🔥 Can one giant BBQ reignite plant-based?

If anyone tells you the plant-based meat boom has gone up in smoke, point them to Paris, where French alt meat brand HappyVore is firing up the grill in a bid to break the Guinness World Record for the world's biggest plant-based barbecue. The plan is simple: bring thousands of people together in Paris for an afternoon of hot dogs and a healthy dose of spectacle, with a bonus side dish of proving there's still plenty of sizzle in the category. 

Before you dive into the rest of the news, one quick note from the team: we're taking an extended summer break, so this will be our last newsletter until September. Thanks for reading and supporting us this year, and we hope you have a fantastic summer.

This week in FoodTech:

🐶 Omni scored an £11M Series A
☕️ The partnership cultivating coffee with light
🌳 Strict new UK rules on deforestation

The Digest

🤖 US non-profit Food System Innovations launched the Food Intelligence Lab, an AI-led, open-source platform to help alternative protein companies improve taste, texture and formulation, shorten development timelines and accelerate the commercialisation of more sustainable foods. 

🌳 The UK government announced plans to tighten food supply chain rules by requiring businesses trading forest-risk commodities such as soy, palm oil, cocoa and rubber to check they are not linked to illegal deforestation, aiming to improve traceability, protect rainforests and give consumers greater confidence in everyday products.

🚜 The same government has pledged an extra £53 million for the Farming Innovation Programme, to support robotics, soil health and water management projects that help farmers cut input costs, adapt to climate change and bring new agri-tech ideas from R&D to commercial deployment.

🇪🇺 The European Environment Agency says diversifying Europe’s protein supply through plant-based foods, fermentation, insects and cultivated meat could reduce EU agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by around 5% by 2035, while cutting reliance on imported soy feed and strengthening food security, resilience and competitiveness. 

🥜 Researchers from four Turkish universities found that adding peanut shell powder to cookies can sharply increase fibre, antioxidants and minerals while reducing starch digestibility, supporting its potential as a sustainable upcycled ingredient for functional bakery products. 

🧫 The APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture has secured Observer status with the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission, giving the cellular agriculture group a formal role in shaping global food safety and regulatory standards for cultivated meat, seafood and precision fermentation.

New in Funding

🦞 Shinkei Systems, based in the US, raised $22 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Founders Fund and Interlagos, with participation from Yamato Holdings, Shrug, CIV, Jaws and Mantis, to scale its AI and robotics-enabled seafood harvesting and processing system.

🐶 UK plant-based pet food company Omni raised £11 million Series A funding. The round was led by IW Capital and Redrice Ventures, with Dragon’s Den’s Deborah Meaden also increasing her stake, and Omni will use the funds to expand across UK retail, test the US market, and develop its LeanPaws weight-loss supplement for dogs.

🧪 Myota, based in the UK, secured $4.5 million Series A funding led by PeakBridge to scale its science-backed prebiotic fibre blends for gut and metabolic health.

🌿 Berlin-based Seqana raised €3.2 million in a funding round led by Pymwymic with participation from HTGF, Counteract and Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank. It uses satellite imagery and machine learning to quantify soil health, and will use the funds to expand its soil carbon MRV tools and measure additional soil health indicators and carbon pools.

🌭 US hot dog brand Gleezy, which makes premium double-smoked beef brisket hot dogs for the golf-course market, secured $2 million seed funding in a round led by Old Tom Capital to support its expansion plans, having sold more than 1.5 million hot dogs and grown its retail footprint eightfold year over year. 

💡 Israeli startup Brevel has partnered with coffee cell-culture specialist Coffeesai to use its illuminated fermentation platform to scale cultivated coffee production, supported by a $1 million grant from the Israel Innovation Authority to expand the technology into plant cell culture and adjacent industries.

☕️ Chicago-based Diamond Brew, which makes shelf-stable, machine-free “brewless” coffee pods, raised an undisclosed pre-seed round backed by investors including G/7 Venture Studio, Filipp Chebotarev, Beckett Industries, SGL Acquisitions, Charlie Walk, Kingsland Capital Group, Nobel Partners, and business angels.

New in Startups

🇦🇺 Australian cultivated meat startup Vow has appointed former chief of staff Alex Andrews as CEO while founder George Peppou moves to executive director to focus on spinning out new ventures from Vow’s cell culture platform, with the company also reducing headcount as it expands beyond cultivated meat into sectors including biomedicine, cosmetics and advanced materials. 

🧫 US-based Jellatech has partnered with South Korea’s Hugel to develop and commercialise its cell-cultured, bioidentical human collagen for next-generation injectables, cosmetics, regenerative medicine and therapeutics.

🥔 Israeli molecular farming startup Finally Foods has completed its final pre-commercial field trial, confirming potatoes can express all four casein subunits in one plant as it targets dairy applications by 2027 or 2028.

🍫 Planet A Foods launched ChoViva No Added Sugar, a cocoa-free chocolate alternative made from fermented sunflower and grape seeds and sweetened with maltitol, as it expands its B2B portfolio to meet demand for lower-sugar, more sustainable confectionery.

Plant-Based

🍦 New Zealand-based AndFoods, which uses black gram lentil protein to create dairy alternatives, is preparing to launch its first product: a dairy-free whipped cream for Singapore’s professional foodservice market.

🌻 Finland’s Perfat Technologies unveiled a soft-solid oleogel fat alternative made from vegetable oils and fibre that cuts saturated fat by up to 80% while maintaining the taste, texture and functionality of conventional fats.

🌱 Schouten Europe has acquired fellow Dutch plant-based producer Bobeldijk Food Group for an undisclosed sum, expanding its manufacturing capacity and private-label meat and fish alternatives business as it claims to become Europe’s largest family-owned meat alternatives producer.

🔥 French plant-based meat producer HappyVore is attempting to set a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest plant-based barbecue in Paris on 29th June, using the event to showcase its meat-free sausages, promote plant-based eating and unveil a new product ahead of its retail launch.

Big Food

🤝🏼 German ingredients group Döhler has acquired UK-based cocoa-free chocolate producer Nukoko to scale its fava bean-based technology globally and help manufacturers reduce exposure to cocoa supply volatility, cost pressure and sustainability challenges.

🥥 Danone has agreed to acquire Australia’s Made Group, owner of Cocobella, Rokeby, Impressed, NutrientWater and The Collective, to expand its Asia-Pacific presence in gut health, protein and smart hydration categories.

From the Community

📈 🇨🇭What makes a brand stick? Join our Basel ambassadors, food founders, brand builders and hospitality pros for an evening of connection, Basel June 30.

🌱 🇨🇭Protein had its moment. Fibre is next. Join our team in Zurich on July 8th to unpack the science, hype and opportunity behind food's most talked-about ingredient.

🥫🇨🇦 Getting a product on shelf is hard. Keeping it there is harder. Join founders, operators and investors in Toronto on July 8th for talks on building CPG brands that last.

☀️ Just for fun: Have a great summer!

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Until next time - Stay Hungry