Tag Archives: Orbisk

Food Waste Monitor Orbisk Raises €1.05M Seed Funding

25 August 2021Archief, NewsAlumni, funding, Orbisk, PeakBridge, StartLife AccelerateBram van Beek

StartLife alumnus Orbisk has successfully raised €1.05M seed funding for its fully automated food waste monitor for hospitality organizations. Orbisk will use the funding to further its R&D and go-to-market efforts and advance towards scale.

Using artificial intelligence, Orbisk’s waste monitors automatically identify what food and how much of it is thrown away by food service companies. By monitoring what food gets thrown out, restaurants and cafeterias not only reduce the amount of good food going into the garbage, they also save money by not spending it on food that customers don’t want. Orbisk’s solution is currently used by 50 restaurants, which are now benefiting from an average food waste reduction of 40 – 50%.

2.1 billion tons food waste

Food waste is big problem. Each year over 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted. This equals 4.4 billion tons in C02 emissions, which accounts for 8% of global CO2 emissions. Orbisk’s waste monitors are used in the hospitality industry, which accounts for 15% of all food waste globally. That is over 150 million tons food waste annually worldwide and 10 million tons annually in the EU alone. Without impactful interventions, food waste is expected to grow to 2.1 billion tons by 2030, representing a major economic burden of €1.1 trillion on the hospitality sector and environmental burden on society.*

Investors double down their stakes

With so much potential impact, it is no wonder that this proven solution receives support from investors. The funding round was led by FoodSparks by PeakBridge VC (one of StartLife’s investor partners), with participation from EIT Food, and existing investors DOEN Participaties B.V. and Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM) of which the latter have doubled down on their prior investments in the company.

*Source: Catalyze Group

p.s. Stay up to date with the latest news about and for agrifood startups, scale-ups and more via StartLife’s Linkedin or Twitter account or via the StartLife newsletter (8x a year).

StartLife Alumni Updates – September 2020

10 September 2020Archief, NewsAlumni, Celine, Epinutra, Greencovery, Mylium, Odd.bot, Orbisk, PEF TechnologiesBram van Beek

Brief updates from StartLife Alumni and Community members.

Orbisk launches international consortium co-funded by €1.2M Eurostars grant

On a global scale, a mind-boggling amount of 1.3 billion tons (1.300.000.000.000 kgs) of food goes to waste, every single year. Food waste fighter Orbisk has just secured a EUR 1.2 million Eurostars grant to help make a difference. As of September 1st, Orbisk, Aivero and Eaternity Institut form an international consortium aptly titled ‘FOOD FIGHT’. The partners will explore cutting edge camera and streaming technologies. Furthermore, the consortium will focus on the prospecting capabilities based on the generated data, to better understand and advise clients to reduce their food waste and environmental impact.

Read the full announcement.

FrieslandCampina Director becomes Managing Director at PEF Technologies

After two years of effective cooperation on a consultancy basis, the team of PEF Technologies have appointed Meeuwes Buiten as Managing Director. Meeuwes has 35+ years of experience within the dairy industry. He took various managing positions at Royal FrieslandCampina, amongst which Supply Chain Director. “His knowledge of product development and his broad and global network within dairy sector makes his input indispensable for the company. I believe that under his lead we have all chances to bringing the product to the market in the nearest future,” comments Valeriy Mitko, Technical Director and co-owner of PEF Technologies.

Go to the full press release.

Odd.bot delivers proof-of-concept for Weed Whacker robot

This summer Odd.bot demonstrated their Proof-of-Concept in the presence of their current financers: the Horizon Flevoland Proof of Concept Fund, a robotics expert hired by them and a delegation from Wageningen University & Research. Odd.bots has demonstrated in the field, at a grower of organic carrots, that they have a working robot that can not only recognize the weeds well and distinguish them from the crop, but can also remove the weeds independently. The next goal they have set for themselves is to demonstrate by mid-October that the robot will do its work for four consecutive hours: recognize at least 70 percent of the weeds present and remove at least 70 percent of them. So on balance already half of all the weeds present!

EIT Food awards over €200.000 to high-impact agrifood startup Epinutra

EIT Food invests €5.4 million in 13 high-impact agrifood startups. Among them is StartLife alumni Epinutra. They receive €212.500. The investment is made from The COVID-19 Bridge Fund which supports European agrifood startups that have been affected by coronavirus. The funds help the companies adapt to COVID-19, to continue critical innovation to transform our food systems and to bridge the gap towards their next investment round. The selected startups cover a range of sectors with vast potential to create positive change, addressing one of EIT Food’s focus areas. The investments concerns convertible loans, so EIT Food made sure to select high-potential startups.

Celine obtains 150,000 euro from Rabobank Innovation Fund

Celine, provider of automated water and nutrient management in greenhouse horticulture, obtained a Rabo Innovation loan of €150,000. The loan, which is an initiative of the Innovation Fund Rabobank, provides Dutch early-stage entrepreneurs with a good innovative idea that contributes to the digitization, sustainability and/or vitalization of society the opportunity to further develop their plans.

GreenCovery and Mylium win first AtlasInvest Entrepreneurship Grant

Side-stream specialist Greencovery and sustainable textile producer Mylium are the winners of the first AtlasInvest Entrepreneurship Grant. The grant, provided by the investment holding company of Marcel van Poecke (a successful WUR alumnus), supports student-entrepreneurs from Wageningen University who have impactful ideas. Two grants have been awarded. The startup award (€15.000), won by Greencovery, is granted to student entrepreneurs who focus on commercially promising solutions to global food and sustainability challenges. The Impact Award (€15.000), won by Mylium, rewards social initiatives of student entrepreneurs that focus on maximum impact on the environment and sustainability.

p.s. You can also follow StartLife on Linkedin, Twitter or stay up to date with the latest news about and for agrifood startups, scaleups and more via the StartLife newsletter.

StartLife Alumni Updates – July 2020

2 July 2020Archief, NewsAlumni, Ellipsis, Orbisk, Premal, Time Travelling Milkman, Van BovenBram van Beek

Brief updates from StartLife Alumni and Community members.

Ellipsis closes deal with the city of Rotterdam

In the context of our energy transition, the city of Rotterdam wants to continuously map how many solar panels are installed in their city. Ellipsis has been selected to detect all solar panels in Rotterdam using remote sensing and AI, and link this information to the municipal information systems. Rotterdam chose Ellipsis because they can easily integrate the information into the existing information systems of the city and their associates. This critical step, going from raw data outputs to easily shareable and integrable geoinformation, is a major challenge that companies with an AI expertise only, have difficulty solving.

StartLife Grants 350,000 euro Next Stage Funding

StartLife offers promising food- & agtech startups up to 85,000 euro non-dilutive funding, which is split into three stages. For each stage startups have to pitch and defend their case in front of StartLife’s Review Board; a group of agrifood investors and serial-entrepreneurs. Last week the review board granted 350,000 euro to nine StartLife startups.

Collecting 330,000 euro for Take Off

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has recently completed a new funding round from their Take-Off program, which is aimed at stimulating innovative activity based on the knowledge development and utilization by researchers at knowledge institutions. Three StartLife / Starthub startups participated in the spring 2020 call and were all granted funding. Drone-specialist Van Boven receives a loan of €250,000 for early stage routes. Remode Solutions, developer of custom-made 3D printed bioreactors, and dairy-fat-alternative producer Time Travelling Milkman both received €40,000 for conducting feasibility studies.

View full list of funded Take Off projects

Premal obtains 150,000 euro from Rabobank Innovation Fund

Malaria prevention and control company PreMal recently obtained a Rabo Innovation loan of €150,000. The loan, which is an initiative of the Innovation Fund Rabobank, provides Dutch early-stage entrepreneurs with a good innovative idea that contributes to the digitization, sustainability and/or vitalization of society the opportunity to further develop their plans.

Wanted: CTO with master in chemical engineering

Do you know a master in chemical engineering who likes to help making the textile industry more circular? Dutch startup NXT Cotton Solutions is looking for a Chief Technology Officer. Responsibilities: Program lead for scale-up phase, technological and operational part of Pilot Facility & (Demo) Plant. Set up the NXT Cotton Operational team. Counterpart and sparring partner of the WUR research team.

Download the full vacancy text (pdf) here.