FoodTech Weekly

Some highlights from FoodTech Weekly #225 (https://lnkd.in/dPAymxST) which was sent this morning: 🇳🇱 Cradle Bio has secured $73M in Series B funding led by IVP. The company helps scientists speed up protein development for e.g. food and ag, which cuts costs 🇫🇷 Kapsera has closed a €4.2M (appr. $4.4M) Series A for microbial-based biofertilizers and biopesticides. New and existing investors included e.g. The Yield Lab, Banque des Territoires, Demeter, Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Bpifrance   🇨🇭 KITRO has raised a Series A round (sum undisclosed) from ZINTINUS and Pymwymic. The startup offers an automated food waste data collection and analysis solution for foodservice / hospitality actors, and is already present in 20+ countries. The solution tracks and records all discarded items in professional kitchens, helping chefs and managers point food waste issues and take action, which saves costs and cuts food waste 🇳🇴 Biotech firm Vestland Pharma AS has reeled in NOK 12M (appr. $1.1M) from Sarsia and Coast Seafood AS. The startup has developed a natural compound which combats salmon lice, a massive challenge that costs the seafood industry around NOK 18B (appr. $1.6B) annually. Vestland has also received a NOK 10.6M (appr. $1M) grant from Innovation Norway’s Environmental Technology Scheme 🇩🇰 endless food co has bagged a €1M (appr. $1.05M) pre-seed round led by Nordic Foodtech VC and backed by Export and Investment Fund of Denmark and Rockstart, and announced a ‘major commercial partnership’ with 7-Eleven Denmark to launch products with Endless’ chocolate alternative THIC, made from upcycled brewer’s spent grain 📉 The economics of vertical farming just don’t work, Hannah Ritchie argues, but notes that cheaper LED lights and electricity systems may change the prospects — although that could take decades 🐟 Singapore-based startup BioDefense has developed a ‘tasteless, odorless, and invisible’ coating that can boost shelf life of fish by 2-3x 💹 FoodTech funding in Japan has jumped 58% year-over-year to $280M across 93 deals, AgFunder reports. The real figure is higher since another 53 investments occurred with an unknown funding amount  💧NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellites reveal an ‘abrupt drop’ in global freshwater levels starting in May 2014 (agriculture uses around 70% of all freshwater globally) 🎙️ Investment Climate podcast highlights (hosted by Alex Shandrovsky) with Laurel Orley of Daily Crunch 🤩 New jobs at planetary (🇨🇭) ...and much more! Subscribe now at: https://lnkd.in/d8mUXXH5 #foodtechweekly #FoodTech #agtech #startups #funding #tech

Processors and factories for conventional meat blend unhealthy animal fat into various meat products to improve the taste, texture, and juiciness — but conventional animal fat is costly and unhealthy, and supply is limited. The Fat Company has developed plant-sourced fat particles that replace animal fat — without cholesterol and trans fat, but with the same taste and texture. I saw down with the company co-founders, Shahar Margalit and Asaf Cohen Jonathan, to learn more:

Some highlights from FoodTech Weekly #224 (https://lnkd.in/dWMWiUrS) which was sent this morning: 🇬🇧 Three-Sixty Aquaculture Limited, which uses RAS (a recirculating aquaculture system) to produce prawns in land-based farming, has scored £3.5M (appr. $4.4M) in Series A funding led by PrimeStar Industries 🇳🇱 TRACT, a SaaS platform which specializes in improving sustainability in ag supply chains, has bagged $11.2M in new funding. The round was backed by existing investors ADM, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus Company, and Olam, as well as new backers The Working Capital Fund and Rabo Investments 🇺🇸 EarthOptics, which professionalizes in soil digitization and predictive agronomy, has raised a $24M funding round led by Conti Ventures and The Production Board. The company uses soil-sensing, genomics, and data science to provide farmers and ranchers actionable insights into how the soil is doing. In related news, Spatialise (🇳🇱 )has nabbed €350K for its AI-driven soil health monitoring platform 🇺🇸 OceanWell has closed $11M in Series A funding from e.g. Kubota Corporation. The company has developed a modular reverse-osmosis desalination plant that can be planted more than 1000 ft (300 m) underwater, leveraging the ocean’s gravitational pressure to produce up to 1M gallons (about 4M liters) of on-demand freshwater, daily. The water can then be used e.g. in agriculture. Frequent droughts have exacerbated freshwater shortages in California 🇺🇸 Vegan seafood startup Finneato Fysh Foods has reeled in $150K from a Shark Tank deal with Daniel Lubetzky 😮 In 2020, XPRIZE launched the ‘Feed the Next Billion’ competition (with $10M in prize money) to find alternatives to chicken breasts and fish fillets capable of competing with conventional products. Now, XPRIZE has announced that ‘no grand prize winner was declared’ 🥛 Molecular farming startup Alpine Bio has harvested its first large-scale crop of soybeans that contain casein proteins. And Israeli precision fermentation dairy company Imagindairy has received regulatory clearance in Israel, meaning it can now sell its cow-free whey protein to food manufacturers 💵 Hort Innovation and Artesian (Alternative Investments) are teaming up to launch a new $60M VC fund backing early-stage startups tackling challenges for fruit, vegetable, and nut farmers 🇰🇷 Biotech company Infinite Roots® has introduced its mycelium-based meat alternative products to supermarkets for the first time — in South Korea. 💡Conversation with Shahar Margalit and Asaf Cohen Jonathan of The Fat Company 🎙️ Investment Climate podcast highlights (hosted by Alex Shandrovsky) with Dr. Fabian Riedel of Oceanloop 🤩 New jobs at Ki Tua Fund (U.S.), Beans (France), and Win-Win (U.K.) ...and much more! Subscribe now at: https://lnkd.in/d8mUXXH5 #foodtechweekly #FoodTech #agtech #startups #funding #tech

"Fungicides are neurotoxicologic and carcinogenic. They’re the most problematic substances on Earth, and are used in insane quantities, far more than recommended. There are thousands of deaths annually through direct exposure. At the same time, fungicides are effective, they are off-patent so they are cheap, and are easy to use. We needed to do something which was just as easy to use. Our solution, GotaBlanca, uses one of the oldest bacterial fungicides — antimicrobial silver. There are no detrimental effects." This says Lawrence Pratt, Founder and CEO of ClearLeaf. Read the full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/gUG2W6Fe

Some highlights from FoodTech Weekly #223 (https://lnkd.in/dW3HW5Xv) which was sent this morning: 🇺🇸 Plantible has raked in a $30M Series B round co-led by Siddhi Capital and Piva Capital, and backed by Betagro Ventures, Cultivate Next / Chipotle, Nourish Ventures, and Astanor. The company produces RuBisCo protein from the fast-growing aquatic plant lemna, a.k.a. duckweed 🇫🇷 Agribiotech scaleup ELICIT PLANT, which produces phytosterols (a plant-derived sterol similar to animal cholesterol) used as a biostimulant to enhance plant health, has raised €45M (appr. $47M) in Series B funding led by Carbyne Equity Partners and joined by e.g. European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF), Sofinnova Partners, and Ecotechnologies 2 Fund. 🇧🇪 BiocSol which specializes in sustainable microbial-based crop protection has bagged €5.2M (appr. $5.5M) in a Seed round led by Agri Investment Fund and Vives Inter-University Fund, and joined by e.g. invest.bw and IMBC Spinnova Sa 🇫🇷 Innovafeed has been awarded a $11.8M USDA grant to develop its insect-based fertilizer (also known as frass) in the U.S. The firm is planning a large-scale black soldier fly larvae rearing and processing facility in Illinois 🇩🇪 Foodji, which supplies SMEs with healthy and fresh food through flexible food vending machines, has secured €25M (appr. $26M) in financing from P Capital Partners. The company will now expand in Germany and throughout Europe 🇬🇷 Ocean 14 Capital  has invested in aquaManager, a technology provider for software, IoT, and AI in aquaculture 🇨🇭 Seaweed-based packaging startup B'ZEOS has closed a €5M+ (appr. $5.2M) Seed round and strategic partnerships with Faber and ICIG Ventures. B’ZEOS solutions are 100% bio-based, home-compostable, and compatible with existing packaging production lines 🇮🇱 Phytolon, which produces natural food colors via precision fermentation, has secured an undisclosed investment from Rich Products Corporation Ventures and other investors incl. EIT Food 🇳🇱 Cultivated meat startup Meatable has fetched a strategic investment from Betagro Ventures, VC arm of Thai agrifood/meat company Betagro. Meatable had totaled $95M in capital funding before this round. The company now plans to expand its market presence in Asia 🇺🇸 Oishii has banked another $16M in financing (this time from Resilience Reserve), bringing total funding to $150M. The company runs high-tech indoor production facilities for luxury Koyo and Omakase strawberries, that are then sold for about $10 per 8-count at e.g. Whole Foods Market and other grocers. Oishii also sells Rubi Tomato products 💡Conversation with Lawrence Pratt of ClearLeaf 🎙️ Investment Climate podcast highlights (hosted by Alex Shandrovsky) with Jake Berber of Prefer | bean-free coffee 🤩 New job at Fermify ...and much more! Subscribe now at: https://lnkd.in/dZ_FvGYt #foodtechweekly #FoodTech #agtech #startups #funding #tech

Some highlights from FoodTech Weekly #222 (https://lnkd.in/dnHFrUVR) which was sent this morning: 🇩🇪 Klim has closed a $22M Series A round, led by BNP Paribas and joined by e.g. AgFunder, Earthshot Ventures, Elevator Ventures, and Rabobank. The company gives farmers the tools to plan, execute, and finance the transition to regenerative farming, track their progress, and prove it to supply chain partners in order to earn revenue payouts for sequestered carbon 🇺🇸 Shiru has raised a $16M Series B led by S2G Ventures and backed by e.g. CPT Capital and Nourish Ventures. They company has built a discovery platform and marketplace for proteins called ProteinDiscovery.ai which helps companies identify and test various types of proteins 🇩🇰 NitroVolt has harvested €3.5M (appr. $3.7M) in Seed funding from investors incl. BackingMinds, Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, EQT Foundation, Satgana, and DivisionM. The company develops a method to decentrally produce sustainable green ammonia to help decarbonize farming 🇩🇪 feld.energy GmbH, which empowers farmers to use their land for a combination of agriculture and electricity generation using PV solar, has scored €1.7M (appr. $1.8M) in preseed funding led by HV Capital and joined by e.g. Angel Invest, Coinvest Capital, and a bunch of angel investors 🇫🇮 Happy Plant Protein, a spinout from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, has bagged €1.8M (appr. $1.9M) in a round led by Nordic FoodTech VC and joined by Butterfly Ventures, as well as a grant from Business Finland. Happy Plant Protein’s technology allows for the production of high-quality plant proteins with existing extrusion machinery, avoiding the need to establish expensive dedicated facilities 🇩🇪 Oceanloop has reeled in €35M (appr. $37M) in an European Investment Bank (EIB) loan to expand in Germany and Spain. The company does indoor farming (RAS) of shrimp and fish 🇬🇧 ZELP ltd, which develops a low-cost, cattle wearable technology to mitigate methane emissions, has received a $4.9M grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation aimed at accelerating validation of ZELP’s cattle methane mitigation device 🇧🇪 Aphea.Bio has landed €1.9M (appr. $2M) from VLAIO - Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship for its its biostimulant INITIA that improves nutrient uptake efficiency resulting in better grain yields and reduced reliance on chemical fertilizer 🇳🇱 Solaq has secured €1.4M (appr. $1.5M) in preseed; the startup has developed a solar-powered technology that uses heat instead of electricity to produce water, allowing water to be extracted from the air, off-grid, 24/7, even in dry places like deserts 🤩 New jobs at Volta Greentech 🎙️ Investment Climate podcast highlights (hosted by Alex Shandrovsky) with Anik Thaler of Fabas Foods AG ...and much more! Subscribe now at: https://lnkd.in/dZ_FvGYt #foodtechweekly #FoodTech #agtech #startups #funding #tech

Some highlights from FoodTech Weekly #221 (https://lnkd.in/dRSDk_hB) which was sent this morning: 🇸🇪 Vertical farming company Ljusgårda AB has raised SEK 150M (appr. $14M) in capital from its existing owners incl. Back in Black Capital and Karl-Johan Persson of the H&M family 🇩🇰 Kanpla, a tech platform used by 3K+ canteens to optimize operations and give their customers a better experience, has bagged €8M (appr. $8.6M) in Series A funding, led by henQ 🇮🇳 Marut Drones has scored $6.2M in Series A led by Lok Capital. The company designs unmanned drones for crop planting, spraying, and surveillance in India, and operates a fleet of about 750 drones 🇪🇸 Tebrio has hauled in a €30M (appr. $32M) funding round. The company, which was founded in 2014, does large-scale industrial production of mealworms, aiming to boost production to 100K tons annually. The insects are used for animal feed and in bioplastics 🇮🇹 Capital Dynamics has securded €185M (appr. $200M) to finance two of Italy’s largest agrivoltaics projects in Sicily. Agrivoltaics is the dual use of land for agriculture and solar production 🇸🇪 Yazen Health has closed a €19.5M (appr. $21M) Series A round. The startup offers a service combining lifestyle advice with GLP-1 weight-loss-meds like Ozempic, hoping to combat obesity 🇬🇧 Bendi has scooped up scooped up €960K (appr. $1M) in pre-seed funding led by Midven and joined by e.g. HEARTFELT_ Capital, Chasing Rainbows, Innovate UK, and angel investors. The company is building an AI-powered platform that helps businesses tackle supply chain disruptions, sustainability challenges, and reputational risks 🇸🇪 FOR REAL! FOODS, which e.g. produces frozen pizza baked with a base of white cabbage or Swedish chicken instead of the conventional pizza dough has raised SEK 2.5M (appr. $250K) at a SEK 35.8M (appr. $3.3M) valuation, Impact Loop reports 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 OCEANIUM , which produces ingredients derived from sustainably farmed seaweed, has been awarded a grant from Innovate UK and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to boost its SeaFibre project, aiming to develop and tests its ‘superfood ingredient’ Ocean Health Nutra (full disclosure: I’m an advisor to Oceanium) 🇬🇧 NuKoKo has taken an investment from ingredient company DöhlerGroup to help scale up its cocoa-free chocolate, made from fava beans 😵 Indoor vertical farming company Bowery Farming of New York is shutting down, just shy of its 10th birthday next year 🧁 WWII-era rationing of sugar in the U.K. boosted the health of people conceived there in the 1940s, new research shows 🤩 New jobs at C40 Cities, Nutropy, and Opalia 🎙️ Investment Climate podcast highlights (hosted by Alex Shandrovsky) with Justus Lauten of foodforecast ...and much more! Subscribe now at: https://lnkd.in/d8mUXXH5 #foodtechweekly #FoodTech #agtech #startups #funding #tech

Some highlights from FoodTech Weekly #220 (https://lnkd.in/dHWzcvNK) which was sent this morning: 🇫🇷 HUBCYCLE has closed €15M (appr. $16.3M) in Series A funding from e.g. ETF Partners. The company upcycles waste from agrifood processing — such as fruit peels, ugly vegetables, oil pressing residues, too coarse powders etc — into new ingredients such as flours, juices, aromas, and spices, at an average 30% lower cost than that of standard ingredients 🇵🇱 Foodsi has raised €1.2M (appr. $1.3M) in Seed extension from e.g. AIP Seed, SATUS Starter VC and AC/VC Impact Fund. The company runs an app connecting consumers with restaurants, bakeries, cafes, and convenience stores, allowing people to buy surplus food at up to 70% discounts. Foodsi says it has almost 2M users 🇫🇮 Business Finland has awarded €10M (appr. $11M) in grants to two Finnish R&D projects, FoodID and FinBioFAB, which will innovate in alternative proteins and lipids, alternative ingredients, and circular economy practices 🇺🇸 Agtonomy, which develops AI-enabled software that plugs in with equipment manufacturers to make autonomous tractors, has secured an additional $10M to bring its Series A round to $32.8M. Autotech Ventures led the round 🇺🇸 Simbe Robotics has bagged a $50M Series C led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives and joined by Eclipse and Valo Ventures. Simbe has developed e.g. an aisle-scanning robot that uses computer vision to determine e.g. stock levels and optimize inventory management, in ‘almost’ real-time (here’s a 30 sec video on their Tally robot) 🇦🇺 Earthodic has scooped up $4M (AUD $6M) in Seed funding, in a round led by FTW Ventures. The company has developed a water resistant coating called Biobarc derived from bio-based materials. Traditional coatings (e.g. water resistant linings on disposable coffee cups) are next to impossible to recycle; Earthodic claims products using Biobard are much easier to recycle 🇬🇧 Concert Bio has received £1M (appr. $1.3M) in funding from Innovate UK. The company develops a soil microbiome optimization platforms which boosts productivity and resilience for CEA (controlled environment agriculture) farming, such as greenhouses and vertical farms 🇦🇹🇧🇪 Paleo and Revo Foods have received a €2.2M (appr. $2.4M) grant from the EU Eurostar program, to co-develop an animal-free salmon heme for Revo Foods’ plant-based salmon fillet 🤩 New jobs at Oshi (U.S.) and Bezos Earth Fund (U.S.) 🎙️ Investment Climate podcast highlights (hosted by Alex Shandrovsky) with Lewis Dunnigan of Bygen ...and much more! Subscribe now at: https://lnkd.in/d8mUXXH5 #foodtechweekly #FoodTech #agtech #startups #funding #tech

Some highlights from FoodTech Weekly #219 (https://lnkd.in/grZkpSZ7) which was sent this morning: 🇺🇸 Carbon Robotics has bagged $70M in Series D funding led by BOND and joined by e.g. nVentures, Anthos Capital, Fuse Venture Partners, IGNITION PARTNERS, Revolution, Sozo Ventures, and Voyager Capital. The company’s LaserWeeder ag robot can zap 5,000 weeds per minute 🇩🇪 Infinite Roots®, which grows mycelium cells that are used for alternative protein products, has secured €2.6M (appr. $2.8M) in grant funding from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Germany. The grant will fund research to upcycle whey into a feedstock for mycelium fermentation 🇬🇧 MicroLub, which develops a fat replacement for lower calorie plant-based foods, has scored £3.5M (appr. $4.5M) in Seed funding. The round was led by Northern Gritstone and joined by e.g. Praetura Ventures and LIFFT. Microlub says it enables its customers to cut fat content and calorie count in their products by up to 75% without any noticeable sensory change in mouthfeel and texture 🇦🇺 Viridian Renewable Technology Pty Ltd has scooped up $2.5M from Breakthrough Victoria; the company says it has Australia’s first large-scale insect protein manufacturing plant to convert food waste into insect-based protein and fertilizer 🇩🇰 FarmDroid, which develops autonomous, solar-powered robots for weed control, has harvested €10.5M (appr. $11.4M) in funding, in a round led by Convent Capital and joined by e.g. EIFO of Denmark and Navus Ventures B.V. 🇮🇳 Bioprime™ has completed a $6M Series A round led by Edaphon and joined by e.g. Omnivore and Inflexor Ventures to continue developing biofungicides, bioinsecticides, and biostimulants 🇨🇭 UMAMI has netted CHF 4.3M (appr. $5M) in Series A funding to expand its ‘holistic’ indoor farming operations. The company supplies microgreens to 450+ retail stores and 400 restaurants across Switzerland 🇺🇸 Tufts University has been awarded $2.1M by the government of Massachusetts and MassTech to establish FEAST (the Foodtech Engineering for Alternative Sustainable Technologies), which aims to advance cellular agriculture at Tufts 🇮🇪 Hatch Blue, which invests in aquaculture and alt seafood startups, has closed €93M (appr. $101M) for its second fund, the Blue Revolution Fund. Investors include e.g. the European Investment Fund (EIF), the Irish Strategic Investment Fund, and Germany’s Rentenbank 🇲🇽 Jüsto, an online grocery platform in Mexico, Brazil and Peru that uses AI for demand forecasting and food waste reduction, has drummed up $70M in equity and debt funding from General Atlantic and HSBC México 🤩 New jobs at The Good Food Institute Japan and Nosh.bio (Germany) 🎙️ Investment Climate podcast highlights (hosted by Alex Shandrovsky) with Nemailla Bonturi of ÄIO ...and much more! Subscribe now at: https://lnkd.in/d8mUXXH5 #foodtechweekly #FoodTech #agtech #startups #funding #tech

“I’m from the Texas of Finland — Seinäjoki, Pohjanmaa. I’m a fourth generation entrepreneur. My upbringing is that entrepreneurship is hard and will kill you, and you should be proud of it," says Jaakko Kaminen, CEO of SuperGround, laughing, whom I recently had the chance to get to know better. SuperGround has invented a machine that can turn side streams such as fish and poultry bones into a smooth, sterile and tasty paste with high nutritional value — and then use this paste to make e.g. fish sticks, chicken nuggets, and so on. Full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/dTp2ES_2