🥔 Low-carbon potatoes are landing

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This week in FoodTech:

🧬 Brevel debuts fermentation-made chlorella
🌍 UN calls for clearer rules on cultivated meat
🥤 Refresco snaps up SunOpta in a $1.1B deal

The Digest

⏩️ The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is urging governments to streamline and clarify regulatory frameworks for cultivated meat and precision-fermented foods, recommending clearer authority oversight, updated food safety and labelling rules, and coordinated international standards to support safe market entry and global trade.

🇫🇮 Helsinki City Council has approved the “Half Better” initiative to cut municipal procurement of meat and dairy by 50% by 2030, replacing them with plant-based options across public food services such as schools, hospitals and daycare centers.

🇪🇺 The European Union has agreed to ban plant-based and cultivated meat products from using 31 meat-related terms on labels, including “beef,” “chicken,” “bacon,” and “steak”, while allowing common names like “veggie burger” and “vegan sausage,” giving companies three years to comply with the new rules. Here’s why it’s a big mis-steak.

💯 Exclusive: 100 Women Founders in Food and Climate ahead of International Women’s Day.

🎟️ Get your HackSummit pass and join us for 2 days of high-impact networking, dealmaking and fun this April 22-23. + Women Founders can save 40% on their pass with code WOMENINCLIMATE.

New in Funding

🇦🇺 Australia’s PlasmaLeap Technologies, a University of Sydney spinout developing zero-emissions modular reactors to produce green ammonia and nitrate for fertiliser and fuels, secured $20 million Series A funding in a round co-led by the Gates Foundation, Investible and Yara Growth Ventures with support from Twynam, GrainCorp Ventures, Uniseed/UniSuper, Artesian, SVG Ventures and Agnition Ventures.

👶🏻 China’s Guoke Xinglian Technology Co, a precision-fermentation biotech developing human-identical milk proteins, raised ¥100 million ($14.6 million) in a Series A+ funding round led by Shanghai Zhuiguang Julian, Lenovo Capital, and a fund under Changjin Holdings to scale industrial production, starting with lactoferrin.

🪸 Aqua Theon, a Californian seaweed-tech startup producing marine-based confectionery, edible materials and functional beverages, secured $13 million in seed funding led by Sparx Asset Management with participation from Beyond Next Ventures and World Innovation Lab to expand its seaweed technology to expand its operations and target the GLP-1 market.

🌱 US plant-based protein bar producer MEZCLA raised $9.5 million in a Series B led by Bluestein Ventures, with participation from Santatera Capital, Grupo DMI, Lever VC, Habitat Partners and Steve Platt, to support its expansion plans.

🇫🇷 Paris-based baCta, which is developing a generative AI-powered strain engineering and bioproduction platform for industrial ingredients, raised €7 million in a seed funding round led by LocalGlobe and Daphni with participation from OVNI Capital and angels, to scale production of its first ingredient, algae-based astaxanthin.

🌾 Belgian agtech startup Rainbow Crops has been awarded a $7 million grant from the Gates Foundation to advance its AI- and genome-editing-powered platform for developing climate-resilient crops, initially focusing on improving heat- and drought-tolerant varieties of corn, sorghum and rice for smallholder farmers.

🍇 Amatera, based in France, raised €6 million seed funding in a round co-led by Demea Sustainable Investment and Oyster Bay Venture Capital with participation from PINC, Mudcake and Exceptional Ventures. It will use the funds to scale its AI-driven plant cell biology platform to accelerate breeding of climate-resilient crops, starting with coffee and wine grapes.

🚜 UK-based Bindbridge secured $3.8 million from Speedinvest and Nucleus Capital. Its AI-driven BRIDGE platform designs molecular glues for next-generation herbicides and crop protection, and it will use the funds to advance crop-resilience solutions and accelerate discovery of new agricultural molecules.

🥔 DTU spin-out Mycoverse raised €2.4 million in a pre-seed funding round co-led by Future Food Fund and High-Tech Gründerfonds with participation from PINC. It is developing AI-driven fungal biological crop protection to replace chemical pesticides, and will use the funds to advance its first solution targeting potato late blight.

😋 US-based Middle Eastern-inspired dips and sauces maker Maazah raised $2 million seed funding in a round led by a group of Minnesota-based family offices to support its nationwide retail growth plans.

🍭 Austrian startup NEOH, which is developing its ZERO+ sugar-reduction technology that replaces sugar with functional fibres while maintaining taste and texture, secured an oversubscribed investment round from ZINTINUS, REWE Group and Teseo Capital to scale the technology, expand product applications and support international growth.

New in Startups

✅ MycoTechnology has achieved self-affirmed GRAS status for Zukora, its precision-fermented sweet protein derived from honey truffles that it says is 2,500x sweeter than sucrose, and scaled production to commercial batches.

🪸 Waiākea Hawaiian Volcanic Beverages launched the world’s first commercial product labels printed with algae-based ink, developed in partnership with Living Ink Technologies, Actega and NextGen Label Group.

🇮🇱 Israeli microalgae innovator Brevel debuted Purallis™, a clean-label chlorella ingredient produced using its proprietary illuminated fermentation platform in closed indoor bioreactors to deliver high-yield, contaminant-free chlorella for nutraceutical, functional food and wellness applications.

🧫 Malaysia-based cellular agriculture company Cell AgriTech has acquired lab and pilot-scale bioprocessing equipment from the Singapore research arm of cultivated seafood startup Avant, to expand its manufacturing capacity and strengthen its infrastructure for scaling cultivated meat and seafood production.

Plant-Based

🥦 UK-based Upcycled Plant Power debuted Fiba, a fibre ingredient made from upcycled broccoli stems, as it prepares for a £5 million funding round to scale its AI-enabled harvesting and processing system that converts agricultural sidestreams into protein, fibre and other food ingredients. 

📉 US entrepreneur Pinky Cole, founder and majority owner of vegan fast-food chain Slutty Vegan, has filed for Chapter 11 personal bankruptcy, as the business continues restructuring and operating under a franchise model.

🌱 US-based crop innovation company NuCicer has partnered with specialty pulse supplier Stricks Ag to plant over 10,000 acres of its high-protein chickpea variety in 2026, scaling production of a non-GMO chickpea with roughly double the protein of conventional varieties.

🐟 Oshi is launching its brand new retail packs at Expo West - featuring plant-based white fish fillets, salmon fillets, and a surf & turf.

Big Food

🧃 Netherlands-based beverage manufacturer Refresco has agreed to acquire US organic food and plant-based drink maker SunOpta for $1.1 billion to expand its North American footprint.

🥔 UK supermarket Tesco has begun stocking lower-carbon potatoes grown at its Lincolnshire supplier concept farm in partnership with Branston, grown using techniques such as circular fertilisers, minimum cultivation and HVO fuel. And Waitrose is set to suspend sourcing of north-east Atlantic mackerel by April 2026 due to ICES overfishing concerns and sustainability standards.

🥣 Target plans to remove cereals containing certified synthetic colours from its assortment by the end of May, and is working with national brands and private-label suppliers to reformulate.

From the Community

• ProteinDistillery is searching for a Sales Manager and a Laboratory Technician.

• The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition is looking for an Environment and Nutrition Lead.

🇦🇹 🇨🇭 Join the next FoodHack Meetups in Vienna (19th March) and Basel (24th March)

📈 The Villars Institute’s Investment Readiness for Systemic Impact (IRSI) is a practical masterclass helping founders and growth-stage leaders get investor-ready and accelerate funding for mission-driven ventures.

💸 Female Invest's Changemaker Award, sponsored by Monzo Bank, will give away £10,000 to someone in their community with a startup, project or idea.

💅🏼 Just for fun: Kraft Heinz nailed it with this one

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Until next time - Stay Hungry