🥓 $11 million to scale production mycelium-based bacon

🧑‍🍳 San Francisco-based Chef Robotics raised $43.1 million in a Series A round, bringing its total funding to over $65 million, to accelerate the rollout of its AI-powered food assembly robots designed to work across a range of food production tasks.

• This week, Hack published a list of top 40 Robotics startups to watch, including Chef Robotics. Take a look.

🪨 Eion secured a $33 million offtake deal with Frontier to remove nearly 79,000 tons of CO2 via enhanced rock weathering on US farmland using its patented olivine-based process and soil fingerprinting technology.

🧫 Israeli cultivated meat startup Aleph Farms raised $29 million—with an additional $10–15 million expected soon—to scale production and launch its first whole-cut product using a more efficient, lower-cost process.

🧉 US energy drink startup Lucky Energy raised $14 million in an oversubscribed Series A1 round to expand distribution, launch new products, and grow its team, as it rapidly scales across 10,000+ retail locations.

🥓 Ecovative secured $11 million to scale production of its mycelium-based MyBacon, expand into foodservice, and accelerate development of whole-cut mycelium products using its proprietary AirMycelium technology.

🇮🇱 Israeli startup Brevel raised an additional $5 million in a seed extension round—bringing the total to $25 million—to advance its microalgae-based ingredient production for alternative proteins.

🇳🇱 Dutch company Grassa secured €3.6 million to scale its technology for extracting sustainable, soy-alternative protein from grass while also reducing methane and nitrogen emissions in dairy farming.

🔬 Munich-based Differential Bio emerged from stealth with €2 million in pre-seed funding to launch its Virtual Scale-up Platform, which uses AI, lab automation, and microbiology to accelerate and reduce the cost of scaling biomanufacturing processes.

🌶️ US-based Good Girl Snacks, maker of Hot Girl Pickles, secured pre-seed funding in a round led by Collab Fund to expand its team, product line, and retail presence.

💸 The UK government is investing £1.4 million in a new innovation hub to help the Food Standards Agency assess precision fermentation technologies and support the growth of the alternative protein sector.

👀 Good Read: Food Navigator explains why food tech investment is projected to rebound to nearly €23 billion within the next year, following a 70% decline since 2021.

Catch up on all 11 funding rounds from this week including £1.4 million for a new innovation hub