🍫 Hershey's backs upcycled cacoa products

🍫 US-based cacao startup Blue Stripes secured $20 million Series B funding, in a round featuring Hershey’s and celebrity chef Nick DiGiovanni, to develop superfood chocolates and upcycled cacao products, including cacao water, granola, and chocolate-covered cacao beans.

🌾 BioPrime raised $6 million, in a Series A funding round led by Edaphon, to develop bio-fungicides, bio-insecticides, and biostimulants, leveraging its BioNexus technology and over 170 microbial strains.

🥬 Swiss startup UMAMI secured CHF 4.3 million Series A funding to expand its holistic indoor farming operations. Its microgreens are currently available in more than 450 Coop and Migros stores and supplied to 400 restaurants across the country every day. 

🏭 US biomanufacturing company Liberation Labs raised $3.5 million through a Secured Promissory Note, including $2 million from Agronomics Limited, to fund the construction of its first fermentation facility in Richmond, Indiana, which is expected to be operational by Q1 2025.

🇩🇪 Infinite Roots and the Hamburg University of Technology received a €2.6 million grant from the German government to develop technology that upcycles dairy industry waste, specifically whey, into a feedstock for mycelium fermentation.

🐜 Breakthrough Victoria has invested $2.5 million in Melbourne-based Viridian Renewable Technology, which converts food waste into insect-based protein and fertiliser. It will use the funds to further expand what it says is Australia’s first large scale insect protein manufacturing plant.

🧫 Swiss startup sallea raised €2.38 million, in a pre-seed funding round led by Founderful, to accelerate the production of premium whole cuts of cultivated meat and fish using its innovative edible scaffolds.

🍳 California-based Terviva secured investment from Chevron Renewable Energy Group to scale its operations and promote pongamia oil as a sustainable feedstock for renewable fuels.

🥤 Functional beverage brand Cure, based in the US, raised funding from Santatera Capital. Cure is “shaking up the hydration game” with its plant-based electrolyte mix powder, featuring a WHO-standard rehydration formula and made with ingredients like coconut water powder and pink Himalayan salt.