🌱 $70 million for autonomous laser weeding

🚜 Carbon Robotics secured $70 million in a Series D funding round led by BOND, bringing its total funding to $157 million, to expand its autonomous LaserWeeder platform internationally and support new product development.

💸 Agribusiness finance platform Agrolend raised $53 million in a Series C funding round led by Creation Investments and Syngenta Group Ventures, which it will use to expand credit offerings to industries, retailers, and cooperatives.

🇮🇳 Stellapps Technologies, originally a Dairy IoT startup incubated at IIT Madras, secured $26 million Series C funding to expand its "mooMark" brand, focusing on tech-powered, low-capex contract manufacturing and private labelling of high-quality dairy products, supporting over 3.5 million farmers across 42,000 villages in India.

🍻 Best Day Brewing, a non-alcoholic craft beer company, raised $22.5 million to expand consumer awareness, reach a larger audience, and support its retail distribution growth plans.

🇫🇷 French startup Hubcycle, which specialises in transforming food industry by-products into affordable, sustainable ingredients, closed a €15 million Series A round. It has screened over 1,000 side-streams to create ingredients that cost 30% less on average, avoiding 4,000 tons of carbon emissions and demonstrating its commitment to sustainable innovation.

☀️ Danish agtech FarmDroid secured €10.5 million to expand globally and promote sustainable farming by reducing labour costs, pesticide use, and improving efficiency in both organic and conventional open-field farming with its autonomous, solar-powered agricultural robots.

💰 Business Finland awarded €10 million in R&D funding to two Finnish projects, FoodID and FinBioFAB, focused on sustainable innovation. FoodID aims to create alternative proteins and lipids using plants and fermentation, while FinBioFAB is leveraging synthetic biology and AI to develop biodegradable plastics and protein-based materials.

📲 MealMe raised $8 million Series A funding to expand its API, which allows businesses to embed food and retail ordering with real-time pricing and availability into their apps and websites.

🇳🇿 Ruminant BioTech secured additional funding, including NZ$6 million from AgriZeroNZ and New Zealand Green Investment Finance, plus an AU$3.5 million grant from Australia’s MERiL program, to advance its methane-inhibiting bolus for reducing livestock emissions.

🇬🇧 UK-based MicroLub raised £3.5 million for its plant-based microgels, which replace fats and oils in food products by mimicking the creamy mouthfeel of fats, potentially reducing fat content by up to 75% without compromising taste or texture.

🥙 Artah Nutrition raised nearly £3 million to drive growth and product development, as it plans to expand into new sales channels and launch its clinical-grade supplements in the EU in 2024.

🍩 US plant-based donut company Drumroll received $3 million from 7 Mile Brands for its low-sugar, high-protein baked donuts, which it says have 1 gram of sugar, 10 grams of protein, 8 grams of net carbs and 190 calories. 

🍣 Revo Foods and Paleo have formed a new partnership, backed by €2.2 million in EU funding, to create plant-based salmon alternatives featuring precision-fermented myoglobin for a more authentic taste, texture, and nutritional profile similar to animal-based products.

🏭 The Healey-Driscoll administration and MassTech awarded $2.1 million to Tufts University to establish the FEAST centre, which will offer cutting-edge facilities for prototyping and collaboration with academic and business partners to advance research in cellular agriculture.

🥘 Polish startup Foodsi, a marketplace for surplus food from restaurants and stores, raised €1.2 million in a seed extension round to expand its operations. It combats food waste by offering customers surprise discounted food packages from eateries and shops at up to 70% off.

🌿 UK-based Rare Earth Global raised £1 million to expand its platform for industrial hemp products, promoting hemp as a versatile, climate-resilient alternative for applications like animal feed and construction to help reduce carbon emissions.

🥊 Plant-based fast food chain Mr. Charlie's Told Me So secured investment from former heavyweight boxing champion and entrepreneur Mike Tyson through his holding company, Carma HoldCo. It will use the funds to support its US and international expansion plans.

🍯 Californian food tech startup MeliBio secured a strategic investment from Future Food Fund by Oisix as part of its pre-Series A round, to scale distribution of its plant-based sweetener, Mellody.

🫛 British TV presenter and entrepreneur Maya Jama has become an investor and co-owner of Swedish pea milk brand Sproud, which uses yellow split peas to create a high-protein, allergen-free milk alternative amid what it says is growing consumer interest in alternatives to oat milk.

🧫 Meatable and Sticta Biologicals received a grant from the Good Food Institute to create a genome-scale metabolic model for porcine cells, aimed at optimising cell growth and improving cultivated pork yield by refining cell media and line processes.

🍙 OCEANIUM secured funding from Innovate UK and BBSRC to develop Project SeaFibre, advancing its nutrient-rich, sustainable seaweed ingredient OCEAN HEALTH™ NUTRA in partnership with the University of Reading.

6️⃣ Big Idea Ventures has invested in six startups through its Global Food Innovation Fund II, including Meatosys from Germany, which enables farmers to produce cultivated meat directly on their farms, and BiomeMega from Australia, which develops sustainable omega fatty acids using probiotic bacteria for food and animal nutrition applications.