🍫 Choco-oat Patent Clash

PLUS: Which meat alternative startup is closing down, why AgTech is a quiet revolution in the making and the first 8 fundraises of 2025

January 10, 2025

We hope you're off to a great start to 2025.

If the first 10 days of January are anything to go by, this year we can expect to see:

  • New retail listings - such as IKEA and THIS

  • Some closures - Sundial Foods being the first

  • More companies partnering up - take Standing Ovation and Ajinomoto Foods Europe for starters

  • Startups breaking new ground - enter Cauldron Foods, Squeaky Bean, Bon Vivant, Onego Bio

Throughout the highs and lows, here at FoodHack we’ll report and share insider perspectives on what lies ahead for the future of AgriFood.

Buckle up - it’s set to be a wild ride. We’re glad to have you with us.

This week in FoodTech:
🎬 New executive order for ultra-processed
🧬 $144 million for seed gene-editing startup
🔬 UV-sterilised bioreactors out of stealth

The Digest

Credit: Sundial Foods

📈 What’s up? The UK's new "grocery tax," formally the Extended Producer Responsibility, is expected to increase household shopping bills by up to £1.4 billion annually by charging retailers and manufacturers for packaging waste to reduce plastic use and meet net-zero targets.

📉 What’s down? Vertical farming startup Plenty Unlimited Inc. is negotiating a $125 million funding round that would drastically reduce its valuation from $1.9 billion to less than $15 million, effectively wiping out most existing stockholders.

🔐 Closing down. California-based meat alternative startup Sundial Foods has closed down but sold its proprietary protein-structuring technology to an undisclosed European food company.

💊 A study from Cornell and Numerator reveals that US households with at least one GLP-1 user reduced their grocery spending by about 6% within six months of taking the medication, with higher-income households cutting nearly 9%, driven by a significant decline in purchases of calorie-dense, processed items (AKA UPFs).

💡 California is taking on ultra-processed foods with a new executive order from Governor Gavin Newsom, pushing state agencies to come up with ideas like warning labels to tackle the associated health risks.

AgriFood Fundraises

🧬 Seed gene-editing startup Inari raised $144 million in a Series G round, bringing total funding to $720 million, to advance its AI-powered SEEDesign platform for editing plant DNA to boost yields and resource efficiency in crops like soybean, corn, and wheat.

🔍 Irish biotech startup Nuritas secured $42M Series C funding to scale its AI-powered Magnifier platform, which accelerates the discovery of plant-based peptides—short-chain amino acids that act as building blocks of proteins like collagen and elastin, with applications in food products, supplements, cosmetics, and other functional offerings.

📦 Middle Eastern meal delivery startup Calo raised $25 million Series B funding, in a round led by Nuwa Capital, to fuel its expansion into new markets and further develop its customised ready-to-eat meal offerings.

👨‍🌾 Tel Aviv-based Fermata secured a $10 million Series A round from Raw Ventures to scale operations and aim for profitability by 2026. It uses AI and computer vision to monitor greenhouse crops for pests and diseases.

🔬 Biosphere, a startup developing UV-sterilised bioreactors designed to reduce biomanufacturing costs, emerged from stealth with $8.8 million in seed funding and a $1.5 million contract with the US Department of Defense.

🍿 Catch up on all the latest funding news this week including autonomous weeding robots and industrialised photosynthesis for microalgae proteins.

Startup Milestones

Credit: Standing Ovation

🧀 French precision fermentation startup Standing Ovation is joining forces with Ajinomoto Foods Europe to produce its animal-free casein protein at industrial scale in northern France, leveraging renewable energy and local materials to supply major dairy industry players.

✔️ Lyon-based Bon Vivant achieved self-affirmed GRAS status for its precision-fermented whey protein in the US, and plans to enter the market by 2026.

🥚 Finnish-American company Onego Bio submitted a GRAS notification to the FDA for Bioalbumen®, its animal-free ovalbumin produced via precision fermentation.

💦 Hong Kong-based agtech Full Nature Farms unveiled the Rocket 2.0 Smart Irrigation Platform, a data-driven AI system that reduces water waste and costs, lowers energy consumption, and improves crop yields through precise, automated irrigation.

📝 Meat analogue maker The Better Butchers signed a letter of intent with cultivated fat startup Genuine Taste to develop hybrid meat combining cell-cultured beef fat with mycelium-based proteins.

🫖 UK botanical tea brand Kaytea launched Hydro Infusions, a new range of electrolyte-infused, naturally unsweetened tea blends for hydration and energy.

Plant Based

Credit: Squeaky Bean

🍔 British plant-based brand Squeaky Bean debuted two market-first products: ready-to-eat flavoured tofu slices, designed to make tofu more accessible, and the Super Grain & Vegetable Burger, the first in the category to use fermented rye for a “cleaner label and whole-food” appeal.

❌ Atlantic Natural Foods, the parent company of vegan brands Loma Linda and Tuno, has terminated its acquisition agreement with Above Food, citing strategic realignment amid rising food inflation, supply chain disruptions, and other macroeconomic challenges.

🌭 The FDA released new draft guidance recommending that plant-based food labels replace generic terms like "meatless sausage" or "plant-based burger" with more specific ingredient-based descriptors such as "chickpea sausage" or "soy-based burger," while allowing the continued use of traditional terms like "meatballs" or "yogurt."

🥘 UK-based Cauldron Foods launched what it claims is "the quickest cooking tofu ever," pre-prepared tofu pieces that cook in five minutes without pressing.

🌱 The EU- and Switzerland-funded Sustain-a-bite project just launched with the aim of developing minimally processed plant-based foods from whole grains and food waste, using innovative natural processes to create healthier, tastier alternatives without artificial ingredients or preservatives.

Big Food

Credit: IKEA

🍝 Plant-based meat brand THIS™ launched its THIS Isn’t Pork Sausages at 19 IKEA restaurants across the UK, as part of the retailer’s goal to make 50% of its meals plant-based by 2025.

🍫 German confectioner Katjes Fassin is in a legal battle with European rivals like Lindt and Nestlé to defend its patent for using hydrolysed oat flour in vegan chocolates, a method central to its Chocjes line.

🌾 The Soil Association Exchange launched the Exchange Market, a £1 million insetting fund supported by retailers like Co-Op, Lidl, and Tesco, to reward UK farmers for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through tailored action plans without selling carbon credits.

🧁 Betty Crocker has teamed up with Netflix and Shondaland to launch a range of Bridgerton-inspired baking kits.

From the Community

New year, new job?

👀 The TL;DR of 2024’s cultivated meat research after reading 70 papers.

🇳🇱 Join us at the first FoodHack Meetup of 2025.

💦 Calling drought-solution startups, Beanstalk Ventures opened applications for their latest programme, apply today.

💡 Opinion: Why AgTech is a quiet revolution in the making.

🦜 The hidden challenges of building a startup.

Tell us what you thought of the first edition of 2025:

I love it 😁 Meh 😐 I hate it 🙁

Until next time - Stay Hungry