🍫 €3.4 million for carob-based chocolate alternatives

🪰 Canadian startup Entosystem, which produces proteins for animal nutrition and organic fertilisers from black soldier fly larvae, raised $58 million to boost production capacity and build a second commercial plant.

🥡 Food-delivery app HungryPanda, which was founded in London and is aimed at Chinese and other Asian consumers living outside their home countries, secured $55 million at a valuation of $500 million to further expand its operations.

🧫 AgroSpheres closed its Series B funding round with $37 million. It will use the funds to advance its AgriCell platform, which forms a protective shell around pesticide solutions, physically shielding active ingredients from a range of environmental pressures.

⚡️ US energy drink company Lucky Energy raised $11.75 million Series A funding to boost brand awareness, expand strategic partnerships, and accelerate its entry into major retailers in 2025.

🌾 Permanent, based in the US, secured $3.7 million to “permanently change where commercial buyers get their food”. Its distribution platform connects commercial buyers to farms that use regenerative farming practices or those owned by diverse farmers.

🇸🇪 PAN Sweden, a research centre coordinated by Örebro University, received SEK 40 million (€3.54 million) from the Swedish government to continue its work on developing sustainable, nutritious, and tasty plant-based protein products, with the goal of positioning Sweden as a global leader in the field.

🍫 FoodTech World Cup Winner, AKA Foreverland secured €3.4 million seed funding for its carob-based chocolate alternatives, and will use the funds to establish its first manufacturing facility in Puglia. Catch the TL;DR on the fundraise.

🛒 Germany’s Foodforecast raised over €3 million to scale its operations across Europe. Its AI-powered sales forecasting technology for the food retail market is designed to automate over 90% of orders, reducing food waste by up to 30% and increasing sales by up to 11%.

🧂 Spicewell, the first company to offer nutrient-enhanced Ayurvedic salt and pepper, raised over $1 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round to further expand its operations.

🧬 French startup Micropep secured new funding for its natural crop protection solutions based on micropeptides, which are short natural protein molecules that target and regulate plant genes and proteins.

🏭 Cauldron Ferm, based in Australia, received investment from the Queensland government to build Asia-Pacific’s largest precision fermentation contract manufacturing plant, where it will employ its continuous fermentation process that lowers costs and increases production with significantly less capex.

🛒 Netherlands-based Merqato secured an investment from Smarter Ventures to innovate, grow, and help fruit and vegetable companies reduce costs and food waste across Europe.