New business ideas from agritech startups: Greenhub presents a digital gardener for vertical indoor farming, while Esencia Foods has developed a meat substitute based on mushroom mycelium.
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00:01Turning over a new leaf.
00:03Leipzig-based start-up Greenhub has been developing a digital gardener
00:07with software that monitors and optimizes the plant's growth.
00:11The big idea behind Greenhub is to make fresh food accessible to everyone the world over.
00:18In Berlin, another start-up, Essentia Foods, is developing a new meat substitute.
00:23It forms when the roots of the mushrooms, the mycelium, grow and digest.
00:28We're saying there needs to be an alternative for everyone.
00:33It needs to be accessible for families, but also at some point in non-Western countries with lower incomes.
00:41The other co-founder of Essentia Foods is Bruno Skokotze from Argentina.
00:46He has a PhD in biophysics, but is, above all, a chef.
00:51He's aiming to create a better meat substitute with mushrooms,
00:54as he's not impressed with the existing vegan alternatives.
00:59The problem with many of the plant-based alternatives that exist right now
01:03is that they start from protein powders that are not tasty on themselves.
01:06There needs to be a lot of covering of all these bad flavors with other flavors like spices,
01:11but in our case we don't start with anything we need to cover.
01:14The meat-like flavor comes from the digestion process of the mushrooms.
01:20The team at Essentia Foods feeds them legumes.
01:23The roots penetrate and grow quickly.
01:26And within just a few days, the meat substitute is ready, at a relatively low cost.
01:32It's cheaper than meat.
01:38This is actually the first time a vegan alternative has been less expensive than meat.
01:43That's down to our approach.
01:45We're replacing mechanical processing with biology and harnessing natural processes.
01:52Clara Casal-Georgiou is the company's food scientist.
01:57She's developing new products, like this vegan donna kebab.
02:01With just a pinch of seasoning, it's ready to go.
02:04It's actually very versatile.
02:08It can be used in many different types of products.
02:11So it's adaptable to sausages, but also other more minimally processed products,
02:17like minced meat, kebab strips, like you see here, and also chicken chunks, for example.
02:24For Leipzig-based start-up Green Hub, climate change is also a driving force.
02:30Drought and heavy rain don't affect vegetables grown indoors.
02:35But to help the plants thrive, the Green Hub team builds software that looks after them.
02:42The software basically acts like a gardener.
02:48It monitors the plant's health, starting with water parameters like nutrient levels.
02:54And then it moves on to assessing the plant's overall condition.
03:01But the software still lacks the experience of a seasoned gardener.
03:06To enable artificial intelligence to take over, Green Hub collects data on what the plants need for optimal growth.
03:13The right levels of light, nutrients and humidity.
03:17In effect, they're trying to replicate a biological system.
03:21These are very complex processes, and sometimes they bring unexpected surprises.
03:28The plant might get fungal infections or other diseases.
03:32And we don't always have the best solutions to prevent them yet.
03:37One major problem for indoor farms is the high level of electricity consumption.
03:42Right now, they're only profitable in regions with cheap energy.
03:46Scandinavia, the Middle East and Spain are promising markets.
03:50Germany, not so much.
03:53Currently, our production costs are up to ten times higher, which is way too much.
03:59Germany is a very price-sensitive market.
04:02If a head of salad costs 3 euros 50, or even more, instead of 79 cents, because of production costs, it's not going to sell.
04:12Still, two major German research institutions are interested in Green Hub's software.
04:18They want to use it to simulate how climate change affects plants.
04:23And Essentia Foods is getting lots of interest in its meat substitute.
04:27A German supermarket chain is already on board.
04:31Now, the company is figuring out how to scale up industrial production.
04:37It was quite stunning.
04:40USAud in China
04:41is statistically expensive.
04:46Zhou Mf.
04:58In China, the Industry, is a huge peak.
05:01Not quite than anything.
05:03You have advertised these products in China.