Another fast grocery startup bites the dust.
JOKR, the fast grocery delivery company that was part of a larger wave of startups that entered the US last year, is closing its US operations, according to an email sent to customers today . The company said the last day for delivery to New York and Boston would be June 19.
From email:
Although we were able to build an incredible customer base (thank you!!) and lay the foundation for a sustainable business in the United States, the company made the difficult decision to exit the market during this time of global economic uncertainty.
To read the full story, click here.
Who are the leaders of the Food Tech revolution?
We may be a little biased here at The Spoon, but we think food tech is the most exciting industry.
Think about it: food is what many of us – heck, most of us – spend much of our day thinking about, craving, seeking and consuming. Food is something everyone is passionate about.
It is also an industry where some of the greatest advances in AI, biology, agriculture, design, chemistry and many other fields are now manifesting to create some of the most interesting and exciting changes. that we have ever seen in what, where, how, and why we nourish ourselves.
And perhaps most importantly, food systems and their future will undeniably play an outsized role in determining what life on earth will look like here in 10, 20 or 100 years.
That’s why we love covering this industry, and the greatest joy in it all is talking to the people who are leading the food tech revolution. The innovation, the collective progress we are making, the futuristic breakthroughs we see almost every week, all of this is a direct result of the many inspiring voices pioneering in this space and trying to create a better world.
To read the full article, head over to The Spoon.
Molecular farming pioneer Moolec goes public via SPAC
Moolec Science, a company that develops identical animal proteins using a technique called molecular farming, today announced that it is going public through a special purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”). The company does this through a business combination agreement with LightJump Acquisition Corp, a company formed in 2020 as an SPAC vehicle. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the second half of 2022.
Moolec, a spin-out of Bioceres Crop Solutions, is one of the first companies to use molecular farming to create alternative proteins. The appeal of molecular farming is that it uses crops as a protein factory, compared to traditional microbial fermentation techniques which use more capital-intensive fermentation infrastructure.
With molecular farming, crops are genetically modified to produce a target molecule. The Moolec team associates the target molecule with a host plant, creating different plant-molecule combinations for different applications. The company has launched two products so far, including a plant-based dairy ingredient called chymosin and GLA nutritional oil, both of which use safflower as a carrier culture. According to Moolec, both products have been cleared by regulatory authorities and the company is currently increasing its seed stocks.
You can read the full message on The Spoon.
kitchen technology
Fellow, Maker of Specialty Coffee Gear, Raises $30M Series B
Fellow, a maker of specialty coffee equipment, announced this week that it has raised $30 million through a Series B funding round led by Nextworld Evergreen.
The San Francisco-based company, which has made a name for itself with its somewhat expensive designer coffee-making equipment, was started by founder and CEO Jake Miller in his Stanford dorm where he began work on a coffee infuser that raised nearly $200,000 on Kickstarter.
Since those beginnings, Miller and his team have launched a family of coffee and tea equipment, from French presses to kettles to insulated coffee mugs. The company, which has won a following among baristas and celebrities for its sleekly designed Stagg EKG kettles (and also influenced a dozen or more knockoffs), also sells coffee beans through its website and has opened a store. flagship retail store in San Francisco.
You can read the full interview with Jake Miller from Fellow at The Spoon.
The Shrooly lets aspiring mushroom growers grow mushrooms on their kitchen counter
Although I’m not a mushroom eater – they’re weird, slimy bits of mold – I’m all for growing them at home because, well, mushrooms are slimy bits of mold and strange.
And, on the face of it, I (and the mycophiles among us) may soon have another option for becoming a small mushroom grower with a home mushroom fruiting chamber called Shrooly. The new gadget is currently being offered as part of a new Indiegogo campaign and is expected to start shipping to backers in December this year.
The device, which is available from $299 on Indiegogo, is a countertop home grow chamber with light and humidity control. The device has an on-device control button and a small display screen that gives updates on fungus growth, temperature data and time until the fungus is ready for harvest. The Shrooly will also have an app that allows the user to control humidity and monitor fungus growth.
To read the full story, head over to The Spoon.
Here are four tech-powered lunch boxes that could help you fight lunchflation
Everything is getting more expensive lately and food is at the top of the list.
For those of you who work outside the home (and don’t have free, tasty food as a perk at work), you’re probably trying to figure out how to combat the very real sudden problem of lunch. The easiest and most obvious way is to pack your own lunch, but often food tossed in a brown bag or a regular old lunch box (Evil Knievel or whatever) doesn’t stay hot or cold enough or whatever. that needs to be done to optimize freshness. .
Luckily for you, we live in an age of feature-rich lunchboxes. Models with everything from temperature zones to hydro flasks to stackable compartments and more give everyone from school kids to lunchtime nine-to-five an abundance of options to pack a meal for the day.
And things are about to get even better. A new generation of ultra-techy lunch boxes is on the way to help make eating homemade lunches away from home an even better experience. In this article, I take a look at four such new options hitting the market for those looking to pack lunch for work or school.
For more on all four tech lunchboxes, head over to The Spoon.
Food of the future
SuperMeat believes an open source approach to cultured meat will benefit everyone
Lab-grown or cultured meat is a sexy topic that fulfills the dream of healthy eating while conserving the planet’s precious resources. Most of the headlines focus on companies around the world waiting for regulators to wave the checkered flag. The most interesting story – at least for those who like to look under the hood – concerns the processes, supply chain and vital partnerships for this promising industry.
To understand in detail what it takes to go from harvesting animal cells to creating products for consumers, it is helpful to speak with visionaries such as Ido Savir, CEO of SuperMeat in Israel. In addition to his knowledge of cultured meat, Savir’s IT background provides him with a bird’s eye view of the infrastructure needed to build a successful B2B business.
While this cannot be considered an impressive announcement, SuperMeat recently received a grant from the Israel Innovation Authority to establish an open-source, high-throughput screening system to optimize cultured meat feed ingredients. By analogy, think of it as a system that ensures cows or chickens receive only the best quality feed to produce larger quantities of high-quality meat or chicken. But there is a significant difference.
Read the full post on The Spoon.
Mars teams up with Perfect Day to launch an animal-free chocolate bar
Today, Mars announced the launch of a new animal-free chocolate under the CO2COA brand. Developed in partnership with precision fermentation specialist Perfect Day, the chocolate is available today through the product new website.
While Mars already offers a line of vegan chocolate bars, this is the first bar from a major candy brand that replaces animal-based dairy with identical proteins produced through precision fermentation. A German startup called QOA announcement last year they used precision fermentation to develop new chocolates, but their goal is to replace cocoa rather than animal inputs. The deal with Mars follows Perfect Day and Betterland Foods’ announcement in March of an animal-free chocolate bar.
Read the story at The Spoon.
Food robots
Picnic’s pizza-making robot is heading to five college campuses this fall
Based in Seattle Picnic works announced today that its Pizza Station robot is heading to college this fall as part of an expanded pilot program with college catering company Chartwells Higher Education. The pilot will include five colleges: Texas A&M, University of Chicago, Missouri State University, Carroll University, and Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis.
The rollout of the pizza robot follows a successful eight-week pilot project of Picnic’s Pizza Station at Texas A&M. According to Picnic, during the initial pilot, Texas A&M’s robot baked more than 4,500 pizzas and allowed kitchen staff to reallocate 8 hours of kitchen work per day to other tasks.
The origin story of Picnic’s listing at Texas A&M dates back to COVID when Chartwell District Executive Chef Marc Cruz couldn’t find enough workers to staff the pizza-making chain and slumped. is often found alone in the kitchen making pizzas. After someone from food service provider Rich’s suggested that Cruz and his team check out Picnic, it wasn’t long before the startup set up their robot in College Station, Texas.
To read the full story, click here!
