If you’re adventurous with your food, or just like to keep up with the fast-moving food tech industry, here’s a roundup of this week’s stories and some notable news we weren’t able to cover.
Upside Foods gets on the plate
In what is perhaps the first-ever sale of cultivated meat in the United States, Upside Foods said it is unveiling its whole-textured product at Chef Dominique Crenn’s restaurant Bar Crenn in San Francisco today. This comes just a week after gaining approval to sell its cell-cultivated chicken product in the U.S.
Upside’s cultivated chicken will be fried in a tempura batter, drizzled with a burnt chili aioli and garnished with edible flowers and greens. Incidentally, this is the first time Bar Crenn is putting meat on its menu since it was removed in 2018, according to the company. The cultivated chicken will be incorporated into additional dishes at the restaurant through a series of ongoing monthly services that will commence later this year.
Bluu Seafood reels in $17.5M to bring cultivated fish products to market
Paul reported on Bluu Seafood’s new €16 million ($17.5 million) Series A round of funding. The German company is creating cultivated fish products and unveiled its first products last August, which included a line of fish sticks and fish balls.
Joyful Ventures debuts with $23M focused on investment in sustainable protein startups
Thriving startups in the alternative protein sector now have a new place to pitch. Venture capital firm Joyful Ventures unveiled its new fund. Joyful was co-founded by Jennifer Stojkovic, Milo Runkle and Blaine Vess. The company has already made two investments from the fund, including New School Foods and Orbillion Bio.
Omeat emerges from stealth with beefy tech approach to cultivated meat growth media
Omeat, a cultivated meat startup out of Los Angeles, believes it has cracked the code on how to reduce the traditionally high costs to scale production of cultivated meat via a process that uses regenerative factors extracted humanely from cow plasma to make growth media.
BetterBrand’s new dough raises company’s valuation to over $170M
BetterBrand, a food tech company known for creating “The Better Bagel,” closed on $6 million of Series A capital at a pre-money valuation of $170 million. BetterBrand’s proprietary “grain-changing” technology combines non-GMO and clean label ingredients to create a line of better-for-you baked goods.
Make way for a new vegan protein on the menu
Natasha writes about Finnish startup Solar Foods’ alternative protein, Solein, that has been blended into a custom (vegan) chocolate gelato at a restaurant in Singapore. It’s not your average scoop, she says.
