🥬 Unicorn to Unicorpse

As the US voted for its 47th President, the world watched on. There’s no doubt Trump’s presidency will have huge repercussions for the future of food and climate, especially if we look at his previous track record.

Trying to get your head around it all? Catch the 9 best news stories that explain what Trump’s election win means for US FoodTech policy, from our friends at Green Queen.

This week in FoodTech: 
 🔑 A $2Bn valuation to shut down
💰 €71.5 million Fund for AgriFood
🍅 5X more fruit from tomato plants

The Digest

📈 What’s up? Beyond Meat has returned to growth with a 7.6% increase in net sales to $81 million in Q3, driven by reduced trade discounts and selective price hikes, despite a 7.1% year-over-year volume decline.

🍖 Also up. A new study by the Food Foundation reveals that UK supermarkets over-index on multibuy deals for meat and processed food, with 18% of offers including meat and dairy and 11% processed meat, while only 5% feature fruit and vegetables.

📉 What’s down? Agtech unicorn Bowery Farming, valued at over $2 billion in 2021 after raising more than $700 million, is shutting down, according to PitchBook. Plus why Bowery will not be the last indoor farming company to go bankrupt.

💰️ More than a dozen development banks, including the World Bank and the UN Green Climate Fund, invested $3.3 billion in animal agriculture last year.

🌀 Cool: Could AI make food ‘teleportation’ a reality?

🎟️ New York in December. Come and join us at the inaugural state-side HackSummit at Newlab to recharge and reconnect over Climate DeepTech.

AgriFood Fundraises

💶 Pymwymic’s Healthy Food Systems Impact Fund II, backed by over 250 private and seven institutional investors, closed with €71.5 million to support agrifood companies advancing sustainable farming, food waste reduction, and regenerative agriculture solutions.

💸 Eatable Adventures invested €2 million in seven agri-food startups, all focused on sustainability, resource efficiency, and social impact within the food tech sector, including Beadroots, which develops algae-based hydrogels to boost water efficiency, and Mama Science, which creates biodegradable packaging to extend food shelf life.

🌾 Belgian startup Protealis raised €1.2 million from the Flemish Agency for Innovation & Entrepreneurship to scale its UpCoat soy seed coating technology that applies nitrogen-fixing bacteria to soybean seeds, enhancing yield and protein content for European farmers without synthetic fertilisers.

🍫 California Cultured secured investment from Puratos' venture arm Sparkalis to scale its cell-cultured chocolate production. It is working to make chocolate more sustainable, ethical, and high-quality by growing cacao cells in controlled environments.

💰️ The Campbell Soup Company and Kind Snacks both received funding from the US Department of Agriculture to launch projects to promote regenerative agriculture, with Campbell’s focusing on sustainable practices among California tomato growers and Kind supporting almond farming through climate-smart initiatives.

🔍 See all the latest funding rounds including high-tech insect farming, dried fruit and sour acid candy plus the startup who received investment from ingredients giant Döhler.

Startup Milestones

🍅 Phytoform introduced a gene-edited, compact version of the Ailsa Craig tomato plant, optimised for vertical farming, that produces five times more fruit while being only one-sixth the size of a conventional tomato plant.

🥛 French precision fermentation company Bon Vivant completed what it says is Europe's first peer-reviewed life cycle analysis for its milk proteins.

🍄 Oslo startup Norwegian Mycelium launched a Japanese subsidiary, NoMy Japan, to upcycle food industry byproducts into sustainable proteins through mycelium fermentation, reflecting Japan’s rising interest in alternative proteins.

🧫 Israeli startup SuperMeat announced that it can produce 100% cultivated chicken at $11.79 per pound, matching the cost, taste, and texture of premium pasture-raised chicken, and can yield three pounds of meat in just two days, compared to 42 days for traditional poultry farming.

🏭️ US biotech company Jellatech has completed its 9,000-square-foot facility in Morrisville, North Carolina, enabling large-scale production of bioidentical human collagen for pre-clinical trials.

➕ Add your startup to the list of companies at the intersection of Protein x Deep Tech, before we reveal the full list next week.

Plant Based

🏨 Luxury hotel group Four Seasons has partnered with Israeli startup Oshi to introduce plant-based whole-cut salmon made from fermented fungi, algae, and soy protein at its MKT Restaurant and Bar in San Francisco. Come and try it for yourself in NYC on the HackSummit menu.

🍤 Mind Blown Plant Based Seafood Co. launched a ready-to-heat-and-eat Crispy, Crunchy, Fried Shrimp, a plant-based alternative to traditional fried shrimp.

🍌 Amid growing interest in gut health and obesity solutions in the UK, Potina has launched high-fibre banana oat milks for children's nutrition, featuring a simple ingredient list with added calcium and vitamins to offer clean-label, plant-based options.

🇩🇪 A new survey by ProVeg reveals that plant-based alternatives across several categories are now more affordable than animal-based products in Germany.

Big Food

🥄 Danone North America's Silk brand debuted Silk Kids, a plant-based milk specifically formulated for children, made from oats and peas and providing 8 grams of protein per serving.

🐮 Tesco, in partnership with Arla and Müller UK & Ireland, launched the Future Dairy Partnership to reduce on-farm emissions by 30% by 2030, improve animal welfare, and enhance environmental sustainability within the dairy industry.

From the Community

Get hired in FoodTech

• McCain Foods are hiring a Senior Scientist

• Gavan are looking for a Food Technologist

• Meati are hiring a Senior National Account Manager

• Good Food Institute are on the lookout for a Managing Director in Japan

👋 Join us at a Meetup in Boston, Berlin, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Paris.

📝 12 must-read resources for early-stage founders.

🐄 Good listen: Can we reduce livestock methane emissions without reducing livestock?

👑 Unibaio is crowned winner of the Grow-NY Competition.

🗳️ Take part: How much does it cost to start a food/bev CPG brand?

👒 🪖 ⛑️ Just for fun: To the FoodTech Founders wearing all the hats.

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Until next time - Stay Hungry