Innovafeed -a bug company raises close to $500m

Innovafeed (founded in 2016 ) is a bug business cofounded by  Bastien Oggeri, Aude Guo & Clément Ray.  that has raised a fresh  $260m in a raise led by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fundmaking total raise $460m 

Source: Innovafeed

Other investors include 

• Paris-based Creadev 
• Singapore state-owned fund, Temasek, 
• global agricultural commodity traders ADM and Cargill, 
• Future French Champions (a joint venture between Qatar Investment Authority and Bpifrance), 
• ABC Impact, IDIA Capital Investissement and Grow Forward
• La Caisse d'Epargne Hauts de France, Groupe Crédit Agricole, 

BNP Paribas, Arkéa and Société Générale contributed €38m in debt financing.

What it does 

Innovafeed operates two plants in northern France that convert the larvae of the black soldier fly into thousands of tonnes of insect oil and meal for pets, fish, chickens and pigs. 

The black fly has the ability to eat any kind of waste food. 

Bugs are high in nutrients and is a climate-friendly way of feeding fish and animals because the process uses maggots fed with agricultural byproducts, like rotting vegetables, on a fraction of the land needed for livestock. Soy and fishmeal, the traditional bedrock of animal feed in Europe, require a lot more space and can be harmful to the environment. 

“Every factory we build, it’s around 50k tonnes of CO2 avoided,” Oggeri estimates. 

“We won’t replace your burger at the moment — but we can start with snacks and sport nutrition [food],” he says. 

Buggy Growth 

Innovafeed are looking to build insect farms in the US and Asia, with the company targeting up to 20 sites, cofounder Bastien Oggeri tells Sifted. 

The company says it has signed contracts worth more than €1bn over the next 10 years.

Dutch insect farmer Protix has raised over $100m to date. Global competitors include Canada’s Enterra Feed and US company EnviroFlight. 

Rabobank, a Dutch lender, predicts that global insect production could reach 500k tonnes a year by 2030, up from just 10k tonnes in 2020.

https://sifted.eu/articles/innovafeed-animal-feed-insects

The World’s Biggest Bug Farm Wants to Decarbonize Fishmeal

With five floors of insect incubators, Innovafeed’s newly expanded plant in France can produce 15,000 tons of insect protein per year. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-28/the-world-s-biggest-bug-farm-wants-to-decarbonize-fishmeal?in_source=embedded-checkout-banner

Research says that people want sustainable food

 More than half of U.S. consumers say they want sustainable food, according to a 2019 survey by the International Food Information Council, a nonprofit. Three out of fivepeople in the U.K. are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly food options, according to a survey of 1,000 people by professional services firm GHD released in November. 

VCs and Employees cash out 💰 for over $500m from SafetyCulture

SafetyCulture founded by  Luke Anear raises $34 million while planning a $500 million VC share sale at a $2.7 billion valuation.

Safety Culture turnover is $132m (32% up from previous year )- valuing it at 20X revenue !

Anear said the funding and the turn to profitability would take them to the flywheel -  giving them  an “infinite runway”

It’s our understanding that $500 million will payout  Blackbird and Index Ventures  who have invested for 10 years as well as employees who have participated in their share scheme.

This should free up equity to allow you to investment  from US VC at a higher valuation giving a payday for the funds LPs ands empmoyees! 

Blackbird also sold $150m of Canva shares  last week,

What does Safetyculture do ?

It helps keep your workplace safe easily and affordable by providing an extensive library of resources crafted by safety experts who understand the complexities of health and safety programs. Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS), Management Plans and much more are available to help you meet compliance standards, protect employees and keep your business running smoothly.

Examples of products you can buy from their extensive library  are quality management systems for $700 , quality management systems for $30and risk management plans for $50!

Any company, large or small  can create their  own safety library with their own logo on a saas model! 

IK note!  A Learning Platform  should fit into this space - which boards well for the likes of Edtech, BSI learning be a part of the #nexttechrevolution ! 

Pendulum raises a further 14.5m after a 6.75m raise 2 years ago

Sydney-based customer communications start-up Pendula has closed a $14.5 million funding round led by Octopus Ventures after they raised  $6.75 million in a series B funding round  from  MA Financial Group  and Equity Venture Partners 2 years ago -  in 2021!

Pendula has built a very impressive product that enables its equally impressive customer base to quickly and easily communicate with businesses through automated SMS and emails and has an impressive client base managing over 20m conversations.

Clients  include iconic brands including amaysim, Cancer Council, TEDX, Ramsay Health Care and Origin Energy. 

The product has enabled its  clients to attain 500% increases in conversation rates and 430% stronger engagement when compared to traditional email-based customer communications.

Upstream a Solar Energy company has raised $20 million

 Upstream  a Solar Energy company founded by Nathan Begley has raised $20 million from MA Financial’s growth ventures business. 

Upskilled helps corporates go solar and save money !

Upskilled places solar panels on its clients’ sites, who then purchase energy from Upstream, instead of the grid at a lower cost.

They currently operate 15 megawatts of rooftop solar energy and battery storage and is looking to reach 100 MW in three years.

“The generation amount of coal fired power stations that will be shut down in the next 11 years is the same amount of generation needed by the state of NSW at 7.00am in the morning – 7 GW or 7 million kilowatts. To power the electric vehicles needed in future is 40 times that amount. We need to invest massive amount of money and innovation into fixing this problem.“

Nathan Begley, Managing Director of Upstream Energy

Four lessons-learned from founders at Main Sequence - Peerless

Peerless -  Main Sequence portfolio forum . Collaboration learning and growth at its finest 

Phil Morle share 4 insights taken from The Main Sequence portfolio annual meetup called Peerless where 55 companies gathered to connect , contribute and collaborate with a view to learn and grow 
He shares 4 common ideas that resonated with him - Thanks Phil Morle for your insights !

#1 — Communities can’t prosper online alone

Post-pandemic, I am slowly remembering this. Life online can default to a transactional and hollow mode. We get lost in urgent, literal work and miss the magic that happens when people come together.
This is where our intuition pulls us into the conversations we need to have. We find inspiration in places that we would not think to visit. When people are in the same room, the ‘ecology of talent’ is visible and the collective power of the group that Brian Eno calls Sceniussprings into life.

#2 — Growth comes in stages, and phase transitions are always messy

After all these years of making companies, it is still possible for me to believe that a perfect, smooth growth experience is possible. It isn’t. I finally accepted this at Peerless.
As companies grow, they reach a point where they can’t grow any further in their current shape. There are structural reasons for this. The right team for what we just did is the wrong team for what we need to do next. The cap table may misalign shareholders to adjust the strategy. Or we ran out of customers in the set where we found product/market fit.
There are many reasons. But all companies hit a conflation of headwinds at some stage. This requires recognition in the first instance, then a deliberate effort for phase transition.
What usually happens is one of these two things:

• Companies don’t see (or resist) phase transition and growth plateaus, or

• Companies find themselves in a forced phase transition.

In both cases, it hurts like crazy. It looks messy. It looks like failure.
But it isn’t. It is normal.
Let’s figure out how we sense an incoming phase transition.
Then accept it will hurt like hell.
Then get into it.
This is the work.

#3 — A Founder's first responsibility is to ensure the best CEO is in the seat.

The ‘Founder’ and the ‘CEO’ are often the same person, especially in the early stages. But they don’t need to be. And sometimes they shouldn’t be. The CEO of a startup is an impossibly difficult task, and there is much personal development to be done so that the person grows with the company.
How do Founder/CEOs know that they are still the best person to be in the CEO seat? How are they measuring their own performance to take on new skills and capabilities or perhaps knowing when to find a replacement?
As one of the biggest shareholders in a company, the Founder’s first responsibility is to have the best person in the world leading the company.
Some ideas:

• CEOs accept they can’t do everything they need to do yet and need to establish a program for learning it. Like professional athletes, CEOs need to train. No matter how experienced they are.

• Find someone outside the company to share experiences with. The old cliche holds true that ‘It is lonely at the top’. Find who you can share experiences with to explore your own mind.

• If CEOs bring on a coach, consider that you might need a different coach for the different stages of the company. Coaches run out of ‘experience capacity’ as well as CEOs.

#4 — Pay attention to the people when building an enduring businesses

Neil Perry joined us to discuss how he has grown his food business, including restaurants, TV shows, books and the Qantas food service. His secret is an idea he calls the “Care Principle”.
We don’t think about that enough in venture and startups. We’re transactional, looking for every optimisation and efficiency and sometimes not thinking enough about how it makes the team feel and how that, in turn, makes the company perform.
He said at one point:
“I want everyone that leaves one of my companies to leave a better person than the one that walked in.”
It is easily said but non-trivial to do. How do you operationalise that? How is an encounter with a team member different every single time because this is a guiding principle?
If you care, what do you do differently?
He told a story about the price of fish at the market and a relationship with a supplier. If the market price is less than the price that has been agreed, do you haggle? Or do you acknowledge that that supplier goes to sea each day to catch the freshest fish that you rely on each evening in the restaurant, so you stay with the agreed price?
If you care, what do you do differently?
—

🖖🏻 #hack+hustle+flearn
Phil is a deep tech investor, and he’s  building out loud. Subscribe here or follow him @philmorle

Collaboration between Universities, Corporate and Government is key

Another great example of the collaboration between universities and tech companies!!!

Universities working alongside tech companies is a proven formula. 

Stanford University and Silicon Valley coexist in a collaborative and symbiotic way. Seeding over 6000 tech companies and 45 unicorns in recent years. 

A pleasure to pop by the ATOMOS offices yesterday in Melbourne. Strategically placed in the modern offices of the University of Melbourne’s engineering and tech  tower in Swanson St. And great to catch up with newly appointed advisor to the Atomos board and chair of the audit and risk committee, James Joughin 

Atomos is a great Australian tech company, with a world wide brand presence in hi rez video monitor tech for the broadcast and entertainment industries.

(Paul Greenberg has been recently  appointed non exec chair of the Atomos board).

Side Stage Ventures backed by founders of Linktree, Go1 and Airtasker

A $30m early stage fund -   Side Stage Ventures led by   Ben Grabiner and rich lister Markus Kahlbetzer  has been backed by a bunch of 

Aussie tech start-ups and funds .

Kahlbetzer was a founding partner at Tank Stream Ventures which led the seed round of ed-tech unicorn Go1 - and Andrew Barnes and  Tim Fung is now backing Markus!

Whose invested 

Limited Partners include 

• Alex and Anthony Zaccaria of Linktree 
• Tim Fung and Andrew Barnes of Go1 , 
•  Matt Allen from Tractor Ventures , 
• Jaddan Comerford of Unified Music 
• Andrew Barnes of UK-based venture fund LocalGlobe

“Focus will be in investing up to $500k seed funding in creative arts and talent startups to help scale their businesses.

Some of its investments Heaps Normal, Mr Yum and EQL

Markus Kahlbetzer told Tegan Jones of startupdaily that the start-up ecosystem in Australia is ripe with innovation, with some successful unicorns as proof of concept!

He enthused

“We have world-class talent, a burgeoning startup ecosystem, government support and plenty of other competitive advantages in a post-COVID world that can transform Australia into a world-leading innovation hub. There has never been a better time to build and invest in Australia than now.”

Bens shares in a blog  why he is so excited https://medium.com/side-stage 

Australia leading the way in Quantum Sensors - and customers are excited

Nomad Atomics have landed a $10m series A round to commercialise their mvp after having raised $2m in 2020 to build it .

Born out of the ANU from atomic physicists  Kyle Hardman, Paul Wigley and Christian Freier,  have built a world-leading quantum sensor technology they makes underground mining safer.

Their technology measures the movement of the cosmos into something about the size of a shoebox

The Nomad sensor can create a detailed and accurate map of the deep underground while its user stands at the Earth’s surface. For underground mining, then, Nomad provides an absolute source of truth for the potential difficulty of a mine, and supports safe underground mining and operations, with accuracy and ease that is currently inaccessible.

It is no wonder that  have some super-eager early customers. 🛠️

Opportunities are not just in critical minerals mining, but in monitoring of CO2 sequestration and aquifers, to environmental monitoring, and beyond.  

The value of Strategic Partnerships - Joyned and NexusTours

Very often , strategic partnerships are more valuable than venture capital!

There is no dilution in your existing business , and there is shared profit/revenue on business that you do together! 

Often a win win win at its finest! 

A win for each other party and more important a win for the customer! 

An example of a strategic partnership at its finest 

Israeli startup Joyned - an innovative social booking technology will be used across  NexusTours online platforms. (serving the Caribbean, Central America, and North America.)

This strategic partnership will enhance the travel experience for users in 20 countries across these regions. The technology enables people to invite friends and family to the NexusTours websites, and collaborate in a private, on-site platform to discuss and book group trips.

A win for the customer 

Joyned’s technology  transforms the reservation process for Friends & Family (F&F) travelers, resulting in significantly higher conversion rates and an enhanced user experience for businesses utilizing the Joyned Booking system.

Jonathan Abraham, CEO of Joyned, said: “”we look forward to working closely together in future to provide the best experience possible to customers. “

A win for Nexus Tours 

Joyned Booking will shorten the decisions and debates of customers in real-time, while F&F travelers explore NexusTours’ site offering which includes a choice of trips to 58 different destinations.

Rubén Gutiérrez, President of NexusTours, enthused: “Through the utilization of Joyned’s booking technology, we’re not only able to enhance the customer experience, but also maintain a competitive edge in our industry. So far, we have seen an impressive 20% increase in conversion rate among customers 

A win for Joyned 

Their technology is being deployed and enhanced that can hopefully make it ubiquitous for the travel industry 

Kevin O’Hara, thanks for the heads up boet! 

OIf Venture fund to raise $75m to back ARR 10m plus companies

OIF team members David Shein, Jerry Stesel, Laurence Schwartz ,Geoff Levy, Isabella Rich,, David Cohen, Oliver Darwin , Anna Isipov and Keren Dorfan.

Founders from Go1, Instaclustr have backed OIF Ventures in their $75m raise for another opportunity fund.

This fund  is focussed on investing in  technology businesses that have more than $10 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).

OIF investments include Go1 and Advanced Navigation - 

It’s previous funds have returned more than 3x to investors in cash, net of all fees, 

with eight major portfolio companies remaining including Go1, Advanced Navigation, Kasada, and Enboarder, 

In 2022 their exit from interclustr gave a  20x return, and in 2021 exited XM Cyber, EFTsure and 50 per cent of Assignar.

Other OIF investments include 

• funeral industry disruptor Bare, 
• online bridging loan fintech Bridgit, 
• legal tech software provider Josef, and 
• large-scale construction program dashboard Mastt. 

About OIf 

The mission at OIF is simple: to partner with exceptional founders, add material value to them and their businesses and to do our best to help them succeed. If they succeed, so too will our investors. 

  

They have high-conviction in the power of the founders and they back to build generational teams and businesses that set the standard globally and they strive  to be their partner of choice – 

  

As long-term partners and investors, they are  confident that exceptional founders will continue to launch exceptional businesses and that OIF Ventures will be in their corner every step of the way. 

  

Grant funding to support innovative startup projects

$392m Industry Growth Program opens for consultation (http://innovationaus.com), a new early-stage commercialisation initiative to bridge the ‘valley of death’ facing young SMEs working on innovative projects that align with the National Reconstruction Fund.

A $392 million Industry Growth Program to help early-stage commercialisation of SMEs working on innovative projects that align with the National Reconstruction Fund is being planned and is open for consultation .

The program is expected to provide advice and matched grant funding of up to $5 million to startups and SME’s, with the aim of expanding the pipeline of investment-ready projects for the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund (NRF).

Projects and companies supported 

, 

1. Value add agriculture 
2. forestry and fisheries; 
3. value-add in resources; 
4. transport; 
5. medical science; 
6. renewables and low emissions technologies; 
7. defence capability; 
8. and enabling capabilities.

“particularly keen to help bridge the ‘valley of death’ – where great ideas, often backed by solid research, are hamstrung only by a lack of funding and expertise.” Said Minister Ed Husic 

“This consultation is about creating the right conditions to ensure brilliant Australian entrepreneurs can grow and thrive here at home,” he said, adding that the program was “setting up the next wave of Australian businesses to thrive for years to come.”

According to the discussion paper, the program will focus on “industry-led activities”, like those of “innovative SMEs looking to scale-up and commercialise their operations”, and that industry research collaborations are only “potentially eligible.”

“We intend the program to focus on those that will benefit the most from advice and financial support. 

This may be due to their difficult assessing expertise, networks, finance or other causes,” the paper states.

“The commercialisation will focus on encouraging innovative SMEs to get their unique ideas to market and achieve first sales. 

The early-stage growth element… is expected to focus on pre-profit SMEs with novel ideas and are now seeking to scale their operations”.

Support will come in the form of both advice from Industry Growth Program (IGP) advisers and industry partner organisations, as well as matched grants of up to $250,000 for very early-stage commercialisation and up to $5 million for all other projects.

The Department of Industry, Science and Resources will engage IGP advisers to “provide guidance on commercialisation and SME growth” to businesses, while industry partner organsiations – which are yet to be determined – will also provide “specialised advisory and support services” in some cases.

“We propose that organisations wanting to be classified as an industry partner organization will need to apply and be considered through government selection processes,” the discussion paper states.

Only grant applications for projects that have been invited by an IGP advisers, industry partner organisations, or the IGP’s executive director will be accepted by the government, according to the paper.

At least 50 per cent of the project that aligns with an NRF priority area will also need to be funded by the SME, with the proponent expected to provide evidence of their ability to fund the remainder of the project.

“Only the most promising projects proposed by innovative SMES that have received advisory services will be invited to apply for grant funding,” the discussion paper, released on Wednesday, said.

Program oversight and recommendations on grant assessments will be provided by a new committee, which will be established under the delegation of the Industry Innovation and Science Australia Board.

As part of the consultation, the government is requesting feedback on the criteria for the program, including whether it should be limited to businesses with a turnover of $20 million or less, and whether Technology Readiness Levels should be used to determine eligibility of a project.

It also wants to understand how the program might complement other university, industry or government initiatives, with the government already looking at opportunities to link the IGP with Australia’s Economic Accelerator and CRCs.

“The Australian government wants to ensure it has a competitive program to nurture innovative companies to become the big employers of the future,” the discussion paper states.

“The program’s strong focus on commercialisation and early-stage business growth advice, combined with grants, aims to be a high-impact, cost-effective way to back Australia ideas and build capability.”

The consultation will close on 30 July 2023. The discussion paper can be found here.

Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.

Related: Ed Husic | Industry Growth Program | National Reconstruction Fund | NRF

Hannah Spilva - exited LVLY and shares insights with Leigh and Brad

Hannah Spilva shared the stage giving insights on tips for Entepreneurs to exit with Leigh Jasper who sold his startup  Aconex for $1.6b and Brad Moran who recently sold Citrusad to Publicitas for $205m!

Hannah and her partner Verity Tuck, sold her local flower delivery startup LVLY in 2015 for $35 million by south-east Asian tech firm Limitless Technology last year (in 2022)

4 secrets of a high value exit from Hannah

• International focus
• The right buyer - Limitless Technology launches, scales, and acquires profitable e-brands across Asia Pacific, with a focus on gifts, confectionery, health, and fashion. 
• Exponential revenue growth - 629% in 3 years - reaching  $13.9 million, with 162 employees working from its locations in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and across Australia. 
• A strong social and environmental conscience -  guided by 3 simple principles – to be lovely to people, lovely to Australia and lovely to our planet
• Supporting local and treading lightly on the planet is underpinned by our Paddock to PosyTMsupply chain working with local growers and wholesalers.”

Spilva and Tuck both worked in advertising bl (before lvly) and  saw  a glaring gap in the online flower and gift-giving market. 

They built a flower business  settting a  standard for same-day delivery - with a simple easy to use platform .

Frntln, beyonces dad and tiktok style learning videos raise $4.5m seed round

Frntlne founded by music and entertainment Entepreneur,   Mark John min 2021 - has raised  $4.6 million by Matt Berriman’s RealVC, Investible and Navitas founder Rod Jones’ family office and Hoperidge Capital . 

John  is being mentored by Beyoncé  dad Dr Mathew Knowles PhD, who presented the platform to a group of high profile retail and pharmaceutical chains in the UK (pictured above) . 

Mark saw a gap when experiencing shocking customer service from retailers! 

What is Frntln?

Frntlne is an online training platform engaging  frontline staff in the retail, hospitality, and pharmaceutical industries using Tik tok  style videos followed by a short quiz .

The format was developed with education expert David Isaacson using cognitive load theory, which is designed to develop better memory recall , increasing information retention and make learning fun.”

These snippets are tailored to help sales staff deliver the best possible customer experience, as well as high sales conversions for brands and retailers. 

"If we can deliver information in an entertaining and informative kind of way - similar to what you see on TikTok - the learner feels that it's easy enough, it's fun enough, and they want to engage with it," Mr John shared with the AFR .

Clients and Distributors 

Clients include  Coles, L’Oreal, P&G, Swisse, Mumm Champagne and Bondi Sands, and has recently secured its first international partnership with southeast Asian alcohol distributor Octopus Group.

Octopus has a global footprint with the potential to reach over 3,000 hospitality venues with over 600 brands in Singapore and Malaysia .Their brands include household brands like the Diageo portfolio, the Stoli group and the AVL portfolio.

John’s vision 

John’s shared his vision with Morganne Kopittke of smartcompany 

“Our aim is to redefine the in-store customer service experience and we’re very excited for the future. We want to be the most valuable online tool for education and data collection in the markets we work across a broad range of industries including but not limited to hospitality, retail, pharmacy, and aviation,”

What is the money raised for? 

The money raised is  being raised for  global expansion into UK , Singapore and UaE. 

Welcome to the #nexttechrevolution