🍏 Apple-solutely Zero-Waste Factory

World Food Day came around this week. It’s both a commemoration of the founding of the UN FAO and a timely reminder of global food insecurity, hunger, and the importance of sustainable food systems.

While we might not have all the answers needed to transform our food system, here at FoodHack we did do our small part to connect the dots between investors and startups.

As we share our conversations from a few (well 25) of AgriFood’s most active investors to hear where they’re looking to invest next.

It’s both a must-read and a long-read for all fundraising founders or curious investors and insiders looking for a glimpse of the future.

So pour yourself a ☕️ and head this way for a peek inside the minds of some of FoodTech’s most prolific investors. Spoiler it’s packed with optimism and opportunities.

This week in FoodTech: 
🫛 Peas that produce beef protein
🍗 A ‘swap’ to a new kind of chicken
🍫 284000 sq ft cocoa-free choc facility

The Digest

📈 What’s up? Data from the USDA shows that supplies of corn, wheat and soybean are at a four-year high.

📉 What’s down? There’s an ongoing recall of nearly 10 million lbs of chicken in the US, due to potential contamination with listeria.

🇩🇰 The Danish government announced a commitment of at least DKK 15 billion (€2.01 billion) for green research and innovation by 2030. There will be a particular focus on increasing research funding, fast-tracking green solutions in agriculture and food, promoting a mission-oriented approach, and addressing land use and climate adaptation for a sustainable future.

🇨🇭 Swiss researchers are using an ancient technique to increase the bioavailability of minerals in grains to mimic animal proteins.

🔟 Good Read: Whole Foods Market released its top 10 food trends for 2025.

💡 Opinion: Why investing on sustainable food and ag can’t only involve ‘moonshots’.

AgriFood Fundraising

🍫 US-based cacao startup Blue Stripes secured $20 million Series B funding, in a round featuring Hershey’s and celebrity chef Nick DiGiovanni, to develop superfood chocolates and upcycled cacao products, including cacao water, granola, and chocolate-covered cacao beans.

🌾 BioPrime raised $6 million, in a Series A funding round led by Edaphon, to develop bio-fungicides, bio-insecticides, and biostimulants, leveraging its BioNexus technology and over 170 microbial strains.

💡 Swiss startup UMAMI secured CHF 4.3 million Series A funding to expand its holistic indoor farming operations. Its microgreens are currently available in more than 450 Coop and Migros stores and supplied to 400 restaurants across the country every day. 

🏭 US biomanufacturing company Liberation Labs raised $3.5 million through a Secured Promissory Note, including $2 million from Agronomics Limited, to fund the construction of its first fermentation facility in Richmond, Indiana, which is expected to be operational by Q1 2025.

🇩🇪 Infinite Roots and the Hamburg University of Technology received a €2.6 million grant from the German government to develop technology that upcycles dairy industry waste, specifically whey, into a feedstock for mycelium fermentation.

🥤 Functional beverage brand Cure, based in the US, raised funding from Santatera Capital. Cure is “shaking up the hydration game” with its plant-based electrolyte mix powdermade with ingredients like coconut water powder and pink Himalayan salt.

🚀 Catch up on all the latest funding rounds including scaling pongamia oil as a sustainable feedstock, innovative edible scaffolds and insect-based protein from food waste.

Startup Milestones

🫛 Moolec Science secured what it claims is the first USDA approval for genetically engineered peas that can produce iron-rich beef protein through molecular farming. Catch the TL;DR on what it means.

🧀 Austrian startup Fermify achieved self-affirmed GRAS status for its precision-fermented casein, taking it one step closer to launching its animal-free cheese and dairy products into the US market.

🍔 Prague-based Bene Meat Technologies unveiled its first cultivated burger, which it says will be available at price parity with premium conventional beef.

🏭 Voyage Foods is expanding its manufacturing operations with a new 284,000 square-foot facility in Ohio, set to produce cocoa-free chocolate, nut-free spreads, and bean-free coffee, with an expected annual capacity of 10,000 metric tons of cocoa-free chocolate by January 2025.

❌ A federal judge has denied Upside Foods' request for a preliminary injunction against Florida’s ban on cultivated meat, jeopardising the company's plans to showcase its cultivated chicken at the Art Basel festival in Miami, though it plans to appeal the ruling.

🦾 Starship Technologies and Bolt have launched a new food delivery service in Tallinn, Estonia, marking the first partnership of its kind in Europe. It combines Starship’s delivery robots with Bolt’s technology to offer a more flexible, sustainable, and cost-effective last-mile delivery solution.

Plant Based

🍄 California-based The Better Meat Co. received approval from the Singapore Food Authority to sell its flagship Rhiza mycoprotein in the city-state, marking a significant milestone for the company’s overseas expansion.

🇫🇷 Parisian startup Umiami has rebranded to Swap and launched its whole-cut plant-based chicken, Swap Chicken, in the US foodservice sector, targeting flexitarians through restaurants in Chicago to encourage them to "swap" to a new kind of chicken.

🤝 Some of America’s leading vegan food companies, including Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, and The Kraft Heinz NotCo, have joined forces for a first-of-its-kind marketing campaign, ‘Plant-Based May Cause’, to highlight the benefits of plant-based eating.

🍄 LA-based Thallus Foods claims to be the first commercial indoor cultivator of Chicken of the Woods, and is working to replace poultry with the nutrient-dense mushroom that tastes like chicken.

💰 The Aussie Plant Based Co has been acquired by Queensland-based Smart Foods, just eight days after entering liquidation following cash flow problems.

👀 Good read: Why Impossible Foods isn’t focusing on the climate impact of its plant based meat alternatives.

Big Food

🍏 Dutch food firm Yespers is opening the "world's first" zero waste factory in The Hague, an apple processing facility that fully utilises every part of the fruit, turning stems into tea, seeds into oil, cores into juice, and pulp into fruit powder.

🥛 Arla Foods launched the UK's first free milk ATM in a London pop-up with Fareshare to raise awareness of dairy poverty, allowing passers-by to dispense fresh milk at no cost.

🌞 UK supermarket Tesco has signed a solar energy deal to power almost 150 of its supermarkets. And Sainsbury’s has commissioned a new wind farm in the Scottish Borders.

💡 Why big food is buying healthy brands, and which is next?

From the Community

Get hired in FoodTech:

• Greeneration is looking for a Head of Agronomy 

• Noma is recruiting a Senior Brand Manager

• La Vie is hiring a Project Manager

🧮 Why raising your pre-seed round is not a numbers game.

6️⃣ Six strategies to help CPG companies get funded.

💚 Join us as a FoodHack Meetup in Basel, Lausanne, Tel Aviv, Paris

🚀 ICOS Capital and Friesland Campina Ingredients launched a Side Stream Challenge and are calling on all food, dairy and process innovators to apply their ideas or technologies. Apply here.

👋 MENA Food & Beverage Pitch Lounge takes place on next Thursday 24th October from 6.30PM GST/UTC+4 on Zoom - register here to join us online.

⌛️ Know the feeling? A pre-seed investor waiting for their portfolio companies to come out of stealth.

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Until next time - Stay Hungry