FH Ventures: 5 New Deals + 1 New Fund

If you didn't log into Linkedin yesterday - you probably missed the "Our food system is broken" campaign that took over users feed for an hour.

Yep - that was us.

But one word from the campaign has been a bit of a trigger for some - so what do we mean when we say "broken"?

We all know of the problems within our food system, that's hopefully why we're building or investing in this sector to begin with.

As a reminder: 25% of GHGe, 70% of freshwater use, 50% of the world's habitable land use, skyrocketing diabetes cases, unfairly distributed earnings, etc, etc.

But broken could also be replaced with "sub-optimal". As one Linkedin commentor pointed out - the food system isn't broken, it's working the way we set it up to.

Still, it's our belief that this system is outdated, and needs rebuilding.

Why grow crops horizontally when we can grow vertically? Why raise and kill cattle when we can make plant or cultivated equivalents? Why waste so much water and cocoa for a bar of chocolate when we can just grow it in bioreactors? Why isn't everyone paid fairly irrespective of where in the supply chain are?

In short: wether it's sub-optimal or broken - the language doesn't matter. What matters now is that we look for, fund or build the solutions that can re-shape our food system for the better.

That and of course some policy work - but I'm really not the guy to speak to about that.

Come join us at the Summit in May to hear from actual experts in this space. Day 1 focuses on challenges. Day 2 focuses on solutions. Day 3 is recovering from hangovers.

Onto 5 new deals of the week

👨‍🔬 Greencovery

HQ: Netherlands Raising: €2M EUR - Valuation: €8M EURExisting investors: Oterap BV. (angel investor) Status: Looking for leadFounders: Carlos Cabrera, Juan Cajiao

Pitch: "Greencovery upcycles valuable ingredients from food companies side-streams. We work together with side-stream suppliers to valorize valuable ingredients such as amino acids and proteins from their streams."

Traction:

• Multiple applications and ingredients tested in the market and paid by side-stream owners.

• Production of first 1 ton-scale campaign for the commercialization of first ingredient.

• Additional ingredients being tested by ingredients partners and end applications.

Competition: Evergrain Ingredients, Agrosingularity, Legria, Regrained, KernTec, Fooditive (featured below), Kaffee Bueno, ADM, Ajinomoto Mitsubishi ingredients, Cargill and others.

Learn More / View Deck / Request Intro (sign up/sign in required)

♻️ Fooditive B.V. 

HQ: NetherlandsRaising: €6.5M EUR - Valuation: €21M EURExisting investors: not disclosedStatus: Newly OpenedFounders: Moayad AbushokhedimPitch: "Fooditive aims to make healthy food affordable for everyone. This is however done through valorising and upcycling side-streams, normalizing a circular economy and by using innovative and sustainable procedures."Traction: 

• Multiple applications and ingredients tested in the market and paid by side-stream owners.

• Production of first 1 ton-scale campaign for the commercialization of first ingredient.

• Additional ingredients being tested by ingredients partners and end applications.

Competition: Cargill, DSM, Dupont, ADM, Christian Hansen.Learn More / View Deck / Request Intro (sign up/sign in required)

🧫 Micro Meat (YC'S21)

HQ: MexicoRaising: $2M USD - Valuation: $13M USDExisting investors: SVLC, Y CombinatorStatus: Round newly openedFounders: Anne-Sophie Mertgen, Vincent Pribble

Pitch: "We develop technology for scaling cultivated meat. Specifically our first product is a scaffolding solution that is highly scalable and integratable with current technology."

Traction:

• Co-founded by a tissue engineer and a space systems engineer.

• Backing from unicorn-maker accelerator Y-Combinator.

• Were able to produce pork meat with out process.

Competition: Gelatex, Matrix Food Technologies, Novel Farms, Myoworks.

Learn More / View Deck / Request Intro (sign up/sign in required)

 🍄 Peat

HQ: United StatesRaising: $2M USD - Valuation: $12M USDExisting investors: n/aStatus: Seeking a lead.Founders: Winson Wong, Sierra Alea, Ryan FreedPitch: "We're eliminating food waste from landfills and turning them into fresh, sustainable and zero-waste mushrooms. Our proprietary technology allow us to cultivate rare specialty mushrooms at scale such as chicken of the woods and lion's mane which are perfect meat substitutes."Traction:

• Signed partnership with 2nd largest waste hauler in NYC to give us up to 400 tons of organic waste daily for free.

• Paid customers - Just Salad, Craft Restaurant, Starbucks, Black Seed Bagels for waste processing which we are using to grow mushrooms.

• Building out pilot warehouse in NYC by early April to grow and sell to three committed food distributors at around 500lbs to 1000lbs a week.

Competition: Smallhold, Meati, Ecovative Design, Moku, MudwtrLearn More / View Deck / Request Intro (sign up/sign in required)

 🍫 Seminal Biosciences

HQ: United StatesRaising: $5M - Valuation: $20M USDExisting investors: n/aStatus: Seeking a lead.Founders: Alka Roy, Stephen Toon, Sam Gazzo

Pitch: "Seminal Biosciences is a biotech start up with a novel bioengineering platform that has developed a first to the world “sustainable” cocoa butter made without cacao beans along with a first to the world chocolate bar made with our sustainable cocoa butter."

Traction:

• Seminal Biosciences team has been working on their novel bioengineering and precision fermentation platform for 18 months

• Successfully developed our sustainable cocoa butter that has the same molecular structure as cocoa butter derived from cacao beans.

• The team has also developed stable chocolate bars with this version of cocoa butter with taste similar to the leading dark chocolate bar.

Competition: Barry Callebaut, ADM, California Cultured, Voyage Foods, QOA

Learn More / View Deck / Request Intro (sign up/sign in required)

+ More New Online:

🌱 Adonis Smart Foods (plant based, keto brand with $1.7m run-rate revenues)

❄️ EverCase (extend shelf life of foods)

🌮 DAD (vertically integrated food delivery platform)

+ Hot Decks Last Week:

🥩 Mooji Meats (YC'W22) - textures plant-based meat and cultured meat.

🥛 Blue Farm - Vegan, powdered and functional alt-milk.+ Other popular: Yangi, Biotic/Bio-circular, Ambrosia Bio, Evo Foods

+ Invest via FoodHack from $5k and up:

🍭 Inulox (FH DD'22)- 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.Request Inulox Investor Memo (accredited syndicate angels only)

🍄 Hyfe Foods (FH DD'22)- Using fungi to produce low-carb, protein-rich foods from wasted food-industry side streams.Request Hyfe Foods Investor Memo (accredited syndicate angels only)

🥚 Evo Foods (FH DD'22)- Asia's first plant based egg created with mung, chickpeas and peas with 1/3rd the cost of other plant based eggs worldwide.Request Evo Foods Investor Memo (accredited syndicate angels only)

🧀 Nutropy (FH DD'22)- Developing milk proteins identical to cow proteins to create premium French cheeses that would fool the most Frenchy-French.Request Nutropy Investor Memo (accredited syndicate angels only)

Fund Spotlight: Regeneration VC 🇺🇸

Partners: Dan Fishman, Michael SmithFounded: 2021HQ: Los Angeles, USASize: $45 Fund IFocus: "Over 90% of materials end up in landfills or natural ecosystems, and the consumer supply chain accounts for 45% of global emissions. Reimagining apparel, food, and CPG presents a $4.5T opportunity to ensure the prosperity of our species and planet. In support of this mission, Regeneration.VC invests in three core themes: design (packaging and materials), use (products and brands), and reuse (reverse logistics and marketplaces)."💡 Fun fact: Leonardo DiCaprio & William McDonough among strategic advisors. 👀 Portfolio includes: CleanO2, VitroLabs, Cruzfoam, Arrive, Pangia.

Good Reads / Graphics

• As one Twitter user put it "$20M is the new $10M" - so what's in store next year?

• 🙋‍♀️ Women May Be Better Investors Than Men according to this recent New York Times piece that dives into 10-year data by Fidelity and shows that female customers earned, on average, 0.4% points more annually than their male counterparts.

• 💰 Everyone's launching a fund of funds. Maybe time for a fund-of-funds-of-funds?

• 🍯 Random: How baklava is made. As a Turk, I couldn't stop watching this.

We're Hiring 👋

Maybe you're working in VC right now. Maybe it's the job you've dreamed of for years. Maybe it makes for great dinner table talk. But is it all that you thought it would be and more?

If the answer is no - I invite you to take off that Patagonia jacket, cancel next years trip to SXSW and come build the future of Climate Tech investing with us - we're hiring multiple roles.

More ownership + ESO offered.

Bit of Fun 😂

"Its just a joke bro"

Thanks for reading today's edition, I think it was a pretty good one.

Until next time,

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.