🏆 And the winner is...

From 160+ applications to the FoodTech World Cup Grand Finale in Lausanne.

Over the past months, startups from across the globe battled it out through the semi-finals, all building at the frontier of FoodTech - from functional ingredients to next-gen nutrition. 

And yesterday at HackSummit, the atmosphere was electric as Arepa, BioClé, Celleste, Cosaic, Dunia Bora and Kioga (a truly impressive cohort) took to the stage to pitch in front of our jury. Here’s how the final unfolded.

But there could only be one winner…

Congratulations to Kioga our 2026 FoodTech World Cup Champion!

“This recognition reinforces our belief that we are at the beginning of a new category in food and nutrition. At Kioga, we are bringing back Old Friends - microbial signals that modern life has removed but that are essential for human resilience,” shares Justin Whiteley, CEO and Co-Founder. “Winning the FoodTech World Cup validates that the industry is ready to move beyond symptom-based solutions toward biology-first approaches".”

This week in FoodTech:

🍫 The world’s first cell-based chocolate bars
💵 Cosaic scores $6M to replace additives in food
🌱 Walmart’s plant-based legal battle

The Digest

🦄 Interesting: DigitalFoodLab just released its 2026 AgriFoodTech Unicorns Mapping.

📈 What’s up: The Good Food Institute’s 2025–2026 State of the Industry report shows global plant-based food retail sales reached around $28.6 billion in 2024, up ~3% year-on-year.

📉 What’s down: ReFED’s 2026 US Food Waste Report shows that US food waste declined by 2.2% in 2024 to around 70 million tons, the first meaningful drop since the pandemic.

🇸🇬 The Singapore Food Agency published its official list of approved novel foods.

🪸 Researchers at the University of Adelaide have shown that a seaweed-derived compound (bromoform from Asparagopsis) can cut methane emissions from grazing beef cattle by up to 77% without harming calf development.

👩🏻‍🌾 Patagonia has committed $1.55 million to support the Rodale Institute in transitioning Ventura County, California to regenerative agriculture, with the funding providing technical, financial and advisory support to help farmers shift away from pesticide-heavy conventional practices.

🗽 New York State legislators have voted to curb the “self-affirmed GRAS” loophole by requiring stricter oversight of food additives, aligning with federal efforts led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to improve food safety transparency.

New in Funding

🇬🇧 The UK government launched a £50 million fund to accelerate the deployment of AI, robotics and nature-based agri-tech solutions, with the investment aimed at turning up to 12 innovations into practical on-farm tools that boost productivity while reducing labour, energy and fertiliser use.

🛒 US-based grocery AI company Afresh raised $34 million in a round co-led by Just Climate and HighSage Ventures with participation from Spark Capital, Innovation Endeavors, VMG Catalyst and Insight Partners. It will use the funds to scale and expand deployment of its platform that helps grocers manage fresh food inventory and reduce waste.

🇨🇭 Planetary, based in Switzerland, raised $28 million in a funding round led by Radikal Capital and Oetker Ventures with participation from Royal Cosun, Arc Investors, Green Generation Fund, AgriFoodTech Venture Alliance, Astanor Ventures and XAnge. It will use the funds to build and license its industrial fermentation platform that converts agricultural byproducts into mycoprotein and other ingredients. 

🐜 French agtech Agriodor secured €15 million Series A funding in a round led by the Environmental and Solidarity Revolution Fund, with participation from Région Sud Investissement, CAAP Création, Capagro, CapHorn and SWEN Capital Partners. It will use the funds to scale its scent-based crop protection technology that uses natural plant-emitted odours to influence insect behaviour.

🥟 US-based frozen Asian food company Laoban raised $7.2 million from undisclosed investors to expand its dumplings, bao buns and other ready-to-heat product lines.

🇨🇭 Swiss biotech Cosaic raised $6 million in a seed extension round led by DSM-Firmenich Ventures, with participation from Kickfund, a Swiss family office, Navus Ventures and Zürcher Kantonalbank, to scale its yeast fermentation-derived emulsifier that replaces multiple additives in food.

✅ Clean Food Group, based in the UK, secured £4.5 million from Clean Growth Fund and New Agrarian, with participation from existing investors including SEED Innovations and Döhler Group, to scale its fermentation-based production of sustainable oils and fats.

🧈 ALL THINGS, a UK-based dairy brand founded by chef Thomas Straker, raised €4.1 million from The Equity Studio, Access Industries and Active Partners after Straker’s viral butter series sparked the brand’s creation, with the funds set to scale its premium butter range.

🧀 Toronto-based AuX Labs closed $4 million in a round led by NYA Ventures and Nàdarra Ventures, with participation from Verdex Capital, Builders VC, Bluestein Ventures and Congruent Ventures, to scale production of animal-free cheese using precision-fermented casein.

🚜 Fieldwork Robotics raised £3 million in a funding round led by Elbow Beach Capital to advance its autonomous berry-picking robots that reduce labour reliance and improve farm productivity, with the funds to be used to run large-scale farm trials to accelerate commercial adoption.

🐶 US-based Bond Pet Foods received a strategic investment from German flavour and chemicals giant Symrise, and the companies are partnering to develop and commercialise precision-fermented pet nutrition ingredients.

🤖 UK startup Qalzy, which is developing an AI-powered nutrition scale, secured an undisclosed pre-seed round from unnamed investors after generating €204,000 in Kickstarter pre-orders, with the funding set to expand its AI food-recognition capabilities.

🌱 SentiaNova came out of stealth with funding from FOOD FOUNDERS Studio to commercialise its technology that removes off-flavours from plant proteins at the source.

New in Startups

🍫 Mondelēz International teamed up with Celleste Bio to unveil the world’s first chocolate bars made with cell-based cocoa butter, marking a breakthrough in sustainable confectionery as they work to scale production and bring climate-resilient chocolate to market.

🧫 French cultivated meat company Parima has become the first in the world to secure regulatory approval for two species, chicken and duck, from the Singapore Food Agency.

🌳 Ajinomoto has developed a plant-derived alternative to transferrin, one of the most expensive inputs in cultivated meat production, using a compound from cypress trees to replace costly cell culture components.

🇺🇸 Solar Foods secured a US patent for its Solein production process, granting it exclusive rights to produce its air-derived protein using gas fermentation.

🥒 California-based Agwa is developing an AI-powered growing system that uses sensors, cameras and data analytics to cultivate fresh produce in controlled cabinets year-round, with a subscription model aimed at bringing ultra-fresh, pesticide-free vegetables closer to consumers

🍭 Lithuanian startup Pentasweet is spending €65 million to build a precision fermentation facility producing the ultra-sweet protein brazzein.

Plant-Based

🏭 Finnish startup Happy Plant Protein is investing around €6 million to deploy its dry extrusion technology at a first-of-its-kind facility in Latvia that will convert local crops into textured plant proteins.

🥛 UK-based wellness investor Tooru is acquiring Belgian startup Mylky for £12 million to expand its portfolio of plant-based milk machines that enable consumers to make additive-free milk alternatives at home.

🇫🇷 French plant-based meat company La Vie has expanded beyond meat alternatives into tofu products like nuggets.

🍔 Rewe Group launched its “Plant ‘n’ Beef” hybrid burger, made with 70% beef and 30% plant-based ingredients, to target flexitarian consumers with a lower-fat, more affordable option.

Big Food

🤝🏼 Mars, Inc. and Olam Food Ingredients have joined forces on a five-year collaboration to advance regenerative agriculture in Ecuador’s cocoa supply chain, supporting over 960 farmers with climate-smart practices to improve soil health, reduce emissions and strengthen yields and farmer resilience.

👩🏻‍⚖ Walmart is facing a $5 million class-action lawsuit alleging its Bettergoods plant-based milk range is misleadingly labelled as “plant-based” despite containing synthetic or non-plant-derived ingredients, with consumers claiming they paid a premium based on those claims. 

🥗 Lean Kitchen Network launched its new high-protein “Hide” ready meal brand exclusively in Tesco, offering a range of nutrient-focused meals, grain bowls and snacks made with whole ingredients.

From the Community

💶 AgriVentures is offering €250,000 Grants for Sustainable Agriculture Projects; find out more and apply here.

🎙️ Good listen: Alex Shandrovsky and Sandhya Sriram, PhD discuss why we should stop trying to force agriculture into a software VC model and find the investors who actually understand the hardware on the latest episode of Investment Climate Podcast.

🍡 Just for Fun: Little Moons opened a mini mochi parlour in London.

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Until next time - Stay Hungry