🧀 The 'Highly Unlikely' Buy-Back Bid?

Oyster Bay Venture Capital closed an oversubscribed Fund II at over €100 million dedicated to investing in the future of food.

“The past few years have seen the food and agriculture landscape evolve quite a bit. Yet, with only 8% of total climate funding flowing towards food, it’s never been clearer how important it is to strengthen our food system.” notes Divya Murthy.

Felix Leonhardt highlights Oyster Bay’s entrepreneurial DNA: “we are not traditional financial investors, but entrepreneurs with a successful track record. Less than 0.1% of startups that apply to Oyster Bay make it into the portfolio.”

With Fund II, Oyster Bay will continue to back bold founders across the value chain - from agriculture to robotics and innovative ingredients to biotech breakthroughs. 

This week in FoodTech:

💸 12 Latest AgriFood Fundraises
🗓️ 2026 AgriFood Event Calendar
💰 $2.9 billion-valued all-cash deal

The Digest

📉 What’s down? After nearly 20 years, pioneering Australian food delivery service Menulog is set to shut down later this month, as new owner Prosus pulls the plug amid intensifying competition from Uber Eats.

✂️ Beyond Meat reported a significantly wider Q3 loss and cut its Q4 outlook as weak demand, China’s shutdown, and $77 million in impairment charges drove revenues down and investor caution up.

🤝 Interesting: The newly launched Alternate Futures Innovation Centre is building a system-oriented innovation ecosystem designed to connect investment, technology and scaling to tackle complex agrifood, energy and climate challenges.

🗓️ Check out the 2026 Global FoodTech Summit & Expo Calendar.

💡 Hot take: The future of farming, where family offices are investing.  

🌱 Opinion: AgTech is Dead. Long Live the System.

👀 The HackSummit program is now live. See what’s planned and who’s speaking.

New in Funding

💸 German VC Oyster Bay closed its second, €100 million+ oversubscribed fund, positioning it among Europe’s largest dedicated “future food” investors as it seeks to support around 20 startups transforming global food systems through scalable, sustainable innovations.

🥤 UK-based functional beverage brand Trip reached a $300 million valuation after raising $40 million in funding led by Coefficient Capital alongside celebrity investors, which it will use to expand its global presence and advance its mission to make mindfulness and relaxation more accessible through adaptogenic, alcohol-free drinks.

🇮🇳 French climate investor Mirova is investing $30.5 million in Indian climate-tech startup Varaha via a carbon-credit sharing deal (rather than equity) to scale its Varaha Kheti regenerative farming project across Haryana and Punjab, helping hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers adopt low-emission practices, generate verified carbon credits, and improve soil health and livelihoods.

🧉 US clean energy drink brand Lucky Energy closed its oversubscribed Series B funding round with $25 million to accelerate retail expansion, boost marketing, and grow its team as it scales its five-ingredient, zero-sugar energy drinks.

🐮 Australian startup Number 8 Bio secured $11 million Series A funding in a round led by Icehouse Ventures, with participation from Main Sequence and One Innovators. It will use the funds to scale animal trials, secure regulatory approvals, and prepare its cost-effective methane-reducing livestock feed additive and slow-release capsule for commercial launch in 2026.

🌾 Netherlands-based SAIA Agrobotics raised €10 million in a Series A funding round led by Check24, with participation from the EIC Fund, Navus Ventures, and Oost NL, to accelerate the commercial rollout of its patented automated greenhouse system, which aims to increase crop yields by 20% and cut labour needs by 50% across controlled-environment agriculture.

🎯 Bindwell, founded in 2024 by two teenagers and now backed by a $6 million seed funding round co-led by General Catalyst and A Capital, is using AI-powered molecule design to create and license next-generation, targeted pesticides, aiming to replace legacy agricultural chemicals and break the cycle of resistance driving rising pesticide use.

🍫 French startup Green Spot Technologies secured €5 million in a round led by Team for the Planet, with support from the EIC, EIT Food, and angel investors, to scale production of its fermented, upcycled ingredients and launch MILATEA - a new sustainable, cocoa-alternative brand for bakers, pastry chefs, and chocolatiers.

🇯🇵 Umami United, based in Japan, raised 310 million yen (≈$2.01 million) in additional pre-seed funding from investors including mint, Beyond Next Ventures, Genesia Ventures, SMBC Venture Capital, United Co., Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Mizuho Capital, to advance its plant-based egg technology and expand into Europe and the US.

🐄 Aussie agtech startup Drone-Hand raised $720,000 in a pre-seed round led by Radius Capital to scale its autonomous, offline livestock management platform, which uses drones and machine learning to monitor animal location, health, water, and fences.

🧀 Vegan cheese pioneer Miyoko Schinner secured over $100,000 from crowd investors in an effort to buy back her former company, Miyoko’s Creamery, though she admits it’s “highly unlikely” her bid will succeed.

🌎 Cultivar STL, an agtech initiative founded by the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, The Yield Lab, BioSTL, and partners in Latin America, launched the Core Facilities Access Fund, backed by Breakthrough Energy Discovery, to help Latin American startups advance research and validate technologies while strengthening agtech ties between Latin America and St. Louis.

New in Startups

📻 Finnish company Collo has developed radio-frequency IoT analysers and a “liquid intelligence” platform to help beverage and dairy producers cut waste, water use, and product losses through real-time liquid monitoring and machine learning–driven automation.

🪲 FA Bio launched a proof-of-concept collaboration with Bayer Crop Science, co-funded by EIT Food, to advance fungal bioinsecticides as a solution against the Cabbage Stem Flea Beetle in oilseed rape.

🍓 US-based smart farming company Oishii launched a limited-edition artisanal jam collection in collaboration with Michelin-starred chef Yuu Shimano, featuring Daifuku-Inspired Strawberry Spread and Strawberry Yuzu Preserves made from upcycled Koyo Berries.

☀️ US wellness brand Fermenta is set to launch limited-edition, gluten-free protein bars made with Solar Foods’ air-fermented Solein protein under its Gutsy label in early 2026.

Cultivated

🧫 Umami Bioworks debuted a line of cultivated marine supplements designed to provide key nutrients like protein, vitamin B12, and omega-3s to non-seafood consumers and address the nutritional gaps and sustainability concerns limiting wider adoption of fish-free alternatives.

🔬 Sweden’s Re:meat has rebranded as Curve, evolving from a cultivated meat producer into a sustainable protein biomanufacturing platform, designed to provide scalable production systems and process intelligence to help other food tech companies accelerate and reduce the cost of bringing novel proteins to market.

🎯 UPSIDE Foods and the Institute for Justice are challenging Florida’s ban on cultivated meat, arguing it violates the US Constitution’s Commerce Clause and the Poultry Products Inspection Act, though courts have so far sided partly with the state, maintaining that only the federal government can enforce poultry product regulations.

🥩 Good read in Food Ingredients First, Cultivated beef breakthrough: Scientists overcome cost and technical barriers.

Big Food

🤍 Ingredion has formed a strategic partnership with Swiss biotech Cosaic to commercialise Cosaic Neo, a yeast-based clean-label emulsion that enhances creaminess, stability, and nutrition in plant-based and dairy products.

🍫 Kokomodo is joining forces with Coop to test and scale its cell-based cacao for sustainable confectionery, evaluating functionality, sensory performance, and industrial feasibility.

💸 European investment firm InvestIndustrial is acquiring Illinois-based TreeHouse Foods in an all-cash deal valued at $2.9 billion, taking the private brands snacking and beverage manufacturer private to join its global food and beverage portfolio.

🍻 Heineken has partnered with Rondo Energy and EDP to install a solar-powered, 100 MWh heat battery system at its Lisbon-area brewery, providing zero-carbon steam via a heat-as-a-service model.

From the Community

Get a job in FoodTech

• Tony’s Chocolonely (Netherlands) is hiring a Brand Manager

• University of Sheffield (UK) has 3 open roles in Mycorrhizal Structure

• Organic Valley (USA) is looking for a Senior Director of Sustainability

• Vow (Australia) are hiring a Business Development Manager

Are you hiring? Hit reply to be included next week.

🎓 Students at the University of Basel have voted in favour of transitioning all campus catering to fully plant-based options by 2030.

👋 Sign up for the next FoodHack Meetups in Thessaloniki (Nov 18th), Basel (Nov 18th) and Berlin (Dec 3rd).

🚁 Just for fun: Knowing vs. Thinking You Know

Give us a thumbs up, or thumbs down in 10 seconds

I love it 😁 Meh 😐 I hate it 🙁

Got a news story to share? Hit reply.

Until next time - Stay Hungry