🌾 CRISPR Self-Fertilising Wheat

It’s been a week of big shifts in FoodTech.

Nestlé is pulling the plug on its vegan KitKat after struggling to find demand, marking the end of its short run.

While Dutch-based Vivera and The Vegetarian Butcher are joining forces under a new banner, The Vegetarian Butcher Collective, yet keeping their brands distinct.

And across the Atlantic, Kraft Heinz is preparing for a corporate split, carving itself into two publicly traded giants focused on different sides of its portfolio.

Let’s dive in:

🐟 Approved: Cell-cultured fish for pet food
🎯 Announced: Food venture studio funding
🧑‍⚖️ Filed: Lawsuit on cultivated meat ban

The Digest

📈 What’s up? Lidl GB has exceeded its goal of boosting private-label plant-based sales by 400% by 2025, achieving a 694% increase between 2020 and 2025, driven largely by its Vemondo Plant range of protein and veg-led products.

📉 What’s down? Nestlé announced it is discontinuing its vegan KitKat V chocolate bar entirely, withdrawing it from the UK and Ireland after previously ending sales in all other markets due to declining demand.

🇪🇺 The European Union has invested €2.2 million into a two-year initiative that will run across Portugal, Czechia and Denmark to expand plant-based food adoption and innovation.

🔬 Scientists at the University of California, Davis have used CRISPR gene-editing to develop wheat plants that boost their own fertiliser production by stimulating soil bacteria to fix nitrogen, a breakthrough that could cut costs, reduce pollution, and benefit farmers globally.

💡 Opinion: Y combinator’s Paul Graham on why startups should deliberately choose the hard problems.

🔮 Prediction: Why the AgTech Chemical Era is ending.

💚 Take part in our Global Impact Survey packed with perks as a thank you 🧢

New in Funding

🚜 Californian AI-powered precision agriculture startup Orchard Robotics raised $22 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round led by Quiet Capital and Shine Capital with participation from General Catalyst and others, to scale its crop inspection and farm management technology.

🥘 Cyprus-based Stiq secured €20 million from the European Investment Bank to scale its AI-powered cloud kitchen platform, designed to reduce food waste, and expand into new European markets.

🇬🇧 The UK government, in partnership with Innovate UK, is investing £12.6 million through two Farming Innovation Programme competitions to accelerate agtech R&D that addresses farming challenges such as rising costs, animal welfare, and labour shortages.

🇫🇮 Finnish Food Factory, a contract manufacturer of plant-based dairy alternatives, secured €10 million from the Taaleri Bioindustry Fund I to support its continued growth and sustainable production.

🇳🇱 The CRAFT Consortium – which includes RespectFarms, Wageningen University & Research, Mosa Meat, Aleph Farms, Multus, Kipster, and Royal Kuijpers – has launched a project in the Netherlands to develop what is claimed to be the world’s first cultivated meat farm, co-funded by EIT Food with an initial €2 million grant.

🇺🇸 Mooski, a US-based refrigerated bar startup positioning itself as the fresh version of granola bars, raised $1.5 million Series A funding from an existing angel investor. It will use the funds to support its expansion plans.

💸 Swiss venture studio FOOD FOUNDERS Studio raised CHF 1.2 million from private investors including a Swiss family office. It will use the funds to support commercialisation of European university food technologies.

🥄 US-based organic skyr yoghurt startup Painterland Sisters raised an undisclosed seven-figure seed funding round led by The Angel Group, Supernatural Ventures, and Spacestation Investments, with participation from Scoop Ventures, to further expand its operations.

New in Startups

🐟 Singapore-based cultivated seafood startup Umami Bioworks has registered two cell-cultured white fish ingredients for pet food with the EU Feed Materials Register and, through its partnership with Friends & Family Pet Food Company, is targeting a Q2 2026 launch in the EU, Singapore, and the UK.

🤍 Yali Bio, based in California, has produced a high-purity breast milk fat (OPO) via precision fermentation, marking a breakthrough for the infant formula market and enabling nutrient absorption benefits closer to human milk.

🏭 Dutch startup NoPalm Ingredients is partnering with NIZO Food Research to build a demo facility for its precision fermentation palm oil alternatives at NIZO’s food innovation campus, set to begin production in 2026 with a capacity of up to 1,200 tons per year.

👩‍⚖️ US cell-based startups Wildtype and Upside Foods have filed a lawsuit challenging Texas’s two-year ban on cultivated meat, arguing it unlawfully shields local agriculture from competition as more US states move to restrict or regulate cultivated protein.

🤝 Netherlands-based Vivera and The Vegetarian Butcher have merged to form a new umbrella company, The Vegetarian Butcher Collective, bringing the two plant-based brands together while maintaining their individual identities.

👩‍🍳 CookUnity, a US-based chef-made meal platform, has partnered with EmblemHealth and Dr. Dean Ornish’s Preventive Medicine Research Institute to provide culturally relevant, medically tailored, plant-based meals for Alzheimer’s patients in New York.

Big Food

🥑 Tesco is piloting One Third Avocado Scanners in five UK stores, using X-ray technology to let shoppers check fruit ripeness and reduce food waste by helping them plan usage more accurately.

💔 Kraft Heinz Co. plans to split into two independent, publicly traded companies: Global Taste Elevation Co., housing brands like Heinz, Philadelphia, and Kraft Mac & Cheese with $15.4 billion in 2024 sales, and North American Grocery Co., including Kraft Singles, Lunchables, and Oscar Mayer with $10.4 billion in 2024 sales.

From the Community

Apply for your next role:

• Zoetis (USA) are hiring a Senior R&D Manager

• Puratos (Belgium) are recruiting a R&D Manager

• Phytolon (USA) are looking for a Senior Food Technologist

• Rabo Investments (NL) are recruiting an Investment Associate

🔝 Rockstart are looking to support 10 super women building in the AgriFood space.

3️⃣ Three new funding opportunities with Pepsico, USDA, National Geographic Society.

🗽 Join us in New York, September 10th for a Meetup on the role of AI in the Food and Beverage space. Sign up here 

🍫 Just for fun: Why we need to eat more chocolate.

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Until next time - Stay Hungry