FoodShot extends deadline for protein and soil innovation equity & prize

  • 7 July 2020
The deadline to submit an application for the 2020 FoodShots Precision Protein and Innovating Soil 3.0, Deep Dive is 30 August

FoodShot Global has extended the application and nomination deadline for this year’s Precision Protein and Innovating Soil 3.0, Deep Dive by six weeks. Applications can now be submitted until 30 August 30.

Alongside the extended deadline, FoodShot Global has implemented rolling evaluations: applications and nominations will be reviewed as they are received.

Headquartered in New York, FoodShot Global is a collaborative investment platform, working with individuals, companies, and organisations to help develop transformative food system solutions.

FoodShot Global aims to accelerate the transformation to a healthy, sustainable, and equitable food system that can sustainably feed 10 billion people by 2050.

The initiative was founded in 2017 by Victor Friedberg, the co-founder of venture capital firm S2G Ventures.

FoodShot Global: Moonshots for better food

By connecting knowledge, networks, and funding across the private and public sectors, FoodShot creates scalable, impactful, and inspired solutions to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges: sustainability, nutrition, and equity in the food system. The solutions in these areas are called ‘MoonShots For Better Food’.

In mid-April, two new FoodShot challenges were launched to award up to $10 million in equity to researchers, early-stage entrepreneurs and advocates who are developing precision proteins and soil innovations

Next-gen protein

FoodShot Global works with 25 partners, including founding member Generation Investment Management, the private equity operating out of offices in London and San Francisco.

Generation’s latest investment in the food sector was in March. The firm participated in the Series B funding round of Nature’s Fynd, the biotech start-up making an alternative from microbes found in the ancient volcano Yellowstone National Park.

Lila Preston, partner and co-head, growth head at Generation Investment Management
Lila Preston of Generation Investment Management

Speaking to NutritionInvestor, Lila Preston, partner and co-head, growth head at Generation, argued that we’re still in the early innings of a technology-led sustainability revolution that will redefine all industries, including the food system both in the way food is manufactured and in the types of products that people consume.

“We’re just starting to see penetration into alternative proteins,” she said. “We believe this will lead to all sorts of products that will match growing customer, foodservice and ingredient demands.”

In addition to the challenges in protein and soil, FoodShot Global has set up the GroundBreaker Prize, an award of more than $500,000 in philanthropic capital to researchers, early-stage entrepreneurs, and policy advocates.

Foodshot Soil Equity winner

Iowa-based Trace Genomics took home the inaugural FoodShot Soil Equity Award, a $3 million cash injection from S2G Ventures and Grantham Foundation.

Trace Genomics has developed an analytics engine that learns as it maps the living soil to help growers maximise the value of every hectare.

Using high-throughput DNA sequencing and artificial intelligence, the company digitise the living soil to analyse the soil’s biology by applying proprietary soil DNA extraction and sequencing to index and quantify millions of microbes. The information is then combined with your soil chemical data and surface tailored insights to help growers take action. 

Victor Friedberg

This year is the inaugural FoodShot Precision Protein, and the equity award seeks to identify solutions to substantially reducing environmental impacts from production and waste to achieve global targets. The aim is to close the loop on protein production to drive conversion of waste into nutritious food, and improving personalization and efficacy to harness the power of proteins to serve as protective foods.

“The democratisation of nutrition is the next frontier of food,” said said Friedberg. “Protein – which is necessary for many key human biological functions and our overall health – will play a critical role in this democratization, but only with a more precise approach to protein science, production, and processing,” he concluded.