YPOG’s Post

We’re thrilled to announce that Qallo, Dripl and The Mocktail Club, the 3 start-ups supported by The Source, Spadel's venture capital fund, have all been selected as finalists in the first edition of the Belgium Impact Start-up Award.   Qallo, Dripl and The Mocktail Club are among the 7 finalists in the Food & Beverage category. They were selected based on 8 criteria: 🌟 Mission & Purpose 📊 Impact Measurement 💡 Innovation 📈 Scalability & Sustainability 🤝 Team & Leadership 💸 Financial Viability 🤝 Partnerships & Collaborations 🏆 Previous Achievements & Recognition   A final criterion will be used to decide between the finalists: the public vote 🗳️.   Would you like to support these 3 innovative Belgian start-ups? Then go to: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e_V5P42w   Voting is open until midnight on October 7 ⏳ The winners will be announced on October 8 🏅 May the best start-up win!

Big news from Plantible: We’ve closed a $30M Series B funding round! 🚀 This milestone was made possible thanks to the incredible support of our co-leads, Piva Capital and Siddhi Capital, along with Betagro Ventures, Cultivate Next / Chipotle, Nourish Ventures (Griffith Foods), and our existing partners including Astanor Ventures. Plantible was founded with a bold vision: to revolutionize the agri-food supply chain for the health of people and the planet. This funding accelerates our journey, allowing us to expand operations at 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒕𝒐, our 100-acre manufacturing facility in West Texas, and continue to fulfill our offtake agreements with some of the world’s largest food companies. We couldn't be more excited to continue our efforts to meet the surging demand for 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐢 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧™ — our game-changing product that helps food companies improve the taste, texture, and health of their products while optimizing costs and reducing their environmental footprint. We’re just getting started. This is a step toward a future where health, sustainability, and great food go hand in hand. 🌱 Read more about the round here: https://lnkd.in/gdWiuTEA Read our highlight in Bloomberg: https://lnkd.in/gguHc-S5 Visit our website: https://lnkd.in/gcbBJ6m

🍏 Foodsi secures €1.2M in a seed extension, bringing the total round to €2.5M! 👉 https://ain.social/3AdmAQZ Polish marketplace Foodsi has secured €1.2M in a seed extension, bringing the total round to €2.5M. Supported by AIP Seed, SATUS Starter VC, and AC/VC Impact Fund, Foodsi’s platform connects customers with surplus food from over 6,000 venues across Poland, offering discounts up to 70%. This innovative model supports restaurants, stores, and manufacturers in reducing waste while giving consumers access to high-quality items at attractive prices. Co-founded by Mateusz Kowalczyk and Kuba Fryszczyn, Foodsi is one of the fastest-growing companies in AIP Seed's portfolio, achieving 30-fold growth since early investments. The new funds will support team expansion and operational efficiency as the company gears up for future funding rounds. #FoodTech #Sustainability #PolishStartups #SeedFunding #WasteReduction

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Chipotle Mexican Grill announces a significant increase in its commitment to the Cultivate Next venture fund, adding $50 million to bring the total investment pool to $100 million. Introduced in 2022, Cultivate Next focuses on early-stage investments in companies that align with Chipotle’s mission of cultivating a better world. Curt Garner, Chipotle’s Chief Customer and Technology Officer, emphasized the strategic nature of the fund: “Doubling our commitment to our Cultivate Next venture fund is a testament to our belief in investing in companies that can drive significant improvements in the human experience across our value chain.” To date, Cultivate Next has invested in various companies innovating in key areas such as farming, supply chain management, advanced robotics, and plant-based foods. These investments include Local Line, GreenField Incorporated, Nitricity, Vebu, Hyphen, Meati Foods, and Zero Acre Farms. Read more here -> https://lnkd.in/eKE5dZRJ #igrownews #chipotle #venturefund #agtech #startupinvestment #futurefood #foodtechnology #investment

FoodTech Capital Raises in the U.S. - August 26th-September 1st, 2024 The FoodTech sector has seen activity this past week. If you would like more info on these deals or would like to discuss the capital raising market for your company, please contact me.   Merger/Acquisition and Corporate 1. Stuffed Puffs, based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a producer of marshmallow and chocolate candy products, was acquired by Mount Franklin Foods. Later Stage VC 2. Plant Path, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a company focused on plant breeding technologies, secured $20 million in later-stage venture capital to advance its sustainable agriculture solutions. Accelerator/Incubator 3. Edenesque, a Kingston, New York-based company specializing in environmental sustainability and food industry innovations, joined Whole Foods Market Local and Emerging Accelerator Program as part of its Early Growth Cohort.   #castleplacement #capitalraising #privateequity #venturecapital #investment #foodtech

Every once in a while, I share "Call for Technology" announcements from our enterprise customers like Modelo Continente (https://lnkd.in/g_aRX68N), LVMH (https://lnkd.in/gAwdsAcD), PepsiCo (https://lnkd.in/gH3UCmQR) and more. This one is from Tyson Foods. Tyson Ventures, the venture capital arm of Tyson Foods has announced its call for applications for the third installment of Tyson Demo Day: https://lnkd.in/gdxF3Keg #Startups with #innovations in #logistics software, #distribution, #warehousing, #traceability and #transparency, animal welfare, #coldchain management, #inventorymanagement, #forecasting and #predictiveanalytics, supplier management and sourcing technology and beyond, are encouraged to apply by the May 3, 2024, deadline. Looking forward to seeing many of the Microsoft for Startups partners apply for this. #retail #CPG #msft4startups #innovation #supplychain Jerome Rose, Jared Prins, Felice Miller, Angelina Nijadi-Govghani, Nina Lund, Joanna Wiewiorowska, JR Geoffrion

Reflecting on an incredible Experience at KoRo 👋 A couple of months ago, I was contacted by a well-known VC fund specialized in Food tech to explore potential collaboration for one of their start-ups. That’s how I met KoRo, one of the top brand and fast-growing start-ups in the Food Tech! I was really lucky to meet them and help on building strategic roadmaps for Netherlands and Italy for a while 🌍 What followed was an 🌟 incredible learning experience 🌟 and here are a few highlights based on the pitfalls most start-ups encounter: ✅ The Culture challenge « Culture eats strategy for breakfast » (Peter Drucker…and regularly Jean Moreau 😉 ). No matter how great your strategy is, your plan will fail if your culture doesn’t encourage people to implement it. The thing is, from 1 to 100 employees, from 0 to 100m€, you need to adapt your culture constantly. But, as culture is not easy to define (rituals, symbols, power structures...), as founders rarely want it to change, the statu quo is often the rule…and can dramatically damage your performance in the mid-term. I was very impressed by the way people at KoRo are engaged in their company’s culture and the job done around redefining leadership principles, keeping everybody on-board and aligned with strategy 🚢 ✅ The Scale challenge Or how to « Scale your business without scaling your problems ». Small problems remain small in the early stage of development, but when scaling, BOOM! 💥 The small default in your tech that was « good enough », the absence of contracts with your key suppliers -again « good enough» in your seed/A-serie, are now a thorn in the side that cause extra-work, stress, directly impacting revenues. The way-out? Team-work from Top to Bottom. I’ve seen KoRo in action working together to correct and adjust in a very efficient way, displaying amazing solidarity and collective effort. ✅ The Juniority challenge  Or "How do you lead a company with 200+ employees, with a 27-years-old average age ?" As an ex start-up executive, I’ve seen Juniority in the teams as both refreshing and exhausting, especially for managers. Lack of autonomy, under (or over) self-confidence, constant training required on hard and soft-skills…might be difficult to manage. But quality of these junior people make the difference: at KoRo I’ve seen juniors so motivated, and bold, learning so fast, that they were gaining the equivalent of one year of experience in a couple of weeks! Trust and empowerment can do miracles...and juniority suddenly turns into strength 💪 I appreciated every single minute working with KoRo 💌 And with their recent fundraising, no doubt the best is yet to come for KoRo I now know where to buy on-line « better for me » food (www.koro.fr), and am looking forward finding my favorite KoRo products on the French retailers' shelves! Louisa Moulai Christine Hamel Francois Alarcon Maël Le Moal

Exciting news. Fairown has successfully completed a €5.7M funding round to fund growth in Germany, Poland and Scandinavia, pushing forward our mission to fuel the circular economy. ♻️ Brands and retailers are using Fairown to easily add buyback options for their products, fostering customer loyalty and responsibility. 🌱 A huge thank you to our investors BonVenture, neosfer,STIHL Ventures and Gateway Ventures for their trust and belief in a more sustainable future. Special thanks to Paul Garte, Benjamin Hollerith Matthias Lais, Leonard Schmidtke, Benjamin Junghans, Lothar Broda, Johannes Adler, Dr. Andreas R. Boué Team Fairown, you do such a great job! a Now, we’re ready to make an even bigger impact as we grow. 🌍 It’s time to rethink consumerism. Offering products without a buyback isn’t enough. Join us in building a more sustailable consumerism. #CircularEconomy #Sustainability #Investment #Growth #Expansion #future #fairown

💹 💎 Terrantic Closes $3.5M Oversubscribed Seed Round, Lead Investor + Investors..... SEATTLE, WA – Terrantic, the data platform for modern operations in the food supply chain, announced today the successful closing of its oversubscribed $3.5 million Seed round. The round was led by Supply Change Capital, with participation from York IE, Vitalize VC, and existing investor Array Ventures. Terrantic plans to use the funds to help food processing companies minimize waste and improve yield by optimizing their supply chain operations, ensuring that products reach their destination in optimal condition. Terrantic is an operational data platform that converts existing data from multiple sources into actionable insights tailored for the food supply chain industry. The platform's AI-Driven Contextualization Engine enables food processors, growers, and packhouses to effectively manage their data, visualize operations, make quick decisions, and improve margins and returns. This leads to streamlined workflows, superior product quality, and increased profitability. Terrantic's mission is to modernize operations for a sustainable food future.