What if technology could not just help save our planet, but save us from our own worst habits? Say, for instance, our sweet tooth?
Since FoodTech emerged as a tech sector in its own right, we’ve heard loads about the possibilities of meat and dairy alternatives. And all the human health and planetary reasons we should find ways to reduce and replace our daily meat and dairy consumption. Meanwhile, something sneaky (and sweet) has flown relatively under the radar – sugar!
Did you know that not only has global sugar consumption gone bonkers (the leading sugar-consuming nation in the world, the United Arab Emirates, goes through a whopping 2,015 metric tons of sugar, that’s nearly 472 pounds of sugar consumer per citizen annually!) but that sugar production is a major contributor to environmental degradation. Indeed, the World Wildlife Federation claims “that sugar may be responsible for more biodiversity loss than any other crop.”
At the same time, the global sugar industry is huge and growing, worth $46.5 billion USD in 2023 and projected to reach $59.1 billion USD by 2028. Not to mention, the health pitfalls of sugar consumption are well publicised, with consumers routinely pledging they want to reduce their sugar consumption while study after study shows they are failing miserably to do so. You know what it smells like to me? Opportunity, an awfully sweet one!
Turns out, I’m not the only one thinking about sugar. This month’s blog post is a roundup of FoodTech startups putting technology, science, innovation and their dedication to improving the world (and human health) to the task, taking on sugar as the next frontier in food revolution.
Dr. Ilan Samish, CEO and Founder of Amai Proteins
“It was only in 2017 when Lancet published a peer study looking at 350,000 people for seven years and finding that sugar underlies metabolic syndrome,” says Ilan Samish, PhD., CEO and founder of Amai Proteins. “We know the manifestations of that — obesity, diabetes, cancers, especially epithelial cancers, some mental diseases, not to mention tooth decay and many other things. But sugar was really the worst thing that we put in our mouth.”
Amai Proteins takes a biotechnology and computational approach to sugar reduction, looking to isolate and redesign likely proteins as sugar replacement candidates and precision fermentation to produce the product at scale using inexpensive, environmentally friendly methods. Amai’s “Designer Sweet Proteins” are thousands of times sweet than sugar, with one teaspoon of protein the equivalent in sweetness of 35 pounds of sugar.
Amai closed an initial $100 million funding round in December of 2022. To hear more about Samish’s journey into designer proteins and sugar reduction, listen to his Leaders on a Mission Podcast here.
Ali Wing, CEO of Oobli
“The dream is to have a true rehabilitation tool that satisfies the mind and mouth, which we know has to happen together for people to adopt something, but actually then runs through the body in a game-changing way because we have a health crisis,” says Ali Wing, CEO of Oobli. “And I would argue it’s every bit as big as our climate crisis… If 50% of your population is suboptimal health, you’re not going to solve any world climate crisis.”
Focusing on consumer education around a new category of sweet proteins through direct retail sales and secondary markets close to consumers, like restaurants, Oobli is taking a direct-to-consumer approach, with one of their first launches a commercially available chocolate bar with 70% less sugar than most chocolate bars. Founded in 2014, Oobli’s sweet proteins are derived from fruits and berries native to West Africa, using precision fermentation to produce a product 5,000 times sweeter than traditional sugar.
A series B stage startup, Oobli has raised $32.1 million with their last raise of $25 million announced in May 2022. To hear more about Oobli and why Wing believes the trick to sugar reduction isn’t to deny humans’ instinctive sweet tooth but to appease it with healthier alternatives, catch her Leaders on a Mission podcast interview.
Ed Rogers, CEO and co-founder of Bonumose
“I learned pretty early on that taste is really important. That the health aspect of food is not only what’s important,” says Ed Roger, CEO and co-founder of Bonumose, related his childhood experiences with healthy recipes his father would make. “He would make chocolate chip cookies with wheat bran. He would just dump a bunch of wheat bran into the chocolate chip cookie mix and offer us that and you know they tasted terrible. I still can remember how badly it tasted. And so, a lesson that I learned was, no matter how healthy something is, taste is king.”
Bonumose uses starch byproduct left over from its supply chain partners’ food production and an enyzmatic process to produce economical and environmentally alternatives to traditional sugar. Founded in 2016, Bonumose’s first product, tagatose, is a rare sugar nearly identical in flavor to table sugar with a low glycemic index but was extremely expensive to produce. Bonumose’s enzymatic approach allows for high-yield, scalable processing strategy of tagatose.
Bonumose is an early-stage startup with backing from industry giants such as The Hershey Company. They recently announced a successful $2 million funding raise. To hear more how Rogers and Bonumose are working to bring affordable, sustainable, tasty sugar alternatives to the marketplace, tune into his Leaders on a Mission Podcast interview.
Todd Rands, CEO of Elo Life Systems
“It’s just such a huge strategic movement. Ingredient companies are working like crazy to find other solutions. Governments are taxing sugary beverages and foods and putting laws in place that demand reduction. The medical community is getting louder and louder with more and more evidence that this is killing us,” say Todd Rands, CEO of Elo Life Systems. “We have to make a change. And so, we see tremendous movement across the food and beverage space towards sugar reduction.”
Elo Life Systems is making ‘consumer’s favorite foods more delicious, healthy and planet-friendly’ starting with the biggest health-culprit of all, sugar. Elo Life Systems sources difficult to access ingredients from nature and then uses proprietary gene editing and biotech tools to turn plants into biofactories, creating an abundant source of high-value ingredients. Elo’s monk fruit sweetener, for instance, replicates the low-calorie sweetness of monk fruit, a crop that can only be grown in a few remote areas of the world and if difficult to harvest and process.
Spun out of Precision Bio in 2021, Elo Life Systems recently completed a successful series A raise for $24.5 million. The company also focuses their gene-editing technology in other impactful areas of future food production, including engineering a banana resistant to the Fusarium wilt fungal disease threatening the global banana industry. To hear more about Rands’ journey and Elo Life System’s approach to harnessing nature for solutions to human health and climate change, tune in to his Leaders on a Mission podcast interview.
Ari Melamud, CEO of Incredo
(Update: since this podcast aired Ari exited his position at Incredo. We wish Ari great luck in his next adventures!)
“We need to realize that sugar is not just a health problem, but a sustainability problem for Earth,” says Ari Melamud, CEO of Incredo. “Sugar takes more space and resources than any other crop and is almost as big as number two and three combined (rice and wheat). And sugar by itself contributes to more than 3% of the global CO2 emissions, more than any other crop grown on Earth and more than the entire aviation industry.”
Incredo, founded in 2014 and formerly known as Douxmatok, is focused on using traditional sugar cane but reducing consumption of it by 30 to 50%. Incredo® Sugar imbeds mineral carriers into sucrose molecules, changing the structure of natural sugar so it is dissolves faster, creating a higher concentration around taste receptors making it ‘taste’ just as sweet as regular sugar, while requiring substantially less.
Focused on a partnership model, bringing specialty ingredients to the food industry, Incredo recently closed a successful series C round with $30 million in investment. Learn more about Incredo and Melamud’s commitment to being part of the future of the FoodTech revolution through sugar reduction with his Leaders on a Mission podcast interview.
Coming Soon – Tom Simmons, CEO of The Supplant Company
Coming soon! Podcast interview with Tom Simmons, CEO of The Supplant Company.
The Supplant Company is processing byproducts of the world’s largest commodity crops (think rice, corn, sugar cane and what) into a low calorie, low glycemic, zero emissions sugar substitute. Check the Leaders on a Mission podcast page for Tom’s interview to air.
What a Sweet Relief!
Knowing there are so many innovative companies out there targeting the problem of sugar consumption is not only inspiring, but a relief. It is certainly hopeful to know real alternatives to big problems are on the verge of making a difference and one more reason I love working in the AgriFood and ClimateTech space.
Are you ready to have your cake and eat it too when it comes to sugar reduction or replacement? What other companies and technologies are out there ready to shake up the sugar-producing and consuming world? Or ready to look for the next great c-suite executive to add to your growing startup team?
Comment on my LinkedIn account or send me an email. I’m always open for a chat!
Cheers,
Simon Leich
CEO, CS Partners
s.leich@cs-partners.net
