🤑 Danone's €1bn meal shake deal

Besides landing in your inbox every Friday with the latest AgriFoodTech news, we’re also the team building the HackSummit on April 22-23 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

This year, we’re going all-in on food sovereignty: the infrastructure Europe needs and what takes to unlock real scale.

If you’re building or investing in Europe’s food supply chain, HackSummit is where you’ll want to be.

Join us for two stages, the FoodTech World Cup Final, breakout sessions, 30 second pitches, tastings, startup fair, 1-1 networking and side events across the city.

We’ll host founders and investors including Katelijne Bekers (MicroHarvest), Pasi Vainikka (Solar Foods), Rosie Wardle (Synthesis Capital), and Maximilian Schwarz (Nucleus Capital), the Founders building food systems that can survive climate volatility, biological limits, and regulatory pressure. And the capital stack behind it.

It’s (almost) not too late to join us. Get your pass today.

This week in FoodTech:

🐄 Halter bags $314M to herd cows by GPS
🥔 Potato prices drop below 0 across Europe
🧬 Enifer eyes US launch for its mycoprotein

The Digest

🌱 Interesting: Beyond (Meat) explains why it rebranded.

📈 What’s up? European potato farmers are facing a major supply glut - estimated at around 3.3 million tonnes - driving prices below zero and forcing some growers to pay to dispose of excess crops.

📉 What’s down? The US is experiencing record-low honey production, down 14% year-on-year to its lowest level ever, driven by declining bee colonies, lower yields and rising costs.

🌾 Deep Science Ventures and Renaissance Philanthropy launched a joint initiative to build new deeptech startups focused on improving crop resilience to climate change.

🤝🏼 The EU and Australia have agreed a free trade deal that will eliminate tariffs on most agri-food products, but has raised concerns among farmers over increased competition, quota limits in sensitive sectors like beef and dairy, and potential impacts on pricing and domestic agriculture.

🏷️ California is considering a first-of-its-kind “non-ultra-processed food” certification program that would introduce a state-backed label to help consumers identify healthier products and push manufacturers toward cleaner ingredients, with retailers required to give certified items greater visibility in stores.

New in Funding

🤖 New Zealand’s Halter, an agtech company developing AI-powered, solar GPS cattle collars for remote livestock management, raised $314.5 million at a $2 billion valuation in a Series E round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, with funds set to scale its technology globally, expand into new markets and further develop its data-driven platform. Here’s how it works

🥘 Bengaluru-based Swish, which operates a vertically integrated 10-minute fresh meals platform, secured $38 million Series B funding in a round led by Hara Global and Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from Accel, Alteria Capital and Stride Ventures, to support its expansion plans.

👩🏻‍💻 Canadian startup Miraterra closed a $16 million seed extension led by At One Ventures with participation from S2G Investments, Sitka Foundation, iSelect and new investor Farm Credit Canada. It is developing advanced soil measurement technology that combines chemical and biological analysis, and will use the funds to further expand its platform.

🇦🇺 Australia’s Cauldron Ferm raised $13.25 million in a Series A2 funding round led by Main Sequence Ventures with participation from Horizons Ventures, SOSV and NGS Super to scale its continuous “hyper-fermentation” platform for producing bio-based ingredients more efficiently.

🍫 Italian cocoa-free chocolate producer Foreverland raised €6 million from investors including Kost Capital, Maia Ventures, CDP Venture Capital, Linfa agrifoodtech fund, and Newtree Impact. It will use the funds to expand across Europe, scale production, strengthen partnerships with confectionery manufacturers, and develop new products including an organic cocoa-free line.

🚜 BBLeap, based in the Netherlands, secured €5 million in a funding round led by ESquare Capital and Yield Lab Europe, with participation from existing investors including BOM and Beheermaatschappij Vriend, to commercialise its high-precision, plant-level spraying technology.

🐮 Australian agtech Rumin8, which is developing methane-reducing feed additives for cattle, raised $4.3 million from New Zealand’s AgriZeroNZ to advance trials ahead of commercial rollout. 

🍝 Amsterdam-based SOUS secured €4 million seed funding, in a round led by seed + speed Ventures with participation from PeakBridge, āltitude, Gekko Capital and angel investors, to expand an AI-powered platform which helps independent restaurants manage digital growth and customer relationships.

🧀 French plant-based cheese producer Jay&Joy raised €2 million from investors including High Flyers Capital and other private backers to expand production and accelerate growth across European markets. 

🐄 Swedish startup Volta Greentech secured €1.7 million in a round led by Axel Johnson to support the market launch and further development of its methane-reducing product Lome, designed to help cut cattle emissions.

🇳🇿 New Zealand agtech Scanabull raised NZ$1.1 million in a funding round led by Sprout Agritech with participation from Enterprise Angels and Callaghan Innovation. It uses AI-powered smartphone scanning to instantly estimate cattle weight, and will use the funds to support broader commercial rollout across key beef markets.

🥃 Branca International announced a strategic investment in ALTR, an innovative beverage technology company specializing in molecular-level ethanol management across wines, spirits, and other alcoholic beverages.

👼🏻 UC Davis has launched Food & Health Angels, a new angel investor network to back early-stage, science-driven startups focused on metabolic health, nutrition and “food-as-medicine” solutions.

New in Startups

✅ US-based Pureture has achieved self-affirmed GRAS status for its yeast-based functional protein, enabling commercial use across food and beverage applications.

☑️ Finland’s Enifer has filed for both self-affirmed GRAS status and FDA-reviewed approval for its fermentation-derived, shelf-stable PEKILO mycoprotein to support commercialisation in the US.

🍬 Israeli startup Sweet Victory, which makes chewing gum that blocks sweet taste receptors, has shown in a pilot clinical trial that it can help people with type 1 diabetes reduce sweet snacking by up to half.

🥩 Aleph Farms has shown strong consumer acceptance for its cultivated beef in blind taste testing, with results indicating comparable appeal to conventional meat.

Plant-Based

🤝🏼 Huel, a nutrition company producing plant-based, nutritionally complete meal replacements, has agreed to be acquired by Danone in a €1 billion deal, backed by high-profile investors including Idris Elba, Steven Bartlett and Jonathan Ross. Green Queen’s Sonalie Figueiras has a hot take.

🧪 South Korea’s Samyang Foods has opened a plant-based R&D hub near Wageningen in the Netherlands to develop plant-based and functional foods, leveraging collaboration with leading agrifood research institutions to accelerate innovation and expand its presence in the European market.

Big Food

🍟 McCain Foods launched a UK-based “Mr Chippy” ice cream van, serving chips topped with soft-serve ice cream.

🍫 UK retailers and brands including Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Ferrero have joined a new UK Cocoa Coalition to push for delayed deforestation rules, aiming to improve supply chain traceability and enable more sustainable cocoa sourcing.

From the Community

🍻 Random: “Rachel,” an AI voice agent with a Northern Irish persona, called over 3,000 pubs across Ireland during St Patrick’s weekend to collect real-time data on the price of pints of beer.

👨🏻‍🌾 Good Read: Agtech has burned ~$50B by forcing a SaaS playbook onto agriculture; Andrew Rose shares key lessons on aligning innovation with real farm economics and timelines.

💰 Amsterdam-based Kitchen Republic is seeking to raise at least €100,000 after a fire destroyed its Scale-up Kitchen, to help rebuild the community space that fostered collaboration and growth since 2019. Can you help?

🥒 Just for fun: Would you wear this KFC fashion creation?

What did you think of today’s round up?

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Until next time - Stay Hungry