🧫 New in Funding: Plug-and-Produce for Cultivated Meat

💸 The Kraft Heinz Co. will receive up to $170 million from the US Department of Energy to support clean energy projects at ten of its US plants, including an electrification and energy storage project which should reduce annual emissions at the plants by more than 99% from 2022 levels. 

💰 SemCap invested $68 million to take a “significant minority stake” in plant-based protein bar, beverage and powder company Aloha. The startup will use the funds to accelerate its presence across traditional retail channels and expand its digital operations.

🥤 US probiotic soda brand Culture Pop Soda raised $21 million in a Series B funding round led by Enlighten Hospitality. It will use the funds to further expand its operations.

💰 Unilever is set to receive up to $20.9 million from the US government to help reduce its ice cream factories’ carbon footprint, funding initiatives such as replacing natural gas boilers with electric boilers and heat pumps.

☕️ Paris-based NetZero raised €18 million and announced a partnership with Nestlé Nespresso SA to build a biochar production facility in Brazil, designed to support local coffee farmers to improve their soil health and adopt regenerative practices.

🍗 British startup SHICKEN Foods, which makes vegan Asian dishes featuring highly realistic plant-based chicken, secured an additional £4 million from Veg Capital to take its brand “fully global”.

🧫 German cultivated meat producer Innocent Meat raised €3 million to further develop its existing biocomponents, scale up its pilot plant, and initiate the necessary certification processes as it works towards regulatory approval.

🍎 Orchard Robotics, based in New York, closed its seed funding round with $3.2 million. Its robotics platform uses AI and computer vision to enable precision crop load management for growers, and it’s starting with a focus on apple crops.

🙋🏻‍♀️ US-based food-as-medicine startup Chiyo raised $3 million for its meal delivery service, designed to support women from fertility through to postpartum with ​​nutrition advice and meals, and a holistic approach to fertility care.

🛢️ Clean Food Group, based in London, secured £2.5 million to further develop its sustainable oil and fat alternatives, made primarily from food waste, ahead of a planned commercial launch next year.

🤖 British startup Fieldwork Robotics secured a £600,000 government grant to increase the accuracy of its autonomous soft fruit-picking systems, designed to address a shortage of fruit pickers. The project will use wavelengths invisible to the human eye to detect when berries are ready to be harvested.

🤝 Israel’s Imagindairy and Boston-based biotech Ginkgo Bioworks announced a partnership to accelerate the introduction of a new wave of animal-free dairy, funded by a joint grant from the Board of Governors of the Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation.

🥛 Californian startup Climax Foods secured seed funding from investors including Untapped Ventures and At One Ventures. It uses AI to develop ‘groundbreaking’ plant-based dairy proteins which mimic the functionality and flavour of animal-based dairy.