FH Ventures: Underutilised Crops + Agricultural Apps

Last week I took a look back at the past deals we featured in the 2 years that this newsletter has been running.

What I realised is that:1) if we invested in the top 50% - our portfolio would be looking pretty sweet right now 2) it definitely skews alt-protein, and we didn't engineer it that way 🤷‍♂️

Here's a look at a few featured companies that've been marked up since:

🍖 Peace Of Meat's seed (featured in edition #1) - now acquired by MeaTech.🦐 Cultured Decadence's pre-seed (featured in edition #3) - now acquired by UPSIDE.🍯 *MeliBio's pre-seed (featured in edition #5) - just closed their $5.7M Seed. 🐟 Revo Foods seed (featured in edition #7) - now raising their $20M Series A.

Other notable pre/seed startups featured inc. *Plantish, Aqua Cultured Foods, *Brevel, Ark Biotech, Julienne Bruno, Gelatex, Hooked Foods, Umami Meats.

Takeaway: It's a lot of deal flow each week and sometimes you might miss a promising startup as you're busy "networking" at Coachella.

So to ensure that companies get the coverage they deserve and so you don't miss out - we’ll start re-featuring some of the most promising deals in these newsletters.

Or better yet - just join our Syndicate where we've invested in several* of the above.

Onto 5 new deals of the week

👨‍🌾 Airfarm

HQ: Germany Raising: €3M EUR - Valuation: Existing investors: Atlantic Food LabsStatus: Searching LeadFounders: Hubertus Mai

Pitch: "An all-in-one OS for the $14tn agricultural industry. We are developing a technology stack linking relevant agribusinesses to ensure that livelihoods of farmers become more resilient and profitable."

Traction:

• Beta test with 6 farms buying inputs corresponding to 5K ha, for a total GMV of €500K.

• Onboarded 1+M hectares representing the ~10% of German market

• Pre-seed funding with Atlantic Food Labs, Tet Ventures, and Innovation Nest

Competition: none listed 🤷‍♂️

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

🧀 Real Deal Milk

HQ: Spain Raising: €2M EUR - Valuation: €8M EUR Existing investors: Friends and familyStatus: Searching LeadFounders: Zoltan Toth-Czifra, Gabriel Mora

Pitch: "Real Deal Milk employs state-of-the-art gene technology to teach yeast cells how to be cows. We think that the next innovation S-curve will be cellular agriculture that will enable us to produce dairy not just more sustainably, but also more cheaply than traditional methods, enabling dairy farming in places currently impossible."

Traction:

• Research team of 3 PhDs inc. metabolic engineering for the production of animal-like lipids in microorganisms to industrial precision fermentation experience.

• Set up our brand new, state-of-the-art lab 50m2 in the Science Park of Barcelona.

• Completed proof-of-concept by achieving expression and secretion of all 6 major milk proteins (4 in casein and 2 in whey) in our yeast cells integrated with bovine DNA.

• Received a 75k EUR public grant as well as total investment from the founders and their friends of 600k EUR

• Completed a startup incubator program by Pascual, a Spanish dairy company.

Competition: Perfect Day, Remilk, Formo, Better Dairy, Imagindairy

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

🥛 Rainfed Foods (FH DD'22) 

HQ: CanadaRaising: $2.1 M USD - Valuation: SAFE with 20% discountExisting investors: Prithvi VenturesStatus: In DD with potential leadsFounders: Sujala Balaji, Ben Roche (Ex-Michelin-Star-Chef)Pitch: "Rainfed is an alternative protein company focusing on underutilized crops like millets to create food products and ingredients, starting with dairy."Traction: 

• Process scalability validated and ready for manufacturing.

• 2 LOIs from launch partners and distributors for milk to launch in both foodservice and retail.

• Strong direct supply chain relationships secured for raw materials with ability to scale,

• Team doubled and continues to expand. 

• Launched website with new branding and product package design.

Competition: Ripple Foods, Sproud, NotCo, DanoneLearn More / View Deck / Request Intro (sign up/sign in required)

 📦 Yangi (Featured Previously)

HQ: SwedenRaising: $3M USD - Valuation: $15M USDExisting investors: -Status: Searching LeadFounders: Anna Altner, Johann KaiserPitch: "Yangi is a manufacturing technology for dry formed cellulose-based packaging. Our aim is to reshape the world of packaging and become the leading packaging solutions provider."Traction:

• EIC Horizon 2020 Grant

• Solar Impulse efficient solution award

• Developed an open-source platform with protected IP.

• 5 patent applications have been made.

• Technology has been proven and ready for scaling

Competition: Pulpac, Cruz FoamLearn More / View Deck / Request Intro (sign up/sign in required)

🦗 ZIRP Insects

HQ: AustriaRaising: €2M EUR - Valuation: €6M EURExisting investors: - Status: Round newly opened.Founders: Christoph Thomann, Thomas Bibaritsch, Raphael Thonhauser, Simon Hagleitner

Pitch: "Development, marketing and sale of food products based on sustainable insect protein on the European market."

Traction:

• Conversion and average cart volume increased (up to 37€) in the course of last year.

• Newsletter community (> 4000) / social media (>1.2 mio impressions)

• Listed at REWE already in 2018 in 140 touchpoints

• Launches ZIRP EAT FOR FUTURE Burgerpatties across Austria in more than 800 Billa and Billa Plus shops.

Competition: Isaac Nutrition, Essento, Snack Insects, Jiminis, Sens Food, Beneto Foods

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

+ Invest via FoodHack from $5k and up:

🧫 NEW: Tiamat Sciences - manufactures animal-free proteins using a proprietary plant molecular farming platform. Invest Now / Learn More.

🍭 Inulox (FH DD'22) - 100% Allocation Full. Reply to join wait list.

🥚 Evo Foods (FH DD'22) - 110% allocation filled. Reply to join wait list.

🧀 Nutropy (FH DD'22) - 100% allocation filled. Reply to join wait list.

🍖 Mooji Meat (YC W'22) - 110% allocation filled. Reply to join wait list.

Portfolio Spotlight: Nowadays 🐓🌱

FoodHack Syndicates latest investment in SF based alt-protein startup Nowadays. Founded by Max Elder and Dominik Grabinski - Nowadays are making plant-based foods, without the junk.

The $7M Seed round was round was led by Stray Dog Capital with a great group of co-investors 👋 VegInvest , Tenacious Ventures, Cornucopian Capital, Good Protein Fund, Selva Ventures, Vanterra Capital, Gaingels, Beyond Impact VC and Unpopular Ventures and more.

If you're in the US and love nuggets - go out and order directly from Nowadays website and let us know what you think.

Fund Spotlight: Lowercarbon Capital 🇺🇸

Founding Partners: Chris Sacca, Crystal Sacca, Clay DumasFounded: 2018HQ: New York, USASize: $350 million fundFocus: "Sacca said he wants to invest in start-up entrepreneurs looking to scale up their carbon removal technology, and he's open to any number of solutions from biological enhancements and manipulations to electrochemical solutions to burying carbon deep underground"👀 Portfolio includes: Mosa Meat, Kula Bio, Higher Steaks, Formo, Compound Foods

Good Reads / Graphics

🏭 Deal of the week: Switzerlands Planetary Group came out of stealth with a $8 Million Seed funding in a round led by Astanor Ventures.

The startup - co-founded and headed up by Peace Of Meat co-founder David Brandes - was established to provide capacity for both the upstream and downstream production for both microbial precision and mycelial biomass fermentation-based production and aims to create a global network of interconnected production sites across Europe.Why I like this is 1) you know how much I love my infrastructure 2) Strong team with deep sector experience and contacts 3) they're based in Switzerland and nothing exciting really happens here🇨🇭 

p.s. David Brandes is also a speaker at this years FoodHack Summit.

📊 Great read of the week: What's in a valuation? A refreshing write up that takes a look at the bull / bear scenarios when investing and how valuations reflect different parties (investors, founders, employees) along the way

💰 Cultivated Patents: Impressive list by Ark Biotech (FH DD'21) showing a list of patents published by cultivated meat companies and highlights a huge increase in patent publications in 2021 compared to prior years.

💡 Great Insights from Discord member Tsung Xu - for those who missed Built With Bio, here's some of the startups you should have on your radar:

😁 A very enlightening thread of top 10 things to say to investors in a meeting.

57 of the minds in FoodTech 

From the founder & CTO of INFARM to the head of innovation at Givaudan - this years lineup at the FoodHack Summit is STACKED. See someone you recognise or been wanting to meet with for awhile? Grab a ticket and see them IRL this May 12th & 13th in where else, but Lausanne, Switzerland.

Bit of Fun

How the entirety of web3 feels to me right now.

Thanks for reading today's edition, the ratio of men / women featured in this edition was bad. I know. 

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.