Can Silicon Valley disrupt the fast-food industry? Well, for those entrepreneurs who dream to 'save the world', motivations are strong: reduce meat consumption and eliminate foods that have big environmental and social impacts, like processed food or heavy dependent on intensive agriculture.  

The best-known of these potential disrupters is Soylent, founded in 2013 by a group of Silicon Valley engineers trying to cut the time and money they spent buying and preparing food. Their intelligently designed” food offers “affordable, complete nutrition”. However, Soylent payed the price for being pioneer in disrupting the food industry. Two months, after they went on sale, they had to stop sales as some customers experienced violent vomiting after eating their food bars.

Other startups disrupting the food industry is Space Nutrients Station, producer of nutritional drinks, that invites customers to “stop cooking — eat like astronauts!”. Space Nutrients has received $600,000 from investors and venture funds, while Soylent has raised more than $20m.

Impossible Foods, a startup in the Valley that tries to replace meat with plant equivalents, raised more than $180m. On the other side, Memphis Meats, also in San Francisco, is trying to grow meats in a lab, cultivating them from real animal cells.

As reported in the Financial Times.