🍐 Prickly Pear Yellow from Yeast

Over 100 startups from 20 countries applied to take part in the 2025 FoodTech World Cup. And now, the final 10 remain.

Introducing the finalists:

Antithesis Foods, Coa & Co, EXOSOMM, Fattastic Technologies, Future Biome, Ironic Biotech, Kokomodo, Koralo, Olfactive Biosolutions and Sante Science

Get to know the finalists and see why they came out on top.

Next up, Join them at the HackSummit in Lausanne for the Grand Final on 15th May. Use code FTWC15 to save 15% on your pass to watch the final unfold.

This week in FoodTech:

🍫 Pluri’s 71% stake in cultivated cacao
🇨🇭 Who you’ll meet at the HackSummit
🌫️ Ready-to-mix protein powder from CO₂

The Digest

📈 What’s up? The Good Food Institute’s 2024 state of the industry report shows global plant-based food sales rose 5% to $28.6 million, even as total alt-protein funding fell 27% and US plant-based sales declined.

📉 What’s down? Next-gen fridge startup Tomorrow has shut down due to the challenging funding climate for consumer hardware and uncertainty around tariffs, with its founder citing the difficulty of launching a science-driven, capital-intensive product in today’s market.

🎨 What your favourite childhood snacks look like without petroleum-based-dyes.

👀 Good read: The Grocer shares why so many food startups fail and what founders can learn from it.

🔬 Scientists at the Mleiha Wheat Farm in the UAE have developed a high-protein wheat variety with a global record of 19.3% protein, marking a breakthrough for the UAE’s food security and agricultural exports despite its harsh desert conditions.

🏭 Nova Scotia has opened the Neptune BioInnovation Centre, a 51,000-square-foot facility supporting large-scale biomanufacturing in sectors like alternative proteins and biotechnology.

Fundraising

👩‍🌾 Agrifintech startup Growers Edge secured $25 million to expand its suite of risk management and financing tools for US farmers, aiming to simplify access to capital, improve sustainability, and support growers amid economic and climate uncertainty.

🐄 Hoofprint Biome raised $15 million to trial a novel enzyme-based feed additive that reduces methane emissions from cows by targeting their rumen microbiome—boosting both climate impact and feed efficiency by approaching the problem “from a farmer’s perspective rather than a purely environmental one”.

🧋 Premium British iced tea brand Harry Brompton’s secured £2 million in growth capital from Traditum to accelerate its expansion into the on-trade, out-of-home, and international markets.

🌱 S&dB secured €1.5 million to further develop vSET, its seed embedding technology for open-field vegetable cultivation, designed to enable scalable regenerative agriculture that restores soil health, boosts biodiversity, and strengthens farmer resilience across Europe.

☕️ Coffeeco Upcycle raised €715,000 to scale its chemical-free technology that transforms spent coffee grounds into high-performance skincare and bioplastics, helping to tackle the 23 million tons of annual coffee waste globally.

🌈 Rainbow Crops, which is developing climate-resilient crops through its AI-powered Trait Foundry™ platform, secured investment from PINC to scale its genome editing and precision breeding technology following promising corn trials.

📊 A graph on why early-stage investments are declining fast in European FoodTech startups.

New in Startups

☀️ Finland’s Solar Foods unveiled the world’s first ready-to-mix protein powder made from CO₂ instead of dairy, offering a climate-friendly alternative as it prepares to launch in the US market.

🍪 Pow.Bio and California Cultured have successfully produced commercial-scale cell-cultured cocoa using Pow.Bio’s new AI-enabled continuous fermentation facility, marking a major milestone in sustainable, food-grade biomanufacturing for chocolate and coffee.

🍫 Pluri Inc acquired a 71% stake in cultivated cacao startup Kokomodo for $4.5 million, aiming to combine its scalable cell-production technology with Kokomodo’s plant cell–based cacao platform to drive sustainable innovation in the chocolate and food industries.

🤝 Meatable and TruMeat have formed a strategic partnership to scale cultivated meat production through a new high-tech facility in Singapore, aiming to optimise processes, lower costs, and achieve price parity with conventional meat.

📈 Brightseed has partnered with consumer health giant Haleon to provide direct access to its AI-powered Forager platform, enabling on-demand discovery of plant-based bioactives with potential health benefits across Haleon’s portfolio of wellness brands.

✅ Upside Foods secured an initial legal win as a federal judge denied Florida’s attempt to dismiss its lawsuit challenging the state’s ban on cultivated meat, allowing the case to move forward in court.

🤝 Earth First Food Ventures partnered with DeNovo Foodlabs to launch PFerrinX26, a joint venture to scale the production of animal-free bovine lactoferrin using precision fermentation, aiming to produce 300 tons annually.

🍰 Danish startup FERM FOOD received EU approval to market its fermented rapeseed cake—a high-protein, formerly animal-feed-only byproduct—as a food ingredient, unlocking new uses in bread, cakes, and plant-based products through a patented process that removes bitterness and enhances functionality.

🍐 Phytolon and Ginkgo Bioworks have tripled the production efficiency of Phytolon’s yeast-derived natural food colours, advancing efforts to replace synthetic dyes like “beetroot red” and “prickly pear yellow” ahead of looming US regulatory bans.

🍓 Cool story: How "ugly" fruits create a juicy business?

Plant Based

🥛 Eclipse Foods launched Non-Dairy Whole Milk, a shelf-stable, plant-based alternative made from pea and chickpea proteins, designed to replicate the taste, texture, and performance of conventional dairy.

🥄 AI-powered ingredient company Shiru began commercial production of uPro™ and OleoPro™, two plant-based ingredients that improve texture and reduce saturated fat content, made using its Flourish™ platform.

🫘 Eat Just launched Just One, a single-ingredient mung bean protein powder with 30g of complete protein per serving—more than whey, soy, or pea.

🥐 US-based Balletic launched Balletic Nova, a fermentation-based line of protein ingredients delivering up to 32g of complete protein per 40g serving, designed to boost nutrition in meat alternatives, baked goods, and smoothies.

🎬 Beyond Meat released a new short documentary, Planting Change, comparing the meat industry's tactics to those of Big Tobacco, while highlighting the health, environmental, and economic benefits of plant-based meat amid ongoing industry misinformation.

From the Community

Get hired in FoodTech

• Rebellyous Foods (USA) is hiring a Head of Operations.

• Mewery (Czech Republic) is looking for 5 scientists

👋 Join us at a FoodHack Meetup in Zurich and Berlin. Sign up here.

📊 Graph on why plant-based meat products (generally) need more R&D.

🔟 Ten startups join the 13th ProVeg Incubator to accelerate their products to market, including KaYama Foods, MycoVibes Biotech, Brew Bites, Finally Foods.

🎭 Just for fun: When your FoodTech startup says “we”.

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Until next time - Stay Hungry