🌬️ Pollutant to Protein

Rice, wheat, maize. These 3 crops make up 2/3 of the world’s food energy intake and are staple foods for billions of people around the world.

But this dependence on such a limited range of crops means our food supply is highly vulnerable to drought, pests, plant diseases and climate fluctuations.

And as the world becomes hotter and drier, the challenges of food security are heating up.

To address this, scientists at the Technical University of Munich and France's National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment have just created new, more sustainable wheat varieties. And even if it doesn't (yet) fully address the affordability and environmental concerns of increased nitrogen use, the cultivars are sowing the seeds for a resilient food system.

This week in FoodTech:
🧀 Stretchier, meltier animal-free cheeses
🍫 FoodTech World Cup winner bags $3.4M
🐠 ‘World’s largest’ 3D printing food facility

The Digest

📈 What’s up? Global egg prices have surged by 60% since 2019 due to widespread avian flu outbreaks in North America and Europe.

🍚 Good read: Here’s how ClimateTech can transform rice farming.

📊 Infographic: Reducing CO2 in food waste vs reducing CO2 electric cars.

💡 Opinion: A map of where we can expect no vs significant improvement in plant based.

FoodTech Fundraising

🧫 AgroSpheres closed its Series B funding round with $37 million. It will use the funds to advance its AgriCell platform, which forms a protective shell around pesticide solutions, physically shielding active ingredients from a range of environmental pressures.

⚡️ US energy drink company Lucky Energy raised $11.75 million Series A funding to boost brand awareness, expand strategic partnerships, and accelerate its entry into major retailers in 2025.

🍫 FoodTech World Cup Winner, AKA Foreverland secured €3.4 million seed funding for its carob-based chocolate alternatives, and will use the funds to establish its first manufacturing facility in Puglia. Catch the TL;DR on the fundraise.

🛒 Germany’s Foodforecast raised over €3 million to scale its operations across Europe. Its AI-powered sales forecasting technology for the food retail market is designed to automate over 90% of orders, reducing food waste by up to 30% and increasing sales by up to 11%.

🔋 Catch up on all the FoodTech funding rounds for this week including micropeptides crop protection solutions and a second commercial plant for black soldier fly lavae fertiliser.

Startup Milestones

💨 Gas fermentation company LanzaTech is expanding into the food and feed industry with its new product, LanzaTech Nutritional Protein (LNP), an odourless, neutral-coloured, high-protein ingredient containing all essential amino acids, expected to reach commercial-scale production in 2028. Here’s why it’s a big deal.

🤝 Believer Meats is collaborating with GEA to jointly develop technologies and processes aimed at enhancing the cost-efficiency and sustainability of cultivated meat production.

🇰🇷 Singaporean cultivated seafood company Umami Bioworks is joining forces with biotech firm KCell Biosciences and bioprocess solutions provider WSG to set up a production line and path to market entry in South Korea.

🧀 Dutch-Belgian food tech Those Vegan Cowboys unveiled its precision fermentation casein protein, which has been four years in the making and is designed for “stretchier, meltier” animal-free cheeses.

👀 Good read: How big food companies should work with startups to accelerate the innovation process. According to Ian Noble at Mondelēz International

Plant Based

🍣 Austrian food tech startup Revo Foods has opened what it says is the world's largest 3D food-printing facility, the TASTE FACTORY in Vienna, which will produce up to 60 tons of product per month. 🐾 Take a tour.

🥛 China’s Protoga Biotech is set to launch the “world’s first” commercially available microalgae milk, which it says is rich in protein and lutein, lactose and cholesterol-free, and designed to meet consumer taste expectations.

🍄 Israeli startup Kinoko-Tech has entered a strategic commercial agreement with Australia's Metaphor Foods to produce thousands of tonnes of sustainable fungi-based products in Australia, with plans for expansion into Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and New Zealand.

🍝 Spanish plant-based innovator Heura is advancing its technology to introduce nutrient-rich cold cuts, cheese, and pasta, aiming to help move past the ultra-processed food label, plus why there is a Phamacy in Paris.

Big Food

💊 Floré unveiled the world’s first line of probiotics for neurodiversity, free from artificial additives and suitable for individuals with dietary restrictions and sensitivities often linked to neurodiversity and ASD.

🍌 Chiquita Brands partnered with KeyGene, MusaRadix, and Wageningen University to introduce 'Yelloway One,' a new banana hybrid engineered to resist Tropical Race 4 (TR4) and partially resist Black Sigatoka, two major fungal threats to global banana production. Because here’s why bananas might go extinct.

🥤 PepsiCo is acquiring Siete Foods, a maker of "heritage-inspired" tortillas and snacks, for $1.2 billion, in a move it says will enhance its portfolio with a Mexican American brand and expand its better-for-you product offerings. Opinion: Why the hard work is just beginning.

💡 An optimist’s plan to turn The Coca Cola Company regenerative.

From the Community

Get hired in FoodTech

• Adamo Foods is hiring a Fermentation Process Engineer

• MOA FoodTech is looking for a Fermentation Scientist

• Hoxton Farms is recruiting a Head of BioProcessing

🇸🇬 Come and join us in Singapore at our next FoodHack Meetup.

👑 Melt & Marble were crowned winners of the Flora Food Group Innovation Challenge to unlock Next Generation Fats and Oils.

🗞️ Green Queen Gulf just launched as the world's first newsletter dedicated to agrifood and climate in the Gulf region.

🚀 Beyond Y Combinator, here’s a list of 24 alternative programmes.

🏍️ When your bootstrapped FoodTech startup overtakes a VC-backed competitor.

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Until next time - Stay Hungry