Food-Tech

Marley Spoon recently filed an Initial Public Offering to get listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Marley operates in the USA and in four other countries including Germany. They are currently targeting to expand in Australia. Marley Spoon knows that Australia is one of the strongest markets, so they should go for IPO to maximize their profit.

They decided to compete with their rivals Blue Apron and Hello Fresh. Marley Spoon partnered with the Martha Stewart and their counterpart Dinnerly. The company is expecting to gain a market capitalization of $152 million.

However, they are aiming to gain a rise of 70-million dollars But there are risks to adopting IPO. Blue Apron faces a lot of difficulties. So, everyone is looking how Marley Spoon tackles the challenges.

Purple Carrot going for 100% curbside recyclable packaging

Purple Carrot is another name on the list beside the Marley Spoon. Like Marley Spoon, they also offer meal kit service.  However, they have an extensive plant-based meal kit service.

Recently in a press release, they declared about their new ‘100% curbside recyclable packaging.’ All there products that will be delivered to them will be 100% recyclable. Thus Purple carrot takes a giant step in mitigating the plastic packaging waste.

Stellapps bringing in innovation in Diary Management Services

Stellapps Technologies is an IoT-based company located in India, established in the year 2011. It raised $14 million Series B round. Series B round was led by two organisations-Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and IndusAge partners.

It uses the IoT and the data analysis stack for the dairy supply chain. Stellapps uses automation, sensors, and machine learning to carry out the daily activities on the dairy farm. Stellapps uses IoT technology to monitor every activity from shipping to distribution thus facilitating the cow and diary management services. This helps farmers to take fast, effective, and smart decisions.

KFC with its vegetarian fried chicken

KFC has made a promise. They decide to cut the calorie of their food by 20 percent. They already started working on their grand plan. KFC recently developed a vegetarian version of their famous fried chicken.

They declared that they will add 11 herbs and spices and this new recipe will hit the restaurant in the next year 2019. The new KFC vegetarian fried chicken will make its debut at White Castle. It is now available only for the customers of UK.

They promised that within the next 7 years, they will come up with some more vegetarian based foods. KFC users all over the world will be able to taste their new recipe. But for now, only the UK people can enjoy the vegetarian version of fried chickens.

Beyond Meat are Selling Beef in more than 50 countries

Beyond Meat is a plant-based protein company. They plan to increase their production and sales in the upcoming years. So, they have decided to double their production rate which will certainly meet the growing hunger of the plant-based burgers. Beyond Burgers have increased their sales of beef burgers in several stores in California.

Beyond Meat sense, the demand for beef burgers and they are working accordingly for their introduction. Now everyone doubts whether they will be able to keep the pace till the end of 2018. They take orders to deliver beef burgers in 50 countries this summer. Get updated with the latest Food Tech News. 

The National University of Singapore and Wilmar International jointly opened a research laboratory. Both the companies decide to carry out clinical nutrition and synthetic biology research to create healthy lifestyle products for Singapore and the world.

National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore, Wilmar and NUS setup a research laboratory at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. They hope that the new laboratory will enhance the quality of the food products.

Moreover, the researchers will get an opportunity to carry out research and development and to contribute for the welfare of society. The complete research initiative will have an expenditure of around $80 m.

Objective of the Research

The laboratory has been launched keeping in mind two primary objectives-

• First one is to develop healthy and quality foods to mitigate the health issues.
• Secondly, researchers want to produce chemical compounds using all the natural sources in a cost-effective manner to facilitate Singapore users.

Researchers at the laboratory will demonstrate how minute alterations in absorption and metabolism can help to prevent diseases. Appropriate choice of foods can help in improving one’s health and well-being.

At the laboratory, researchers will engineer microbes and enzymes in such a way that one can avail of natural resources or food products by spending less money. Thus, their aim is to achieve two goals-

• first one is to cure lifestyle-related diseases
• produce sustainable chemicals.

Illustration About The Research

In the laboratory, the researchers will conduct a research for preparing healthy cooking oil. That cooking oil will help to reduce the cholesterol level in the older age groups.

It will increase the muscle mass and will improve the taste perception. Researchers have made plans for food products that can help in controlling weights, blood glucose, and lipids.

Healthy cooking oil can also prove to be beneficial for managing diabetes and obesity. Scientists of the laboratory are also focusing on that aspect too.

The NUS and Wilmar Collaboration

NUS is excited to work with Wilmar. They hope that in the mere future, the scientists will certainly make some ways to improve the health condition of the adults.

Both NUS and Wilmar are hoping that scientists will produce some really good results. This will facilitate not only the citizens of Singapore but also facilitate citizens all over the world.

Singapore will also be facilitated in the field of education and research as well. Significant improvements can be seen in the research field of synthetic biology, food science, and nutrition in the past few years.

Companies are investing more and more in the research field to create new products and for enhancing business growth. NUS and Wilmar have collaborated to enhance the lifestyle of the Singapore citizens. New products will bring in health and economic benefits for the people of Singapore.

Zomato is one the food-tech startup company located in India. Zomato provides detailed information about the restaurants near your location. You can order your favorite dish from your favorite restaurant with just a few clicks. Zomato offers home delivery with a very minimal service delivery charge. The app takes the order to the desired restaurant and delivers food at your doorstep.

Recently they announced their shifting of business throughout the Asian continent. Zomato raises $400 million at $2 billion valuations per year with many more in form of endorsements. Currently, Zomato has its subsidiaries in 23 countries. The company has partnered with more than 35000 restaurants and currently, they have more than 40,000 delivery fleets in Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata, and Hyderabad.

Zomato is the Second Best… Guess who is first?

Zomato ranks second in the food ordering service and they come right after Swiggy. However, they have come back strongly with new service schemes and app upgrades.

It is not an easy thing to capture the international market but Zomato has done it successfully. They have won the hearts of millions of customers with their lightning fast delivery and customer friendly responses.

Opportunity At Zomato

Zomato is partnering with multiple restaurants aiming to expand throughout India. Since their customer-base is increasing exponentially, they are efficiently increasing their delivery boys for a faster service to customers.

The best thing about Zomato is their customer feedback option. They tend to analyze every single response and stay connected to people ordering food from their application.

Zomato Strict Policies

Zomato takes serious actions against restaurants if they receive any complaint from the customer behalf. They tend to end their tie-ups, penalize restaurants, charge delivery boys, and follow every kind of similar strict policies.

All you need to know about Zomato Revenue Policy

In March 2017 Zomato enjoyed a doubled revenue of Rs. 399 crore. However, they saw loses in revenues of Rs 389 crore in the year 2016. Currently, Zomato has an annual turnover of $13.4 million. That is all about Zomato.

Food tech is a very relatively defined term. Every food business over the internet, from aggregators to ordering and delivery platforms are clubbed under this one term. Food and the opportunity that came with it drove many entrepreneurs to this space. 2010-14 was a golden era for them with funds flowing like water. Not just for food tech startup but any startup for that matter. The prize and the profit were irresistible and that made startups flourish. But everything went down with a thud. That was the rise and the fall of the food tech empire.

Food Tech Start-Up: The Beginning

Burrp was the first such venture launched back in 2006. Later in 2008, Zomato came into existence and then the game began its expansion. Discoveries were made, review based listings were brought to life. More users started using the internet to search for restaurants. Revenue came just from the ads and premium listings. The companies started to look for more sources of income in 2010. This made them venture into the online ordering of food. This attracted more companies to join the bandwagon with investors lavishly funding these startups.

The Downfall

2015 was the year of the downfall of many food tech companies with many big names flattened and crushed. Over 2015-16, more than 24 mergers and acquisitions took place in the sector alone and all because they weren’t able to deliver.

• The Barkley based SpoonRocket closed operations because it was unable to secure additional funding.
• Dazo winded up its operations because of lack of funds as well. The Bengaluru based company hardly operated for a year.
• In 2015, Ealto raised Rs. 6 crores but still stopped its operation.
• Yumist suffered the same fate due to lack of capital in 2017.
• Foodpanda couldn’t find a buyer even at the base price. They ended up laying off over 300 employees in 2015.
• Zomato laid off almost the same number of staff to cut costs in the weaker section of its business.

This showed that the investors were avoiding any risk by withdrawing support from small firms, even if they were fundamentally sound. In 2015, 83 funding deals took place that was worth $483.72 million. Next year, the number of deals went down to 51 and was worth only $74.1 million. In 2017, there were a little over 29 funding deals amounting to $145.16 million.

Is This The End?

No, this has just cleared the space for more organized and efficient service providers. Following this turbulence, two new models emerged- cloud kitchens and restaurant marketplaces.

Cloud kitchen is a complex mechanism. Here, the focus lies on three mechanisms-  logistics engine, brand and tech infrastructure. These mechanisms controlled the entire process for achieving the profits. Some examples of cloud kitchens are Box8, HolaChef, Faasos, FreshMenu etc.

While the marketplace is more of a tech business that advertises and aggregates restaurants employing a tech-based logistics infrastructure for delivering food. Swiggy, Zomato, Foodpanda, etc. are examples of the dominant marketplace.

End Of The Story

The bottom line is- the market is evolving pushing the investors to evolve as well. Smaller players need to find their niche along with creating new categories. The faster the food tech Start-Up evolve, the better it is.