VCCircle’s Post

🥗 Spotlight on the Future of Food: A Revolution in Functional Foods & Beverages ☕ 🎇 Attention CEOs of food and beverage startups and Venture Capital Investors: 📈 The Future Food-Tech Conference has unveiled the transformative shift towards functional foods and beverages. This is more than a trend; it's about health, innovation, and sustainability. We're entering an era where our food does more than just satisfy hunger - it enhances our well-being. 🤖 Key Insights: - Alternative Proteins Lead the Way: Despite a dip in fundraising, alternative proteins significantly impact the industry, offering growth and innovation opportunities. - Challenges in Scaling and Commercialization: Alt-protein startups face hurdles, underscoring the need for innovative solutions and partnerships. - The Rise of Food as Medicine: Functional foods are gaining prominence, emphasizing nutrition's critical role in health and wellness. - Investor Perspectives Shift: With a focus on startups showcasing strong unit economics, the investment landscape is evolving towards value-driven ventures in food tech. 📆The Opportunity: For CEOs, this era demands agility and a focus on partnerships and innovation. For investors, it presents a chance to support companies driving profit and positive change. The future is here, promising a healthier, sustainable world through functional foods and beverages. Let's redefine our plates and glasses together. #FunctionalFoods #FoodInnovation #SustainableEating #AlternativeProteins #FoodTech #HealthyEating #StartupInvesting #VentureCapital #AgTech #NutritionTech**

https://lnkd.in/dRw2Ayxk "...From our analysis, we have identified 28 #FoodTech trends and grouped them into six #megatrends shaping the future of food: the #resilientfarm, #sustainableproteins, #foodasmedicine, the #smartsupplychain, #instantretail, and #foodautomation."

Catch Raghav Joshi, Co-Founder and Head of Hosted & Acquired Brands at Rebel Foods, as he shares his insights and expertise at #ETEcomSummit. Tune in to discover how he's transforming the foodtech space and driving growth with innovative strategies! Know more: https://bit.ly/4ekvY4k #ETEcomSummit #ETRetail #ETEcomNatives #TechConference #DigitalEconomy #FutureOfTech #TechTrends #InnovativeTech #BusinessBoost #SuccessStrategy"

“The upside for investors is substantial, and it’s not centered around IPOs. Instead, M&As and #exits via trade sales to #strategics are the more likely path, thanks to the massive global food industry. Food corporates spend just 0.4% of their revenue on R&D, compared to software at 18% and pharma at 12%. In absolute numbers, the top ten food and food ingredient companies spend just $4-5 billion a year on R&D, and an average of $22 billion a year on M&A” Check out this AgFunder article in which PeakBridge discusses scaling #FoodTech and how the paths got "muddled" 🌾 🔬 📈

🌱 Are you familiar with our investment network, Branch Venture Group? 🌱 Branchfood's sister company, Branch Venture Group (BVG), is leading the charge in transforming the food industry through strategic investments. Their multitude of portfolio companies is working across the entire food system, driving progress in areas from agtech, to consumer product innovation, and everything in between. Imagine a future where cell-cultured protein is consumed widely, precision agriculture maximizes yields with minimal environmental impact, and cutting-edge hospitality technology delivers the most personalized dining experience. BVG is investing in this future, and we are always interested to learn about the latest products, technologies, and services defining the future of food. If you have a groundbreaking idea or early-stage company in food and beverage CPG, foodtech, or agtech, we want to hear from you! Get in touch with us today to explore how we can support your journey! 📈✨ https://lnkd.in/dwDhNn7n Waku, Trashy, Loco Coffee Co., Shameless Pets, Mori, BlueTrace, UPSIDE Foods, Reel, Chia Smash, Peelon™, Kosterina, Caraway Home, Atlantic Sea Farms, Copra Coconuts, TrewUp, Lauren Abda, Marcia Hooper #branchventuregroup #foodtech #socialinnovation #foodstartup #agrifoodtech #foodbusinessstartup #foodpreneur #foodentrepeneur #foodstartups #foodscience #foodbrand #foodindustry #foodconsultant #foodbusiness #foodinnovation #foodbranding #foodtechnology #startupcommunity #foodmanagement #foodnews

After delving into the latest innovations in the food & beverages sector at FOOD 4 FUTURE - EXPO FOODTECH, we couldn't help but create a lil recap of four selected top #trends innovating food-tech. 🥙🍝🥤 Play to check them all out!👇 📈 And if you're curious to know innovative #startups leading these trends or if you want to see more insights about these topics, don't miss the blog post we did in collaboration with the event: https://lnkd.in/dHdEMrvp Among them: Meatable | Air Protein | Formo | COCUUS | Sugar Lab | Redefine Meat | Quazy Foods | Mewery | OCEANIUM | Foodvisor | Perfect Day | Silo #foodtech #innovation #tech #F4F2024

Here’s a harsh truth we don’t talk about enough: The food industry is controlled by large distributors, retailers, and behemoth food CPGs that set the rules. The playing field puts emerging brands, local farmers, and food innovation startups at an extreme disadvantage. Despite offering unique, high-quality products with a great value proposition for consumers, small brands struggle to survive or face a slow death. This goes beyond business. There’s a moral mandate and a social benefit in ensuring that those who offer the most value are rewarded accordingly—not overpowered due to a lack of capital in a capital-starved time, for instance. In future posts, I’ll share some of these big issues and possible solutions that need to be brought to light in our industry. It’s time for us to look into a larger, clearer mirror that shows the real situation as it is. #FoodIndustry #FutureOfFood #AgTech

Here are the 5 #FoodTech news of the week you need to know !

Kevin's Natural Foods. The brand you've seen everywhere and probably poo-pooed for its boring name. The brand with little trade blitz. The brand Bloomberg never covered. The most successful retail food unicorn in the last five years. $100M in trailing sales in two years. Sold to Mars in record time (this means it was already profitable) Built on true manufacturing innovation. Sous vide meat at an industrial scale. A reminder that great perimeter placement and superb manufacturing can crack open something that no one had figured out before - Long shelf-life, restaurant quality meat for rapid home meal assembly WITHOUT synthetic additives used by Reser's, Hormel, and most others. Kevin's resolved two key consumer pain points: horrible meat texture in refg. meals and artificial ingredients and gunk to deliver a long-shelf life. Natural refrigerated products were impossible to scale profitably due to high shrink rates in short-shelf-life products that are not used daily in local homes (unlike yogurt, milk, or eggs). It was funded by two food and retail industry veterans who understood the nuances they were playing with, one of whom I personally know was wealthy enough to seed the whole thing. I don't believe "paleo" was the key symbol here. This brand exploded with sensory signaling. #business #startups #entrepreneurship

Gartner hype cycle at work or just poor timing? The reality is when FOMO hits many investors jump in without proper due diligence. I'm not saying their isn't a market for these products, there is, it just was never going to sustain exponential growth, particularly once novelty wares off. And consolidation isn't a bad thing (unless you are one of the one's burned financially), it should make the market stronger. For me, the issue with plant based meats has always been their hyper processed nature and doubts they really taste like their meat equivalents. Will this cooling off impact further development, particularly, for cultivated meat alternatives? we will see. As much as we need to change our eating habits they are hard to change unless we have no other choice. I'm hoping this makes the sector stronger, even though it's unlikely to be a product of personal interest. Choice is good. https://lnkd.in/gikzZE5s