FoodTech will revolutionize the way we produce, process and eat

The Food Investment Circle federates entrepreneurs, investors, public authorities and scholars around impactful opportunities with high potential returns

It focuses on alternative proteins

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Future of Food – Business Case

Food and agribusiness form a $5 trillion global industry that keeps on growing. The market is highly fragmented. The current over-consumption of earth’s resources is non-sustainable.

Our agricultural model has not yet evolved to face the challenges brought by a growing and wealthier population with changing diets hence it offers significant disruptive opportunities.

Investment Circle targets Agriculture 4.0 by directly investing in relevant companies

World Population to reach 9.5bio by 2050
World population is increasing by 80mio each year
Worldwide agriculture subsidies amount to $500bio
The European CAP is in excess of €50bio
Focus 1 – Proteins

We research and invest in the following sub-categories;

  • Insect Farming; fly, cricket and worm breeding offer interesting nutritious benefits. Insects can be used as alternative in aquaculture feed to wild fish   
  • Algae Harvesting, pure cultures of one type of algae offer best commercial outcome. Migroalgae can be used as nutrient, for cosmetics and for chemicals. 
  • Lab Grown Meat, Milk, Poultry and Fish, cellular agriculture is clean, controlled and highly sustainable. We focus on 3 factors; Price, Convenience and Taste   
  • Meat & Shrimp Alternatives, plants can offer the same protein level as meat. Alternatives need to look, cook and taste like meat while being priced equivalently   
Meat, egg and dairy sector represents a $700bio global market
Reports suggest the aquafeed market to be worth $120bio by 2020
2018 should be the year farmed fish reaches 50% of human fish diet
Aquaculture feeds wild fish (in large quantities) to farmed fish
Yearly meat consumption to reach 37kg by 2030 (28kg currently)
Americans eat 120kg of meat per year while Brits only 80kg
The efficiency with which animals convert grain intake to body mass varies greatly:
Cattle 7kg grain intake to 1kg body mass
Pig 4kg grain intake to 1kg body mass
Poultry 2kg grain intake to 1kg body mass
Fish <2kg grain intake to 1kg body mass
Focus 2 – Food Waste Mitigation 

We research and invest in the following sub-categories;

  • Vertical Agriculture,  stacked agriculture in closed structured (i.e. buildings). Higher productivity, controlled environments with little impact from outside weather conditions 
  • Desert Farming, irrigation and water efficient solutions  
  • Transportation and Packaging, companies focusing on the reduction of food waste from “the field to the fork”
  • Food procurement, some countries are overly dependent of food imports. Local ecosystems represent a solution
Yearly, 1.3bio tons of food is wasted
Yearly, 1/3 of all the food produced ends-up as waste
Studies estimate that Agrifood accounts for 30% of worldwide energy consumption
If 30% of food produced is wasted then 10% of energy produced is also wasted
Average american household wastes $2'200 of food annually
In the US, reducing food waste by 15% would be enough to feed 25mio americans
Focus 3 – Crop Protection & Precision Farming

We research and invest in the following sub-categories;

  • Pesticide Alternatives,  biological pest control, such as genetic engineering practices and bio-pesticides
  • Robots & Sensors, on the ground tools, that are developed to manage, predict, harvest and process  
  • Arial Monitoring, off the ground tools (such as drones and satellites) that contribute to the mapping and treatments of soils 
Worldwide, herbicides is a $26bio market
Roundup alone sells $4bio to $5bio of glyphosate based pesticides
In the US, 90% of soybean, cotton and corn are GMOs
In the 70% of grain produced is to feed livestock
Focus 4 – Animal Health

We research and invest in the following sub-categories;

  • In-ovo sexing, automated systems to determine the gender of the developing chick before hatching. The US United Egg Producer’ association have the ambition to have a viable scalable technique by 2020 
  • Animal Antibiotics alternatives, due to growing resistance to antibiotics and our adherence to the “One health” concept, we are looking for alternative solutions (vaccines…)  
55bio animals are slaughtered annually for food:
45bio chicken
2.3bio ducks
1.2bio pigs
0.5bio sheep
0.3bio goats
0.3bio cows
What are we looking for?
  • 3Ps; Proven, profitable and protected technology (Unique IP)
  • Target IRR of + 20%
  • Exit within 3y to 7y
  • Market in excess of 500mio with a potential market share >10%
  • Can accommodate funding tickets of €1mio to €25mio
  • Can cross-fertilize within our network
  • Accepts active shareholders (Board representation)
  • Predominantly European based
VCs and AIs invested $735mio into 147 deals in 2017
In 2013, VCs and AI had invested $57mio for 71 deals
Recent deals in the market
$200mio Series B - Plenty
$203mio Series D - Indigo Agriculture
$275mio Series D - Ginkgo Bioworks
$40mio Series D - Aerofarm
$50mio - Protix
$105mio - AgriProtein
$305mio - John Deere acquired Blue River
Active Investors in the field
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Richard Branson
David Chang
Horizons Ventures
Nestle
Cargill
Ikea

Acknowledgments

Sources

Image Credits

  • Image 1 – Johny Goerend, Unsplash
  • Image 2 – Patrice Mikelange, Pixabay
  • Image 3 – Benjamin Balazs, Pixabay
  • Image 4 – Ben Kerckx, Pixabay
  • Image 5 – Herney Gomez, Pixabay
  • Image 6 – Toni Cuenca, Unsplash
  • Image 7 – Dillon Mangum, Unsplash
  • Image 8 – Scott Goodwill, Unsplash