🥔 Protein-Packed Potato Pilot

Are you hungry to grow the FoodTech scene in your city?

If you’re passionate about building a FoodTech community and want to give back to your local ecosystem, read on.

Here at FoodHack, we’re on the lookout for bright minds to join our Ambassador teams in 5 key cities.

You’ll help host quarterly Meetups, collaborate with local builders and funders, and become part of a global network of 120 FoodHack and ClimateHack Ambassadors.

Apply today if you’re up for getting involved and based in Amsterdam, Barcelona, London, Sao Paulo or Wageningen

This week in FoodTech:

🥨 Baking and scaling “gluten-safe” breads
🍫 Barry Callebaut’s cocoa cell culture move
🥩 The science behind 3D cultivated tissue

The Digest

📈 What’s up? Precision ag startups raised $580 million in Q2 2025, marking a 71% funding jump despite a 12% drop in deal count, according to data from PitchBook.

📉 What’s down? California-based gas fermentation startup NovoNutrients has entered the ABC process to sell its assets.

🪰 Belgian startup FlyBlast, which engineered black soldier flies to produce insulin, has filed for bankruptcy after failing to secure funding despite rapid technical progress.

🫖 Interesting: Is it ok to re-boil the kettle for your cuppa at work? Science has the answer.

🥩 Scientists at ETH Zurich have created three-dimensional cultivated muscle tissue with thick fibers from bovine myoblasts that closely mimic real muscle in structure, gene expression, and functionality.

🥛 Backed by the dairy industry, a bipartisan group of US senators has reintroduced the Dairy Pride Act, urging the FDA to ban plant-based products from using terms like "milk," "cheese," and "yogurt" on labels, calling them misleading.

👀 Good read: Michael Grunwald at Canary Media shares the lessons food and farming can learn from the rise of renewables and cleantech.

New in Funding

🤖 Ag robotics startup 4AG Robotics, based in Canada, raised CAD 40 million in a Series B funding round to scale production and deployment of its autonomous mushroom harvesting robots.

🧬 Dutch biotech Solynta secured €20 million in venture debt financing from the European Investment Bank to advance its non-GMO hybrid breeding technology for developing disease-resistant, climate-resilient potato varieties cultivated from true seeds instead of traditional tubers.

🍗 Quorn, owned by Monde Nissin through Marlow Foods, secured an £18 million investment via a new share issuance to support debt reduction and brand revitalisation under its new CEO, as part of a broader turnaround strategy following significant losses and declining market share.

🇨🇦 Canadian biotech Mara Renewables secured $9.1 million from S2G Investments to expand its sustainable omega-3 platform and scale its fish-free, algae-based nutrition solutions for the global human and animal health markets.

🍫 UK-based Win-Win raised £3 million in a Series A funding round backed by investors including the Oetker Collection, Foodlabs, Mustard Seed Maze, Gota Ventures and Paulig. It will use the funds to accelerate growth of its cocoa-free chocolate alternatives and support entry into major European markets.

🔝 Discover all 17 latest funding rounds from the last few weeks in FoodTech including fish-free, algae-based nutrition solutions, nitrogen-fixing corn seed treatment and clean-label tempeh products.

New in Startups

✅ Mission Barns has become the first company to receive USDA approval to sell cultivated pork fat, and is preparing ​​for targeted product releases with retail and food service partners such as Sprouts Farmers Market and San Francisco restaurant Fiorella. 

🐶 California-based Friends & Family Pet Food Company has become the first startup approved to sell cultivated meat for pets in Asia, receiving regulatory clearance in Singapore to launch Kampung chicken-based treats containing 65–70% cultured cells for dogs and cats.

🥛 Canadian startup Opalia has signed the world’s first commercial supply agreement for cell-based dairy with Dutch dairy giant Hoogwegt, marking a key milestone ahead of its upcoming $4M fundraise

🏭 Believer Meats has completed construction of its 200,000-square-foot cultivated meat production plant, capable of producing at least 10,000 tonnes annually, and received a “No Questions” letter from the FDA for its cultivated chicken, bringing it closer to US commercialisation.

🥯 Edinburgh-based Prozymi Biolabs is developing targeted enzymes that degrade the harmful parts of gluten while preserving texture, aiming to create “gluten-safe” breads for people with Coeliac disease.

1️⃣ Eggsential Cereal, created by a team of Cornell students, won first place in the American Egg Board’s 2025 Student Innovation Competition with their globally-inspired, egg yolk-based cereal featuring chocolate, chia-coated chickpeas, and freeze-dried fruit.

🥔 Molecular farming company PoLoPo has shifted its focus to the snack industry with a patented high-protein potato variety that enables clean-label, protein-rich chips without added ingredients or new processing equipment.

🤖 San Jose-based Bonsai Robotics has acquired Watsonville-based farm-ng to form a combined ag robotics company that integrates Bonsai’s AI and computer vision software with farm-ng’s modular electric hardware, aiming to deliver cost-cutting autonomous solutions across a broader range of crops and farming operations.

Plant Based

🍄 Austria’s Revo Foods launched Minced Fungi Protein, a high-protein, low-fat fermented mycoprotein ingredient made from Fusarium venenatum and just three other ingredients, offering all nine essential amino acids and earning an “A” Nutri-Score rating.

🍔 Beyond Meat has rebranded as “Beyond” to reflect its strategic shift from mimicking animal proteins to developing plant-based proteins as standalone functional foods, amid declining sales and efforts to reshape consumer perceptions of the category.

✨ Arpège in Paris, led by Chef Alain Passard, has become the first three-Michelin-star restaurant in France to adopt an almost fully plant-based menu, eliminating all meat, fish, and dairy in favour of seasonal, sustainable produce, with honey from its own beehives as the only remaining animal product.

🇮🇳 McDonald’s India debuted a meat-free Protein Plus range, featuring soy, pea, and whey-based slices that add 5g of protein to any burger, tapping into the country’s growing demand for plant-based nutrition.

🥚 Eat Just’s popular vegan liquid egg, Just Egg, has launched in the UK - marking its European debut - through an exclusive distribution deal with Vegan Food Group. The company also launched a new line of plant-based chicken products under the brand JUST Meat, available in the US in three flavours.

🐟 Munich-based Happy Ocean Foods has dropped its plant-based seafood range to focus on clean, functional plant proteins for foodservice, starting with the launch of its new products, Ocean Touch and Umami Touch.

Big Food

🍫 Barry Callebaut has partnered with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences to explore cocoa cell culture technology as a sustainable, climate-resilient innovation that could enhance cocoa supply security and enable the development of novel chocolate products.

🐮 Albert Heijn, the Netherlands’ largest supermarket and part of Ahold Delhaize, has become the first retailer globally to publicly disclose its methane emissions by adding them to its 2024 sustainability report, marking a breakthrough in climate transparency.

💡 Online grocery retailer Ocado is enhancing its sustainability efforts by partnering with Polytag to roll out invisible UV tags on its full milk range, enabling real-time tracking of packaging recycling and improving data-driven recycling strategies.

🌳 Nestlé SA has partnered with Barry Callebaut to support re.green, a 30-year reforestation project in Brazil, aiming to plant 11 million native trees across 8,000 hectares of Atlantic rainforest and generate 880,000 carbon credits.

🥤 PepsiCo, Inc. is launching Pepsi Prebiotic Cola, a functional soda containing 3 grams of prebiotic fibre per 12-oz serving.

From the Community

Apply for your next role:

• Lilac Ag (USA) have multiple open roles 

• Tropic (UK) are hiring a Product Marketing Manager

• Foreverland Food (Italy) are hiring a Sensory Scientist

• 4impact capital (Netherlands) are looking for a Principal

• Farmless (Netherlands) are recruiting a Food Application Expert

• B Lab (Switzerland) are looking for a Strategic Program Developer

🚀 Apply to take part in WINGSPAN’s virtual program for Southeast Asian agrifoodtech startups looking for U.S. market success with strategic mentorship, deep-dive resources, and direct access to North Carolina’s innovation ecosystem in food & ag.

🎯 Take a look at The Fusion Alterra partnership program with Diageo to scale next generation consumer products and supply chain sustainability solutions.

💡 Opinion: Mark Kahn asks: are agtech startups just digital agribusinesses?

🧫 A quick rundown on regulation x cultivated meat by Maya Benami. TLDR ⤵️

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Until next time - Stay Hungry