Upcoming FoodTech trends 2024: healthcare, instability and growing dark stores

Get ready for some truly impressive stats. Foodtech is represented by 62 unicorns and global investment reached $7,3B in H1, according to DigitalFoodLab 2024 research. What does it mean? Nothing, except that the industry is riding a new wave that will lead us to more innovative solutions. And here are some rules, aka megatrends, that will help us live profitably in the new Digital Food era.

For now the total number of unicorns in foodtech is 62, according to DigitalFoodLab 2024 research. What does it mean? Nothing except we’re finally entering the Digital Food era. And here are some rules, aka megatrends, that will help us profitably live in it.

Food ecosystem is still less automated than other industries. We already entrust delivery and cooking for robots, but kitchens, warehouses, and consumer service are still mostly served by real people. It makes young startups be more proactive and grab their place in the niche. Implementing AI and IoT solutions can level-up logistics and inventory management. That's why you won't find empty supermarket shelves in the future, because 24-hour distribution networks can keep them stocked through real-time monitoring.

Automated control under storage space and transport conditions can also reduce wastage and food spoilage, improving access to affordable fresh produce and food.

For more information:
• AI in foodtech: plans, ideas, features
• Interaction with customers offline via mobile app

In 2024 we understand it wider than just fast grocery delivery. Nowadays food retail is based on principles of immediate customer satisfaction. Food retailing today is based on the principles of instant customer satisfaction. You can sell not only products, but also needs, which should be accessible at the click of a button. By grouping items and offering packages, you can add value to the purchase. For example, if you're looking for breakfast receipts, you'll get a list of products that can be added to an e-store basket.

Digitizing the relationship between supplier and retailer can also be a win-win. Interaction can take place via mobile or desktop applications with integrated messaging systems and stock control.

For more information:
• On-Demand Food Delivery Platforms - Market, Trends & Opportunities

People are increasingly interested in managing what they actually eat. Personalized diets with detailed nutritional plans can help solve problems such as overweight, disease and even minimize the risk of death. This is where foodtech meets Health&Fitness to work together.

Here is just few example how foodtech solutions can impact global healthсare:

• New development tools. Improving product production through new technologies, such as Upside Foods, which aims to produce sustainable cultured meat;

• Personalized diets. Providing digital tools for nutritions, based on individual health indicators, like GenoPalat (USA) with at-home DNA kits and Clear.bio (NL) with blood samples or glucose patches;

• Accessibility increase. Making healthy products and supplements easier to use

But the challenge is not just to collect the data, but to process and interpret it intelligently. Not all indicators can be universal. Nor can the plans on which they are based. So solutions should be fine-tuned and supported by the medical community.

Climate change and waste management drive supply chain optimization for now.

According to DigitalFoodLab 2024 research, 40% of all food is never eaten and never leaves the farm or the factory. As a result, foodtech startups are offering more solutions for CPG companies and restaurant chains standardization. You can optimize various operations like workload or stocks control to save more sources and reinvest it to the really profitable offers.

Learn more from our discussion with the co-founder and director of the «Friends» restaurant and brewery about which processes in the restaurant should be automated to increase efficiency:
• How does a modern restaurant work?

The example of Karma Kitchen and Cloud Kitchens companies brings a new vision to the space operation for restaurants and cafes. Revenue from renting out modular kitchens can attract real estate investors for foodtech and raise up fundraisings.

Implementing digital tools in restaurant processes can bring more value to marketing. They develop brands, bring immersive experience to booking and ordering, save time on secure payments. The number of startups working on digitizing food outlets is growing every year. Now we're about to meet the first digital native generation of restaurateurs who will drive the industry forward.

We’ve already mentioned the AI role in automating processes,but now let's take a deeper look:

• Cooking. Robots can take on a wide range of tasks: they can replace real employees for various tasks in the kitchen, act as cooks, serve as automated kiosks and vending machines with fast delivery of meals based on the user's choice of ingredients;

• Delivery. The end of the pandemic has reduced the need for contactless services. As a result, the number of robots on the city streets, such as those launched by Yandex.Delivery and Starship Technologies, has decreased significantly.

Get ready for new forms of food in precise portions and shapes. The technology is moving in two directions - giving customers more choice in ordering and producing alternative proteins. Let's look at the details:

• Cooking customization. Here you can use 3D printers to customize any item, such as Nourished (UK), which offers this option for batches of chewable supplements. You can also play with the shapes of chocolate, sugar and other products using the technology.

• Protein Alternatives. Startups such as Revo Foods (Austria) and Aleph Farms (Israel) provide 3D printing as a way to create the textures or ingredients used in a product. Plant-based meat or fish could be a game changer for the food industry, offering more variety to the vegan community.

This is dedicated to those who do not like to waste time waiting (our regards to the time management adepts), those who often get shrimp Caesar salad instead of chicken Caesar salad, those who blush and run away faster than everyone else without leaving a tip because ‘forgot cash at home’!

An app for the Foodclick foodtech startup. It addresses the problems of megapolis residents. It reduces negative emotions from going to any type of establishment (from a food truck to a Michelin restaurant), and helps the owners of the restaurant keep track of their guests’ reviews and impressions

It is not rocket science, just increased attention to UX, established communication not only with the founders of the startup, but also with the establishments, extensive experience in integrating R-keeper and favorite online payment systems, and setting up an online table reservation system

It allows the owners of the establishments:

• to optimize costs,

• to find new marketing tools,

• to find new ways to safely accept customers during a pandemic.

It is easy to make ordering sushi for lunch a pleasure (for both the owners and the hungry people). Especially if you know the principles by which high-quality e-commerce projects are created and if you love sushi. All right, it is also very important to look beyond ToRs. After all, we ourselves often end up on the side of ordinary customers and suffer from some ill-conceived solutions. But let’s get to the point.

Integration with R-keeper, which we and you are already familiar with. It is needed to ensure that hundreds of orders per day come directly to this cherished terminal, avoiding email, CRM, and other tools, which are often found on the way to the desired ‘Philadelphia’. Yes, all those ‘we will call you back to verify the order’, half-hour waits for confirming SMS, etc. are the real enemies, forcing you to waste time transferring your order from the mail to the terminal and possible errors.

Business owners also liked another trick — cross-selling in the cart at checkout, which actually increased the average check: 7% of people agreed to add the suggested sweet rolls or slice of cheesecake. Overall, after the launch of the new website, online ordering increased to 80–90% before the pandemic.

Normally no one believes in these references ‘the largest in Europe’, ‘the largest in the North’, etc. Because only a lazy marketer would not boast about the size. But this customer does not lie — the hall is intended for 1,000 people. By contrast, the largest one in Russia is intended for 1,470 people. In general, such a size is explained by the high traffic, even during the pandemic. Therefore, it was reasonable to give customers the opportunity to actually book a table. Not by phone, not by SMS and without logging in. Directly on the website, where you can check online which seats are free, which are not, observe the distance, etc.

The service does not end there: make and pay for pre-orders, find yourself in photos from events, get personalized promotions and discounts, because the website functionality allows marketers to study their customers and increase their return to the restaurant.

Accordingly, having expanded the capabilities of the usual tool (website), the owner received a system to manage all orders and reservations, as well as all the necessary statistics on them.

Those who have read a dozen articles on FoodTech will say that a food aggregator is not a novelty anymore. And we are not going to argue. We will only tell you about an interesting feature that we still think is relevant.

Tiktak delivery is a food delivery service in Grozny. Their service is arranged with a website with an adaptive version for all devices, a mobile app for clients, and a mobile app for restaurants. We will focus on the last one.

Combination of a website and a customer app is a classic. In order to win the hearts of restaurateurs, the delivery service decided to give each of them access to their ‘own’ app, which is styled with their logo and identity. In this way, the owner of the establishment received not only new clients, but also a service for processing orders for their own personal use — a personalized approach that has never failed before.

More info you can find here.

• Personal manager service through an application or a personal account on a website — automation of restaurants, cafes, delivery.

• Menu calculators.

• Ability to split the bill with friends, paying with the added card.

• Ability to leave tips with the added card when there is no cash.

• Restaurant automation with R-Keeper and instant order receipt by the vendor.

• Ability to edit orders after checkout.

• Credit and deferred payment options for legal entities.

• Integration with calendar/social networks/contacts to create reminders of important dates.

• Ability to order, track, edit the delivery settings or pickup from a convenient point (store, warehouse, parcel station).

• Personalized marketing based on registration with mobile number.

• Focus on different segments (b2b, b2c).