May 20, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan

Maybe it’s the lack of fresh air, but I admit, I was confused for a hot minute – so I decided to get my ducks in a row and write one article about recent capital rounds raised by Cubiq Foods and CubicFarms. 

Cubiq Foods

Spanish foodtech startup Cubiq Foods announced it has raised €5 million through a funding round that included Blue Horizon Ventures and Moira Capital Partners.

Based in Barcelona and founded in 2018 by Dr. Raquel Revilla and the entrepreneurs Andrés Montefeltro and Jordi Bladé, Cubiq Foods is the first cultivated cell platform to produce high-quality omega-3s.

Using cell culture and new oil-water emulsion formulas, Cubiq Foods is developing a technology platform to produce cell-based oils rich in omega-3s along with novel, patented methods to prepare oil and water emulsions suitable to replace saturated vegetable and animal fat ingredients in food production.

Achieving this at scale will place Cubiq Foods as a leader in the “daily dose omega-3” benchmark. And toward this end, the company has launched two new products that will be commercially available later this year:

~ Cubiq Foods vegan Smart Fat – a 100 percent natural, lower calorie alternative to animal fats in processed foods and saturated vegetable fats, such as coconut oil in vegan food products.

~ and Cubiq Foods micro03 – a “next generation” microencapsulated omega-3 (DHA + EPA) for functional foods with high omega-3 content. Multilayer microencapsulation protects the highly-concentrated oils to maintain their properties without compromising flavor.

The startup plans to use the capital raised to scale up the production of these products, and to accelerate the development of new, healthier fat alternatives. 

“Sustainable omega-3 and vegan healthier fats inspire our team and partners,” said Andrés Montefeltro, CEO and co-founder of Cubiq Foods. “We are ready to deliver a new generation of nutritious, healthy and accessible products at industrial scale by the end of this year.”

CubicFarms

Meanwhile, Canada-based CubicFarms, an agtech startup designing and deploying proprietary technologies for use in controlled environment agricultural production, announced it has secured an investment of C$5 million (US$3.6 million) through a private placement with Ospraie Ag Science. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Ospraie as a strategic partner as CubicFarms embarks on its exciting next chapter. The investment by Ospraie, one of the top technology investors in the agricultural space, is a testament to the CubicFarms vision, team, and technology,” said Jeff Booth, chairman, CubicFarms.

CubicFarms offers multiple controlled environment growing platforms that can be applied to the automated, commercial scale growing of fresh produce, or the production of livestock feed.

The first is the patented CubicFarm™ System that uses a unique, undulating-path growing system for the year-round production of leafy greens and other crops. This system addresses major challenges being faced by the indoor agriculture industry by significantly reducing the need for physical labor and energy while maximizing yield per cubic foot.

Operating its own R&D facility in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, the company is able to sell its system to growers, license its technology, and provide vertical farming expertise to its client base. 

The second platform is CubicFarms’ HydroGreen System that utilizes a novel process to sprout grains such as barley and wheat in a controlled environment for growing nutritious livestock feed with minimal use of land and water.

As a fully automated system, the HydroGreen System performs all tasks in the growing process from seeding to watering, lighting, harvesting, and re-seeding with the push of a button. The result is nutritious livestock feed without the usual investment in agri-chemicals, fuel, field equipment, and transportation, benefiting both the animals and the environment.

“Over the past month, we’ve seen a sharp increase in inquiries from interested parties worldwide for our technology, to enhance food production and improve food security and self-sufficiency,” said Dave Dinesen, CEO, CubicFarms.

“The Covid-19 pandemic exposed fragility in supply chains, such as labour shortages, disruptions in the packing and transportation sectors, and increasing uncertainty in the domestic and international markets. CubicFarms’ automated growing systems have emerged as a key solution to overcoming these challenges by allowing growers to localize food production and provide their markets with fresh produce and nutritious livestock feed reliably and consistently.”

Dinesen continued, “Two months ago, we announced our largest system sale of 100 fresh produce machines, and our ever increasing sales pipeline underscores the demand for our technology.”

The company expects to use the capital gained through this offering in support of its research and development, to enhance machine capabilities, expand crop varieties, and as working capital. 

“CubicFarms’ fresh produce systems are on the leading edge of commercial-scale controlled-environment-agriculture technology and we are excited to support Dave and the entire CubicFarms team as they continue to execute their vision of providing innovative solutions for both the food and feed markets,” said Dwight Anderson, CIO, Ospraie Ag Science.

“The agricultural value chain is rapidly evolving and technology infrastructure to overcome the pains of traditional farming is sorely needed,” Anderson continued. “CubicFarms is one part of the multivariable solution required to address this need for safe, reliable, environmentally-friendly and affordable food. We look forward to working with the Company and its existing partners to realize CubicFarms’ tremendous potential.”

– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to the GAI News and Agtech Intel platforms. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.