As the COO and Cofounder of Blue Apron (IPO 2017), Matthew Wadiak saw firsthand the problem with the country’s food supply chain. His latest venture, Cooks Venture, is reimagining the chicken farming industry with regenerative agriculture. Slow-growth, heirloom chickens are bred on the 800-acre farm that not only produces healthier chickens for humans but also has a reduced environmental footprint as compared to the “factory farms” where most chickens come from. Today, Cooks Venture announced a $10M Series A round from investors that include SJF Ventures, Cultivian Sandbox, Larry Schwartz, and John Roulac. Wadiak shares some insights on the agriculture industry, where it needs to head, and Cooks’ future plans.
FoodTech
Crisp Raises Another $12M to Solve Inefficiencies in the Global Food Supply Chain
“We have all walked into a grocery store and seen empty shelves, while food is being wasted at alarming levels. This paradox is the result of thousands of food companies being dependent on outdated, siloed infrastructure. Crisp transforms the value chain by providing an open data flow to solve critical problems such as out-of-stock, shrink, on-shelf optimization, and adaptation to changes in consumer demand.” We caught up with serial entrepreneur and Founder Are Traasdahl (exit Tapad for $360M) to learn more about how Crisp’s technology helps better manage the food supply chain during the pandemic, the company’s impressive growth, and recent funding round from investors that include FirstMark Capital, Spring Capital, and Swell Partners.
SIMULATE Raises $11M to Reimagine Your Childhood Favorite Foods with A Plant-Based Twist
“NUGGS has evolved into the fastest-growing chicken nugget on the planet” Can chicken nuggets be disrupted? We caught up with SIMULATE founder and CEO Ben Pasternak to learn more about how he is bringing software development principles of feedback loops and agile manufacturing to plant-based nutrition choices that are a viable alternative to animal-based meats. The company just closed its Series A round from investors that include Lerer Hippeau, Walter Robb, Alex Ohanian, AgFunder, McCain Foods, Rainfall Ventures, Jasmine Tookes, Neil Parikh, and Bob Pittman.
Bbot Raises $3M to Enable Restaurants to Offer Contactless Ordering and Payment Options Seamlessly
The restaurant industry is scrambling to find ways to encourage diners to return amid the pandemic. Bbot is a contactless restaurant ordering and payments platform that enables restaurants to allow their diners to use their own smartphones to select the items they would like, place the order, and pay all through their smartphone, without ever having to download or sign up for an app. The company is experiencing a wave of adoption with both delivery and in-person dining over the last several months. CEO and Cofounder Steven Simoni shares some more insight into how the company pivoted from a restaurant robot idea to its current offering, how the pandemic has amplified the need for the solution, and the company’s seed funding round from investors that include Craft Ventures and Acceleprise.
Butler Hospitality Raises $15M to Bring Cloud Kitchens to Hotels to Elevate In-House Dining
Rooms service, even at the finest of hotels, can be hit or miss. Usually expensive, untimely, and a hodgepodge of items, in-house hotel dining is often best avoided. Butler Hospitality addresses this through its cloud kitchen for hotels, where the company takes over hotel kitchens and provides turn-key food and beverage services that make room service profitable again. Founder and industry veteran Tim Gjonbalic shares more about how Butler elevates the in-house dining experience at hotels, how the company weathered the downturn in the hospitality industry due to COVID-19, and the company’s $15M Series A round from investors that include &vest, Scopus Ventures, Mousse Partners, Kraft Group, and Loeb.nyc.
Slice Raises Another $43M to Help Local Pizzerias Drive Business Online
Managing his family’s pizzerias in Staten Island, Slice CEO and Founder Ilir Sela saw the threat that online food apps and mobile ordering could be for independent pizzerias back in the 2000s. He launched Slice to serve as an all-in-one platform to help local pizzerias compete with the larger pizza brands and food apps by leveraging technology. Fast forward – there are now over 12,000 pizzerias on the platform and Sela just closed a $43M funding led by KKR. Sela discusses the impressive growth of the platform, the absolute best pizza in NYC (he should know), and much more…
Spot & Tango Raises $4.2M for its Line of Fresh Dry Food for Dogs
While many pet and wellness brands produce food that rivals the freshness and nutrition of human food, Spot & Tango creates human-grade meals for pets. Spot & Tango’s selection of food is transparently engineered with sustainable ingredients that have no additives, fillers, or preservatives that are commonly found in commercial kibble. The company’s newest product, […]
Augean Robotics: Mechanizing Food Production From Farm To Table
It spanned over 120 feet and took up a considerable area inside the already overpacked robotics section of the Las Vegas Convention Center, leaving many to wonder, ‘What on earth is a tractor doing at CES?’ Ever the since the acquisition of the artificial intelligence startup Blue River Technologies for $305 million, John Deere has been betting its […]
Where We Are Investing Now: Next-Gen Food, Ingredients, and Beverages
Health and happiness science is one of the most profound investment opportunities in decades. We feel it is natural and appropriate to make the most of the transformation of these core human experiences in all our current and upcoming funds.
KAIGO Raises $3M for its Medically Driven End-to-End Nutrition Solution
Healthy meals for the hottest restaurants in NYC delivered straight to your door?
Where We Are Investing Now: Next Gen Food and Drink
In a recent post, I talked about our focus on Digital Brands. Food, drink, and new ingredients certainly are part consumer goods and digital brands. But this area is unique enough to deserve its own explanation. That’s because food and drink are not only digital products, but also new expressions of the emerging science of health […]