Meals and wheels: fake meat outfit and car valuation firm seal top deals

A firm which uses fermentation to make alternative meat products has raised just shy of $10m, while a Melbourne start-up has struck a partnership to accelerate its global ambitions.

Cauldron chief executive and co-founder Michele Stansfield says she doesn’t want to compete with meat producers — she runs a cattle farm during her “spare time”.

‘Meals and wheels’ may be the best way to summarise the tech deals and capital raisings which caught our eye this week.

Cauldron — a global hyper-fermentation company based in Orange, NSW — has raised $9.5m, taking its total seed and series A funding to $20m. The company uses fermentation to produce protein at scale to be used in alternative meat products.

Meanwhile, Melbourne start-up AutoGrab has partnered with vehicle catalogue provider JATO to accelerate the global expansion of its car valuation business.

Cauldron chief executive and co-founder Michele Stansfield says she’s not out to convince people to go completely vegan and ditch meat — she operates a cattle farm in her “spare time”.

But, Ms Stansfield says the reality is the world is facing a protein shortage from traditional livestock and aquaculture sources and needs an alternative to ensure there is enough food to go around.

The UN estimates the global population will reach 10 billion people by 2050, requiring a 70 per cent lift in food production.

“We have no intention of competing with agriculture. We firmly believe that there will be a scarcity of protein in the next 20 years and we hope to provide, the industry hopes to provide, credible alternatives,” Ms Stansfield said.

Alternative meat products are capturing the attention of investors.

Boston Consulting Group expects “peak meat” production to hit Europe by next year, after which consumption on animal protein is expected to decline. This is based on a potential tightening of regulations which will drive up carbon prices, pushing farmers from methane belching livestock into alternative protein sources.

“Alternative proteins also open up an opportunity for individuals to contribute to the fight against climate change. For instance, every portion of spaghetti Bolognese made with plant-based meat avoids as much greenhouse gas as a new car emits when driven 10 kilometres,” BCG said.

It’s a trend which has caught the attention of Microsoft’s billionaire co-founder Bill Gates, who has backed Impossible Foods, while Australian fast food baron Jack Cowin has rolled out v2food’s fake meat burgers across Hungry Jacks.

Horizon Ventures led Cauldron’s series A round, with SOSV and In-Q-Tel joining existing investor Main Sequence.

Chris Liu of Horizons Ventures said Cauldron’s precision fermentation technology — which is 30-50 per cent cheaper than traditional batch fermentation — attracted him to the company.

“To date, the technology has been hamstrung by its costs compared to conventional production methods, but Cauldron’s unique solution significantly improves the competitiveness of precision fermentation both in capital and operating expenditure,” Mr Liu said.

Melbourne start-up AutoGrab has partnered with global automotive data firm JATO to increase the accuracy of valuations, as well as support the company’s expansion plans.

AutoGrab chief executive and co-founder Chris Gardner.

A screenshot of AutoGrab's platform.

AutoGrab chief executive and co-founder Chris Gardner said the alliance would “create the most comprehensive view of the vehicle than we’ve seen before”.

AutoGrab’s platform captures and aggregates real-time, market-wide data on all vehicles listed online, using an AI-driven machine learning model.

“If a consumer goes to, let’s say AAMI, and types in their registration plate and some information about their vehicle, it’s very important that AAMI knows that you have a lane departure warning system because that can increase or decrease the likelihood of an accident,” Mr Gardner said.

“But they haven’t been getting this data and the habit upfront, which means that the cost of premiums have been skyrocketing globally. So there’s a very big incentive for insurance companies to really understand the asset that they’re insuring to help bring that price down for consumers.”

AutoGrab’s platform captures and aggregates real-time, market-wide data on all vehicles listed online, using an AI-driven machine learning model.

As well as providing a current value of the vehicle, AutoGrab’s platform can also provide a prediction of future values and how prices might change over time.

Mr Gardner said the JATO partnership would allow AutoGrab to expand further into key international markets, including the UK and Malaysia.

“Leveraging JATO’s extensive vehicle data, we are refining our valuation services for the market and deepening our insights for forecasting and analytics.

“This alliance significantly enhances our ability to provide customers with critical safety information, including details on ADAS systems, battery health, and emissions data. It also complements AutoGrab’s ongoing technological advancements, enabling us to offer advanced vehicle information, such as identifying specific features from a vehicle’s VIN.”

JATO global head of digital marketplaces Peadar Walsh said tapping into AutoGrab’s pricing solutions would “enhance our customer experience across several segments including OEM, digital and dealer”.

“Our Leasing customers will also benefit from having access to a future value platform, while our insurance customers can avail JATO’s rich ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) specification combined with AutoGrab’s pre accident valuation,” Mr Walsh said.

“We look forward to working with AutoGrab in the coming months and into the future as we continue to meet the needs of the broader global automotive industry.”