FH Ventures: Stealth Stanford co. coming for casein

Now that the cats out the bag, happy to share the news here..

We just announced our $1M customer/community round to build out the AngelList of People & Planetary Health.

We’re big believers that angel allocations will play a more prominent role in startup fundraising rounds (especially in times of market downturns like this).

And that as temperatures scorch through this summer, more investors will wake up and start funding startups that actually move the needle to a more sustainable and healthy future.

HackVentures is there to help startups in this sector to raise quickly and from the right investors all while enabling small ticket angels (typically fellow founders / operators) to invest alongside leading VC's into startups that better match their values.

Thanks to our incredible group of investors, FoodLabs, Siddhi Capital and the 66 angel investors from the community (many of you long time readers here 👋)

There will be some changes here in the coming months - but for now, find your regular edition of weekly Deal Flow below including two still Stealth startups coming after plant-based deli and entering into the crowding alt-casein game.

🍖 Holy Smokes! (Just Opened)

HQ: USARaising: $200k USDExisting investors: Sustainable Food VenturesStatus: Stealth / Just OpenedCEO: Sophia Retchin (UNC grad)

Pitch: "With just as many deli sandwiches as burgers eaten each year in the US, it's time for a plant-based evolution of the deli counter. Holy Smokes! makes plant-based, gluten-free deli meats that are a one-to-one swap for their animal-based counterparts."

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🧀 Prose Foods (Just Opened)

HQ: USARaising: $2M USDExisting investors: n/aStatus: Stealth / Just OpenedCEO: Dylan Nugent (Stanford Grad)

Pitch: "Building a versatile food technology platform that leverages a novel class of proteins, abundant in plants, to recreate the texture and functionality of climate-destroying animal foods and unsustainable materials, starting with a better-textured, better-tasting animal-free cheese."

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🌱 Pullulo (Newly Opened)

HQ: SingaporeRaising: $1.4M USDExisting investors: Big Idea VenturesStatus: Newly OpenedCEO: Jonathan Cheng

Pitch: "Pullulo believes in doing good for the triple bottom lines: planet, people and profits. We produce food in ways that are good for people and the planet, and we aim to create mass-market alternatives to the traditional meat, eggs and dairy."

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❄️ Nimble Foods (Newly Opened)

HQ: USARaising: $1.5M USDExisting investors: n/aStatus: Newly OpenedCEO: Craig Cochran

Pitch: "Nimble Foods is a plant-based frozen food start-up focusing on single serve entrees in the retail market. The company is founded by successful serial food/cpg entrepreneurs, and its products are high-velocity recipes from the founders' restaurants."

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🔥 Popular Last Week 

🐟 Loki Foods (Oversubscribed) - the first plant-based seafood venture from Iceland, leveraging a completely renewable energy grid and pristine water. Raising $400k USD.

🍄 Kaapa Biotech (Searching lead) - EU's largest R&D technology platform to bring fungal inventions to the market. Raising: €2M EUR.

🐟 Loha Foods (Searching Lead) - plant based seafood company replicating a range of premium seafood products such as lobster, prawns and fish. Raising $3M USD.

+ there's 60 other companies raising now - request an intro if you'd like to chat with their founders.

👀 Fund Spotlight: SHIFT Invest

👋 Managing Partner: Guus Verhees 📆 Founded: 2014💰 Size: €110M💡 The idea: “The Dutch impact venture capital fund invests in innovations related to food and agri tech, green industries, energy transition and sustainable mobility and logistics. The investments are focused on achieving a positive environmental impact and financial return."👀 Portfolio inc: Protix, Vandebron, ViriCiti, FUMI Ingredients, Pieter Pot, FUL Foods, SupplyStack and Meatless.

💡 Good Reads 

🍖 Alt-Meat Textuization: Mimicking that unique chewy texture of a hunk of meat - without the naturally occurring oils and fats in animal flesh - in plant-based meats is no easy feat

Perfecting these analogues is big business - and increasingly, a focus for many companies, who see achieving realistic texture of alt meat as the key to convincing more consumers to go plant-based. More on that here.

💡 NX Food put out some of the best bite-sized content out there on their Linkedin (which is often overlooked) and I particularly enjoyed this little insight about how alt-seafood funding is on the rise, but U.S. retail sales for plant-based seafood showed a slower growth from 2020 to 2021. Especially important now given just how many alt-seafood startups are raising right now. 

🦅 Europe vs US: This topic comes up quite a bit and has led to some pretty controversial replies when we last brought it up 😳

All I can tell you is anecdotal information that we regularly (aka: 1-2 a month) hear from founders in Europe looking to relocate to the US. And from European VC's that are doubling down on US startups.

Despite many predicting America's demise and Europe's rise - it doesn't seem like this is happening any time soon. So I asked one startup why they picked up and moved from arguably Europes foodtech hotspot (Berlin) and set up in the Bay Area instead:

🌱 State of Taste: A must-read blog post by Nate Crosser (VC @ Blue Horizon) about the state of taste in alt proteins on the market including a list of the best plant-based products out there according to Nate.

🏦 Deutsche Bank is under investigation over greenwashing allegations after an ex-employee said it fudged ESG info to win over investors. ESG investing has exploded as investors demand socially responsible investment options. But ESG claims are unregulated and have been criticized as arbitrary. e.g. the S&P’s ESG index includes oil giant Exxon, but not EV pioneer Tesla. Some have dismissed ESG investing as a “virtue bubble.” I'd probably agree with that sentiment but be keen to hear what readers here think about this? 

💸 TAKE THE MONEY: A fun and wild read about how a VC threatened to sue a startup unless they took their unsolicited money. This is an old story from a few months ago when we were at peak fundraising times - but Erin's Tweet summary is a great read for those lazy like myself.

😅 Bit of Fun

The worst photo from our team shoot yesterday, or our attempt to get casted for Top Gun 3?

Thanks for reading and please let me know what did you think of today's edition?

😁 Love It 😐 Meh 😕 Hate it

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.