☕️ Why Hybrid Coffee Is Brewing Change

PLUS: The catch behind Mars' $250 million Sustainable Investment Fund

July 18, 2025

Two fresh cohorts have just dropped, and they’re packed with fresh talents tackling challenges in food security and climate-resilient agriculture.

Big Idea Ventures welcomed 7 new teams into its Global Food Innovation Fund II, including nextgen edible oils, cocoa alternatives from precision fermentation and high-value botanical ingredients.

Over in Asia-Pacific, The Agritech ClimAccelerator Singapore unveiled 9 startups rethinking how we grow, process, and protect our food.

The next wave of impact is already in motion and these 16 startups give a taste of what’s to come.

This week in FoodTech:

🐟 Closing Down: Cultivated fish fat startup
🐙 Re-released: 3D-printed vegan octopus
☕️ Coffee Extender: Bean-free powder

The Digest

Credit: University of Arkansas

📈 What’s up? In the first half of 2025, the alternative protein sector secured $443.45 million across 54 deals, with the majority of funding directed toward plant-based and fermentation technologies.

📉 What’s down? Dutch startup Upstream Foods is shutting down after failing to secure funding to scale its cultivated fish fat for plant-based seafood, despite technical progress and €1.5 million raised over three years.

🇨🇭 Switzerland has introduced new labelling rules, effective from 1st July, requiring businesses to disclose if meat, dairy, or eggs were produced using painful procedures without anaesthesia or stunning, in a move to enhance food transparency and promote more ethical animal farming practices.

🔬 Researchers at the University of Arkansas are developing sorghum protein as a sustainable, gluten-free bioink for 3D printing food and pharmaceutical products, leveraging the grain’s health benefits, climate resilience, and water-repellent properties for enhanced product stability.

❎ The agricultural chambers of Carinthia and Styria in Austria have submitted a 70,000-signature petition titled “Lab Meat? No, thank you!” to the European Parliament, opposing cultivated meat on the grounds of protecting traditional farms and food quality.

🎟️ HackSummit returns to NYC. Save the date (10-11th December) and lock in your pass today at the Super Early Bird rate.

New in Funding

Credit: Eclipse Ingredients

🇸🇬 Singapore-based waste-to-biogas firm KIS Group secured a $23 million, eight‑year debt facility from Zurich-based impact investor responsAbility to expand its biogas projects in Indonesia.

🐓 Animal microbiome startup BiomEdit, based in the US, raised an $18.4 million Series B round led by Anterra Capital, with participation from Nutreco, AgriZeroNZ, Elevate Ventures, and Betagro Ventures. It will use the funds to support the commercial launch of its first synthetic biology-based probiotic product, BE-101, targeting necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens.

🇦🇺 Eclipse Ingredients, based in Australia, secured $7 million, including $2.9 million from the Australian government’s Food and Beverage Accelerator and backing from AgFunder. It will use the funds to scale its precision fermentation platform for producing human lactoferrin, with plans to launch its first product by 2027.

🍫 Toronto-based functional snack brand Awake Chocolate raised CAD $8 million (approx. $6 million USD) in a funding round led by Btomorrow Ventures, with participation from BDC Capital, to support its expansion across North America.

🐕 Pet nutrition startup HEY HOLY, based in Germany, closed its oversubscribed Series A round with €5.7 million. The round was led by Five Seasons Ventures, with participation from Slingshot Ventures, Feast Ventures, and others, and it will use the funds to scale its breed-specific, vet-developed dog food formulas and expand its digital and product offerings.

➡ See all 12 latest funding rounds including Gates Foundation’s first LatAm investment, turning sugar sidestreams into sustainable tropical fat and oil alternatives and next-generation methane-reducing technologies.

New in Startups

Credit: Prefer

☕️ Singapore-based Prefer debuted a bean-free soluble powder designed as a "coffee extender”, aiming to reduce coffee’s environmental impact through a hybrid approach similar to blended meat, by complementing rather than replacing traditional coffee.

✅ French cultivated meat company Gourmey has become the first in the world to have its application for approval validated by both the UK’s Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland, marking a key regulatory milestone on its path to market in Great Britain.

🇩🇰 Danish bioproduction company 21st.Bio launched a programme to commercialise precision-fermented bovine alpha-lactalbumin using a high-yield microbial strain licensed from Novonesis.

☀️ Finland’s Solar Foods has partnered with US flavour specialist Sensapure Flavors to develop Solein-powered ready-to-mix and ready-to-drink protein products tailored for the high-demand US market.

🇸🇬 Biotech startup Cell AgriTech is opening a pilot plant in Singapore next month to serve as a launchpad for cellular agriculture, offering cultivated meat startups a no-cost, CAPEX- and OPEX-free contract manufacturing model with dedicated bioreactors, regulatory support, IP protection, and on-site resources.

🌾 2nd Nature launched AgWaste Portal, an AI-powered platform that transforms food processing byproducts into functional ingredients, designed to streamline sustainable innovation for industries like food, health, and personal care.

Plant Based

Credit: Revo Foods

🐙 Austrian mycoprotein company Revo Foods has permanently re-released its 3D-printed vegan octopus product, The Kraken, following overwhelming demand after its limited-edition launch.

🍔 Nine months after being acquired out of liquidation by Gold Coast–based Smart Foods, The Aussie Plant Based Co has relaunched with new vegan burgers, sausages, and cheeses, marking a significant comeback in the plant-based sector.

💸 German food retailer REWE and plant-based drink makers vly, Berief, and Oatly have launched a petition urging the Bundestag to reduce VAT on plant-based drinks from 19% to 7%, arguing that equal tax treatment with cow’s milk is necessary for fairness, sustainability, and public health.

🇪🇺 The European Commission has proposed an EU-wide ban on 29 meat-related terms for plant-based product labels, reigniting the labelling debate just months after a court ruling struck down national-level restrictions like France’s attempted ban.

🍗 Aldi Suisse launched a cost-competitive vegetarian chicken filet under its MyVay brand using Swiss startup Planetary’s Libre mycoprotein.

💪 US plant-based nutrition brand Kate Farms unveiled two high-protein shakes designed to address muscle loss and nutrient gaps associated with GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.

🥄 Danone’s plant-based brand, Alpro, launched a new dairy-free, nutrient-fortified product range for children, including oat and soya drinks and yoghurt alternatives, with 30% less sugar.

🦀 French brand Vétéjal debuted a range of innovative powdered plant-based seasonings and broths that can be mixed or sprinkled to enhance plant-based sauces, marinades, and savoury dishes with flavours like blue cheese, king crab, and beef.

☕️ US-based wellness brand Ozzi debuted a vegan, caffeine-free drink aimed at curbing evening appetite and stress-eating, offering a non-pharmaceutical alternative to GLP-1 drugs.

Big Food

Credit: Mars

💰 Mars launched a $250 million Sustainable Investment Fund to support companies tackling major industry sustainability challenges, and also announced it had reduced its emissions without hindering its growth. But here’s the catch

🚜 For the first time, a coalition of UK farmers, processors, retailers, and foodservice operators, including AHDB, NFU, Dairy UK, Arla, Müller, Lactalis, Sainsbury’s, and Tesco, has formed a steering group under an updated Dairy Roadmap to drive sustainability, reduce environmental impact, and build resilience across the dairy sector,

🌾 Bunge Global SA has completed its $8.2 billion merger with Viterra Limited, creating a global agribusiness powerhouse with over 600 facilities across more than 40 countries.

＄Ferrero Group is acquiring WK Kellogg Co for $3.1 billion, taking the cereal maker private and expanding Ferrero’s North American presence. A quiet exit that no-one even noticed.

🍫 When is chocolate no longer ‘chocolate’? McVitie’s White chocolate Digestives and Kit Kats no longer contain the minimum 20% cocoa butter required to lawfully be described as white chocolate.

💸 Bunge Global SA has completed its $8.2 billion merger with Viterra Limited, creating a global agribusiness powerhouse with over 600 facilities across more than 40 countries.

From the Community

Apply for your next role:

👀 Can you spot the difference by Voltiris.

🧫 A tale of two realities for cultivated meat in the USA.

👉 On Thursday, 18 September from 15:30 to 17:45 CEST, the ProVeg Incubator hosts its Demo Day online, showcasing 10 cutting-edge startups in the plant-based and fermentation-powered food tech space.

🇧🇪 DRG4FOOD & FOODITY Final Conference takes place on 22-23 October in Brussels, Belgium. Book your place here.

🚜 When a startup tells you that their product is the first and only with no competition.

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Until next time - Stay Hungry