👋 Pasta la Vista, Eggs

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In the 25th hour Stockeld Dreamery found a new home, as Bettani Farms stepped in to acquire the plant-based cheese startup, as well as vegan cheese brand Numu and plant-based meat maker Hungry Planet.

This move aligns with the wider trend of consolidation in the alternative protein sector, which has seen over 50 instances of M&As or businesses falling into liquidation since September 2024, reports Anay Mridul at Green Queen.

P.S. Looking to secure or close your final investors before year-end? Come join the HackSummit.

Where Stockeld Dreamery’s Founder and CEO Sorosh Tavakoli takes the stage, joined by new and familiar faces in New York: Formo, Brevel, FTW Ventures, NewMoo, ProSeed, Pow.Bio, DCVC, Aspyre Foods, Bosque Foods, AgriPass, PeakBridge, Floatmeal, Synthesis Capital, Solvable Syndicate, Lever VC, Finally Foods, Coffee Elf, FoodIQ, Atlantic Food Co and many more. Save 20% off with code LASTMINUTE.

This week in FoodTech:
🫛 $17M for pea milk brand
💸 $20M to help rice farmers
👎 10 companies in UPF lawsuit

The Digest

🗝️ Australia’s Victorian government has opened a $9 million plant protein hub to accelerate research, innovation and collaboration on high-protein crops and plant-based products.

👎 San Francisco has filed a landmark lawsuit against 10 major food and beverage companies, alleging they knowingly engineered and deceptively marketed addictive ultra-processed foods that harm public health and disproportionately affect vulnerable communities.

🇪🇺 The EU’s new Bioeconomy Strategy signals plans to help advanced-fermentation startups scale and speed up novel food approvals by providing technical and regulatory support for SMEs developing innovative bio-based food and feed products.

🇬🇧 The UK Food Standards Agency has published its first guidance for cultivated meat regulation, borne of its regulatory sandbox, covering classification, hazard analysis, allergenicity and nutrition.

New in Funding

🇮🇳 Indian agritech platform AgroStar secured $30 million in equity funding from Just Climate and existing investors to expand its omnichannel reach, accelerate product innovation across agri-inputs and outputs, and invest in AI-driven sustainable farming solutions.

🫛 Leading US pea milk brand Ripple Foods, based in California, raised $17 million from new and returning investors to support the launch of an organic range and drive growth of its high-protein plant-based milks.

💷 UK-based BSF Enterprise is raising £15 million from Blackstone Mercantile Group to accelerate the commercialisation of its engineered tissue technologies, including cultivated meat, its bio-based leather platform Elemental X, and corneal repair subsidiary Kerato.

🪸 Fremantle Seaweed, a Western Australia–based startup developing asparagopsis seaweed to reduce cattle methane emissions, raised $2.176 million in a seed crowdfunding round at an $11 million pre-money valuation to advance large-scale cultivation infrastructure and a commercial cattle trial.

🇿🇦 South Africa’s Immobazyme secured R25 million (~$1.5 million) from the University Technology Fund, Fireball Capital and University of Stellenbosch Enterprises to expand its precision-fermentation biologics platform, advance its therapeutics program and build a new R&D and production facility in Cape Town.

🥛 Time-travelling Milkman, together with NIZO Food Research and Duynie, secured investment from the European Regional Development Fund to scale sustainable sunflower-based ingredients for plant-based meat and dairy.

New in Startups

✔️ The European Food Safety Authority has issued a positive safety opinion for Dutch startup The Protein Brewery’s mycoprotein ingredient Fermotein, bringing it to the final regulatory step before commercial approval in the EU.

🇨🇳 China has approved mycoprotein for the first time as a novel food ingredient, granting Fushine Bio regulatory clearance for its Fusarium venenatum–based protein and marking a major milestone for fermentation-derived alternatives in one of the world’s most influential food markets.

👀 Eden Brew has become the first company in Australia and New Zealand to file a regulatory application for a precision-fermented dairy protein, with a decision expected by late 2026.

🦪 New York–based robotics startup and oyster farm Seascape Aquatech is developing fully automated oyster farming systems designed to boost yields and cut labour costs across acquired farms.

📝 Provivi has signed an exclusive multi-year deal with Syngenta to distribute its pheromone-based Fall Armyworm control solution in Brazil, enabling large-scale deployment of its novel mating-disruption technology to combat rising pest resistance and boost crop yields.

Plant Based

🍝 Spain’s MOA Foodtech unveiled a new AI-enabled, fermentation-derived ingredient for bakery, pastry and pasta that reduces reliance on eggs amid ongoing price volatility and supply shortages across Europe.

📈 Bettani Farms has acquired vegan cheese makers Stockeld Dreamery and Numu, along with plant-based meat producer Hungry Planet, consolidating them under its expanding brand portfolio as it pivots toward becoming a multi-category plant-based food company.

Big Food

🔬 Tetra Pak Processing Equipment acquired Latvia-based Bioreactors.net to strengthen its New Food fermentation capabilities, expand its bioreactor systems portfolio, and accelerate scalable production solutions for precision- and biomass-fermented foods.

🍚 Mars Food & Nutrition is investing $20 million over the next decade to help rice farmers across major sourcing regions adopt climate-smart practices that cut water use and emissions, strengthen resilience, and secure the long-term sustainability of its global rice supply chain.

🌾 General Mills is introducing the perennial, soil-enhancing grain Kernza into four of its Cascadian Farm cereals to offer consumers a nutritious, climate-friendly option.

From the Community

Get a job in FoodTech

• Cosun (Spain) are hiring for multiple roles

• Ki Tua Fund (Netherlands) are looking for a VC Investor

• Galvanize Capital are looking for an Impact Associate

• Planet A Foods (Germany) is recruiting Business Dev Manager

• Airup (Germany) are looking for a Product Manager in Flavour

👀 Insights from 2,500+ FoodTech Experts in one report by Bright Green Partners.

🍷 What went on at the latest FoodHack Lisbon Meetup with SOGRAPE.

🔮 Founder on their 4th Round vs First Time Founder

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Until next time - Stay Hungry