🦄 Unicorn pâté for cats

September is just around the corner, and while you were (hopefully) taking some time out to recharge over the summer, there’s been a flurry of startup and scaleup funding announcements in AgriFoodTech.

Including the mainstays of speedy grocery deliveries, infant formula, plant-based meat and alcohol-free beer.

To the hidden gems of proteins from light, microbes to upcycle industrial CO2 for food and spinning plant fibres.

If you’ve just got back from your holidays and wading back into work waters, here’s a quick recap of the 25 largest fundraises by FoodTech startups and scaleups this summer to get you up to speed.

This week in FoodTech:
🍎 Arsenic-tainted apple juice
🪸 3D printing with microalgae inks
☕️ Beanless coffee in hot (and cold) water

The Digest

🪸 Scientists at Portugal’s Técnico Lisboa unveiled cultivated sea bass fillets made using microalgae inks and 3D bioprinting, which they claim are a world first.

📈 Data from AgFunder shows that investment in agriculture gene editing grew 206% year-on-year in H1 2024.

📉 Lidl Netherlands is permanently lowering prices on its plant-based meat and dairy substitutes, making them equal to or cheaper than their animal-based counterparts. 

👎 Hemp-based meat company Sustainable Foods, based in New Zealand, has gone into voluntary administration, citing difficult market conditions.

🥜 A new study, published in the Frontiers journal, reveals the potential of upcycling peanut shells to make high-fibre meat analogues and growth components for cultivated meat.

🍯 Preliminary anti-dumping findings issued in July by the US Department of Commerce are expected to result in “significantly higher” honey prices. 

💦 Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark have discovered a way to produce proteins by feeding yeast with wastewater from the food and pharmaceutical industries.

FoodTech Fundraising

📦 The Rounds, based in the US, secured $24 million Series B funding. It delivers recurring grocery and household essentials in reusable packaging via a subscription-based service, and will use the funds to expand into new markets.

🇩🇪 Root Global, based in Berlin, raised €8 million seed funding for its RootOS platform, which helps food and beverage companies to manage their climate footprint and reduce their GHG emissions.

🍣 New School Foods raised an additional $6 million in seed funding from global entities including Inter IKEA Group, Good Startup, NewTree Capital, and Hatch. The startup just opened a 28,000-square-foot pilot production facility in Toronto, where it will begin producing its first commercial product, a plant-based whole-cut salmon fillet. 

🌾 Brazilian startup BemAgro raised $2.6 million pre-Series A funding for its SaaS platform for agriculture, which combines image processing with AI and computer vision to monitor crops throughout their growing cycle.

💸 US-based precision fermentation startup De Novo Foodlabs secured $1.5 million in a seed funding round led by Joyful Ventures. It will use the funds to scale production of its animal-free lactoferrin, NanoFerrin.

🎡 Get the full round up on all 16 fundraising announcements from NASA, IKEA and John Deere as well as funding for GMO probiotics and crop monitoring platforms.

Startup Milestones

☀️ Finnish startup Solar Foods, which makes its Solein protein from air, is planning to go public with a technical listing on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Helsinki.

💰 Californian precision fermentation leader Perfect Day is selling 50% of its stake in Mumbai-based manufacturing company Sterling Biotech to pharmaceutical giant Zydus Lifesciences.

🚀 New York-based Pythag Tech launched the Clean Meat Terminal, a market intelligence platform designed specifically for the cellular agriculture industry.

🍄 Swedish mycoprotein startup Mycorena has been acquired by fellow biomass fermentation company Naplasol just over a month after filing for bankruptcy. Get the backstory from the CEO.

🌾 Germany’s CinSOIL is developing software to help food and agritech companies decarbonise their supply chains at the farm level, including an AI-powered tool to support soil carbon sequestration and biodiversity restoration. 

☕️ Diamond Brew launched its first product, brewless coffee, made with crystals that dissolve in hot or cold water, and do not need to be ground, brewed or used with equipment to create a cup of coffee.

Plant Based

🦄 California-based vegan pet food producer Wild Earth entered the cat sector with the launch of Unicorn Pate, a “nutritionally complete” wet food product.

🏭 The UK is opening a £38 million National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre, backed by public and private sector players, and including a £15 million investment from the government.

🎓 Scientists at Reichman University, Israel have developed a way to produce vitamin B12 from spirulina, which could be a game-changer for the plant-based meat and dairy industry.

🥔 Israeli molecular farming startup PoLoPo is now supplying patatin to clients following unexpected demand for the native potato protein.

🌾 Japanese restaurant operator Fujiya debuted Nikugoe, a plant-based meat line made from sorghum, with the claim that its products “transcend meat”.

🥛 US plant-based milk company Milkadamia unveiled shelf-stable, 2D-printed Flat Pack oat milk sheets that cut packaging waste by 94%.

🥓 Squeaky Bean, based in the UK, launched its Crispy Bacon Style Strips, which it claims is the first RTE plant-based bacon product to be available in a major retailer.

🍄 California-based Optimized Foods is leveraging its proprietary, mycelium-based MycoCarrier™ platform to create fish-free caviar and plant-based fats.

Big Food

🥃 Moët Hennessy has partnered with Beyoncé to create a new whisky, named ‘SirDavis’, and Marmite has joined forces with Elton John on a limited edition jar to raise awareness for the Elton John Aids Foundation.

🤝 ADM has partnered with Farmers Business Network to launch a new company, Gradable, which will connect grain buyers with farmers using regenerative agriculture practices in order to help meet growing demand for sustainably produced food products.

🍌 Lidl UK is rolling out an industry-first tool designed to address wage disparities among banana plantation workers, developed in collaboration with non-profit organisation IDH.

🍎 Walmart has issued a voluntary recall for almost 10,000 cases of ‘arsenic-tainted’ Great Value brand apple juice. 

From the Community

🌎 13 cities hosted a FoodHack Meetup this summer, catch the highlights here.

👋 Sign up and join us at the next FoodHack Meetup in:
🇨🇭 Valais
🇩🇪 Berlin
🇹🇿 Tanzania
🇺🇸 New York City

🔬 Add your job posting or find your next role in this thread.

🇦🇺 🇮🇳 The governments of India and Australia launched their RISE accelerator programme, offering up to $50,000 for climate-smart agriculture startups that are developing technologies to “optimise resource use, boost productivity, and lower on-farm emissions”.

2️⃣0️⃣ Meet the 20 selected AgriFood finalists for the Annual $3 Million Grow-NY Global Business Competition.

🚀 Join the Startlife Demo Day on September 26th where FoodHack Ambassador Jean Boudillon will be on stage to give you a warm welcome.

🦩 Just for fun: When you invite your investor to your founder off-site.

That’s a wrap. Enjoyed this recap?
We’d love to hear what you thought of today’s edition.

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Until next time - Stay Hungry