bill gates

© Masaru Kamikura - https://flic.kr/p/hZH18 - Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Celebrities

Questlove in Bill Gates Podcast: “Something Told Me Plant-Based Is Going to Be the Future”

In the latest episode of his “Unconfuse Me” podcast, tech mogul Bill Gates sits down with Questlove, the drummer of The Roots and Philidelphia foodie. The thought-provoking conversation revolved around the landscape of plant-based foods, with both Gates and Questlove sharing insights into their personal journeys and perspectives on the industry. Questlove, a Grammy Award-winning musician and musical director for The Tonight Show, recalls his evolution from a self-proclaimed carnivore to a passionate advocate for plant-based food. His connection to the culinary world deepened when he started hosting food salons with celebrity chefs, ultimately leading him to explore the plant-based movement. And that’s when he encountered Impossible™ meat. He recalled a blind taste test he conducted, comparing a traditional hamburger with the Impossible Burger. “I …

more

UPSIDE Foods Chicken Taco

© UPSIDE Foods

Cultivated Meat

UPSIDE Foods Achieves Unicorn Status Following Largest Ever Fund Round in Cultivated Meat

UPSIDE Foods (previously Memphis Meats) announces a $400 million Series C round which included returning investors Cargill, Tyson Foods, and Bill Gates. UPSIDE says this is the largest round in the industry to date and brings its valuation to over $1 billion, thus achieving Unicorn status. The news closely follows Upside’s acquisition of Culture Decadence, producer of cultivated lobster. Pending regulatory approval, which is slated to take place in 2022, UPSIDE Foods says it intends to initially launch on the US market. The fresh funds will be utilised to expedite commercialisation, build a commercial-scale facility with a planned annual capacity of tens of millions of pounds of cultivated meat, and develop the supply chain for ACF Cell Feed – a cell media that the company …

more

Wagyu Japanese plate from above

©Top Tier Foods

Company News

Vegan Wagyu Steak to Be Served to Elon Musk, Bill Gates & Al Gore at Exclusive TED Conference

Wamame Foods, a subsidiary of Top Tier Foods Inc., is best known for its leading brand Waygu – creators of alt wagyu steak which the company describes as the “world’s first premium, plant-based beef alternative.” Top Tier announces today that its flagship product will be served at the Ted2022 Conference in Vancouver later this month. The news follows a string of successes for the Canadian producer which last November raised $7.6 million for global expansion and this February announced its launch into Advanced Fresh Concepts, the largest sushi franchise in the US. Musk, Gates and Gore to try? Speakers at this year’s TED2022 Conference in Vancouver will include Elon Musk, former Vice President Al Gore, and Bill Gates. It could be assumed that Gates is …

more

breakfast-bundle Nature's Fynd

©Nature's Fynd

Investments & Finance

Newly-Crowned Unicorn Nature’s Fynd to Reinvent the Future of Food With Huge New Facility

Chicago-based Nature’s Fynd, producer of fermented fungi proteins from a microbe originating in the geothermal springs of Yellowstone National Park, announces construction of a new 200,000 Sq. Ft. facility in Chicago to expand capacity for its meatless and dairy-free products. When the products were pre-released this February, they sold out within a 24 hour period. Founded in 2012, Nature’s Fynd’s early investors included Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management. Nature’s Fynd raised $350 million in Series C funding led by SoftBank this July, bringing a total raise to $500M and meaning the company achieved Unicorn status, placing it amongst a dozen or so startups in the Chicago area to hit a unicorn valuation or higher this year. Comfortably in Unicorn …

more

ezraklein Twitter

@ezraklein Twitter

Society

Bill Gates, Ezra Klein and the GFI Call on Congress for Public Investment in Alt-Proteins in Face of Climate Crisis 

As Ezra Klein calls on policymakers to make open-access research into plant-based and cell-cultured meat a key part of the American Jobs Plan and climate strategy, the GFI is strongly advocating for $2 billion in funds for open-access alt-protein science. The international nonprofit has also worked with Bill Gates‘ NGO Breakthrough Energy calling for public investment in alt-proteins as a key climate mitigation strategy.

more

elysabeth PBM
Plantbased Business Hour

Life Is Sweet When Plant-based Meat Is on 60 Minutes

Every week, Plant-based Business Expert Elysabeth Alfano breaks down the headlines with her review and analysis in the Plantbased Business Minute.  Elysabeth is the founder of Plant Powered Consulting, the host of  the Plantbased Business Hour and the Consulting Managing Director, vegconomist, North America. She doesn’t use a teleprompter. Here is the Plantbased Business Minute for the week ending February 19, 2021. You don’t need to be perfect to make an impact. Bill Gates takes to 60 Minutes to talk about reversing climate change in anticipation of his new book coming out, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.   In the 60 Minutes discussion with Anderson Cooper, Gates talks about switching out animal meats for plant-based meats. He names Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. He also …

more

Apeel Sciences
Food & Beverage

Apeel Sciences Secures US$250m From Investors Including Katy Perry & Oprah Winfrey for its Mission to Cut Food Waste

Apeel Sciences has announced on its website that is has secured a US$250m investment led by led by Singapore‘s sovereign wealth fund, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), to continue in its mission in reducing food waste through its plant-based edible skin that preserves perishable fruits and vegetables.

more

Natures Fynd

©Charles Cherney Photography

Top Stories

Nature’s Fynd Raises $80 Million From Bill Gates & Al Gore For “New-to-the-World” Protein Sourced From Volcanoes

Nature’s Fynd, formerly known as Sustainable Bioproducts, has secured $80 million in Series B funding round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Generation Investment Management, chaired by Bill Gates and Al Gore respectively. The company emerged out of NASA supported research into organisms from geothermal springs.

more

Virgin with Memphis Meats

Branson with Memphis Meats, ©Virgin

Company News

Memphis Meats Closes Largest Funding Round in Cell-Based Meat Industry With $161 Million From Branson, Gates et al

Memphis Meats, the leading name in cellular meat, has received investment totalling in excess of $180 million, including this most recent Series B round of $161 million, with participants such as Bill Gates and Richard Branson. The Berkeley, California brand now will be able to hit a major milestone of launching products into the market.

more

Bill Gates

© Masaru Kamikura - https://flic.kr/p/hZH18 - Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Marketing & Media

Bill Gates: Environmental Benefits of Cultured Meat “Sketchy at Best” – The Experts Respond

bill gates
© Masaru Kamikura – https://flic.kr/p/hZH18 – Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

MIT Technology Review published last week their annual Ten Breakthrough Technologies edition, this time curated by Bill Gates in a piece titled, “Bill Gates: How we’ll invent the future.” In his list of technologies he believes will shape the future, Gates includes the “cow-free burger” and discusses how “lab-grown meat improves our quality of life.”

more