🔻Cheetos and Doritos Go Naked

Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate 🎊

Here at Hack, our end of year celebrations take place at the HackSummit in New York (December 10-11th) where we’ll bring together the Climate Deep Tech community to fast forward fundraising activities before EOY. And we’d love to see you there.

It’s the perfect excuse to catch up with familiar FoodTech faces, learn from rising stars across the wider Climate ecosystem and meet new investors with $60Bn of Climate Capital combined.

To make it easier to attend, use code SUMMITINSIDER for 40% off. Valid until December 1st. You’re welcome. 🎁 

And as a little extra holiday cheer: one lucky attendee will receive a free pass to bring a plus-one, doubling the networking (and the fun).

This week in FoodTech:
🏭 World’s first pilot farm for cultivated meat
⏎ Tindle Foods’ operations pivot entirely to Europe
 😺 VEGDOG expands into cat food with VEGCAT

The Digest

📈 What’s up? Revo Foods has doubled sales, boosted production 3.5×, and expanded distribution this year, and is targeting profitability by Q4 2026 through further scale-up of its 3D-printed plant-based seafood technology.

🧫 RespectFarms has launched the world’s first pilot farm for cultivated meat in the Netherlands, enabling dairy farmer Corné van Leeuwen to produce cell-based proteins with EU agricultural funding.

🧀 The Netherlands has become the first EU country to allow public tastings of novel fermentation-derived foods, such as precision-fermented cheese, eggs and fats, under a new Code of Practice allowing producers to gather consumer feedback ahead of full regulatory approval.

🥛 The UK government is extending the soft drinks levy to high-sugar milk-based and milk-alternative beverages from 2028, aiming to drive sugar reduction and improve public health while preserving exemptions for plain, unsweetened drinks. Opportunity for sugar alts?

🍄 The Future is Fungi Award 2025 has named Michroma as the €250,000 first-place winner, with Mycolever and HIRO Technologies taking second and third place, recognising all three for pioneering fungal-based innovations in food ingredients, sustainable cosmetics and rapidly decomposable diapers.

💡 Opinion: Why AgTech VCs must stop competing over crumbs and start collaborating by Sarah Nolet and Connie Bowen.

🎧 Good listen: How technical founders should approach initial discussions and pitches to investors by Steve Molino.

New in Funding

🧺 Dutch online grocer Picnic raised €430 million from existing investors including Edeka, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, Hoyberg and NPM Capital to expand its market-leading operations in Germany and enter additional new markets.

​​🐜 nextProtein raised €18 million in a Series B round led by SWEN Capital Partners and British International Investment, enabling it to open a second facility in Tunisia and scale production of its insect-based protein ingredients to 12,000 tonnes per year.

🐄 Ruminant BioTech, based in New Zealand, secured $9.5 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Rosrain Investments and Cultivate Ventures with support from Marex and AgriZeroNZ. It will use the funds to commercialise its long-acting methane-reducing bolus for pasture-based cattle ahead of a 2026 launch.

🍲 Munich-based NutriUnited raised €8.5 million seed funding to scale its buy-and-build strategy to acquire and grow family-run artisan food companies.

🍒 Danish biotech Chromologics secured €7 million, in a funding round led by Novo Holdings, EIFO, Döhler Ventures, Collateral Good Ventures and Synergetic, to support regulatory approvals and scale production of its fermentation-derived natural red colour.

🍗 Israel’s SuperMeat secured $3.5 million, including a $2 million commitment from Agronomics, to accelerate the commercialisation of its cultivated chicken in Europe, following major progress in cost reduction and sustainability performance.

🇩🇰 Noahs, based in Copenhagen, raised €1.9 million in a post-seed round led by PSV Tech with participation from angel investors and existing backers to accelerate international expansion of its digital, modular food-retail platform ahead of a planned Series A in 2026.

New in Startups

🐟️ German startup Bluu is expanding its cultivated salmon cell technology beyond seafood into skincare and health products to accelerate scale-up and leverage the purity and traceability of cell-based marine ingredients.

⛓️ Cultigen Group launched Cellbase, a B2B online marketplace that streamlines procurement of equipment and inputs for cultivated meat companies, with the aim of reducing supply chain friction and supporting industry scale-up.

🎣 Umami Bioworks debuted the Virtual Marine Cell, an AI-powered metabolic modelling tool that enables rapid simulation of aquatic cell behavior to accelerate innovation in cultivated seafood and marine bioactives.

Plant Based

🌍️ Tindle Foods is pivoting its operations entirely to Europe to focus on producing private-label plant-based products, divesting its US presence to better capture regional growth and drive product development and operational efficiency.

💰️ Beyond Meat has been ordered to pay $38.9 million in damages to Vegadelphia Foods after a jury found it infringed the company’s trademarked slogan in a Dunkin’ ad campaign.

☀️ Solar Foods has partnered with US brand Pothos to launch vegan protein powders powered by its gas-fermented Solein ingredient in early 2026.

🧬 A new study published in Trends in Biotechnology shows that CRISPR gene-editing can make the mycoprotein-producing fungus Fusarium venenatum more digestible and significantly less resource-intensive to grow, improving both nutritional quality and environmental sustainability for plant-based meat applications.

😺 VEGDOG has expanded into cat food with VEGCAT Pure Bites, a veterinarian-developed, fermentation-derived protein snack designed to be hypoallergenic, nutritionally balanced and free from animal ingredients.

🥗 PawCo Foods launched SuperSalad, a first-of-its-kind plant-based salad for dogs made from whole food ingredients to support hydration, digestion and overall wellness.

Big Food

👅 Aldi UK launched a festive, lickable pigs-in-blankets-flavoured wrapping paper.

🌾 Kellanova and Walmart have partnered with Indigo Ag to support Arkansas rice farmers in adopting regenerative practices through financial incentives, technical support and sustainability data.

🌈 PepsiCo is launching Simply NKD, dye-free versions of Cheetos and Doritos without artificial colours and flavours to appeal to more health-conscious consumers. They look, well, naked.

🔦 Interesting: The reason behind taking a UV torch to a local Waitrose supermarket.

From the Community

Get a job in FoodTech

• Bright Green Partners is hiring a Consultant

• NovaTaste (Austria) is looking for a Sourcing Intern

• Thalya (France) is recruiting for a Operations and Funding Lead

• Rentenbank (Germany) are hiring an Investment Manager, VC

Are you hiring? Hit reply to be included next week.

👀 4 patent applications you might have missed.

🎄 Sign up for the last FoodHack Meetups of 2025 in Berlin and Porto (Dec 3rd). Or join the HackSummit Warm-Up in New York on Dec 4th.

🍷 Just for fun: VC added value

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Until next time - Stay Hungry