 New Portfolio Startups 🙌

Excited to share the news of two of our latest investments from the FoodHack Syndicate !

Together with a great group of FoodTech focussed angels - we took part in the Seed rounds of both MeliBio (animal-free honey) and Plantish (alternative whole cut seafoods) alongside some of our favorite VC's in this space. If you want to join in future round of leading FoodTech co's as an angel investor - you can apply to join the FoodHack Syndicate here.

🍯 Melibio (FoodHack Demo Day 21 winner!)

What: "The company was founded to offer an alternative to commercial honey and claims to have created an identical product that won’t add to any biodiversity loss and can alleviate honey production’s impact on the climate crisis."

Raised: $5.7M Seed raised in a round led by Astanor Ventures with participation from XRC Labs, Collaborative Fund, Siddhi Capital, Red Bridge Ventures, VegCapital, FoodHack (aka: HackVentures) & more.

Further reading: Green Queen, TechCrunch.

Fun fact: MeliBio was our first ever investment right out of the FoodHack Oct' 2021 Demo Day!

🐟 Plantish (Featured here in edition #51)

What: "The Israeli company is only a year old, but has already tackled the structure of the whole cut with its first product, Plantish salmon which, mimics cooked salmon in taste, texture, appearance and structure, and has similar nutritional value of high protein and Omega-3."

Further reading: Food Navigator, TechCrunch

Raised: $12.5M Seed raised in a round led by State of Mind Ventures and joined by Pitango Health Tech, Unovis, TechAviv Founder Partners, SmartAgro, E2JDJ, Alumni Ventures, FoodHack Syndicate and OurCrowd.

Fun fact: Plantish CEO Ofek Ron is also the FoodHack Tel Aviv ambassador ! His first event last Sunday brought over 200 attendees! 

Good Reads / Graphics 👀

• Supply Chain Pains: Really good read about Oatly and their production/supply chain woes. Very in detail. Shows how KEY supply chain is, and how important it is to have that sorted out in tandem with marketing/brand building.

• Gas Fermentation: Whether they’re utilising carbon dioxide, hydrogen or methane, a small but not insignificant cohort of companies are now using natural gases, which occur all around us, to make food. More in our latest FoodHack+ Report inc. an interview with Arkeon Biotechnologies founder/CEO.

• Cultivated Samplings: The Netherlands’ House of Representatives has passed a motion to legalise the sampling of cultivated meat, in a step that’s being hailed as key towards legalisation for commercialisation.

Meet IRL 👋

• FoodHack Summit: We just released another batch of 30 early bird tickets to the FoodHack Summit in May. Come join 499 others including the founders of Oatly, Astanor, Infarm, QOA, BIOMILQ. Grab one of the last early bird tickets here.

Bit of Fun 😂

Same goes for VC's when brining on LP's - am I rite?

Thanks for reading today's edition, 

And until next time,

p.s. this edition was written between the slopes of the Swiss mountains at our team offsite - so please excuse any typos or abbreviations.

Arman Anatürk

Co-Founder & CEO @FoodHack (HackVentures)Disclaimer: ‍Investing in startups and early stage businesses involves risks, including illiquidity, lack of dividends, loss of investment and dilution. This communication is intended for experienced investors, with sufficient experience and knowledge to understand the processes and risks involved. Do your DD, make your own decisions, invest aware, your capital is at risk.