AgFunderNews | Agtech, Food Tech, Planetary Health News & Analysis

Inside Pepper’s push to digitize foodservice’s long tail, armed with $50m and agentic AI

“The independent segment of this industry has been kind of a black box from a sales and marketing analytics perspective,” says Pepper CEO Bowie Cheung.

Artificial intelligence

Startups & funding

Bowie Cheung, cofounder and CEO, Pepper Image courtesy of Bowie Cheung

🎥 New name, new strategy: Bettani Farms targets mozzarella market with ‘game changing’ plant-based casein

“We took a step back and asked what are the biggest areas of the market that make sense for us to focus on,” says Bettani Farms CEO Sandeep Patel.

Alternative protein

FoodTech

Inside Pepper’s push to digitize foodservice’s long tail, armed with $50m and agentic AI

🎥 New name, new strategy: Bettani Farms targets mozzarella market with ‘game changing’ plant-based casein

Fertilizer spike adds up to $35/acre for US corn as Iran crisis deepens

Miyoko’s plant-based butters, cream cheeses, will return to shelves in May, says new owner

Insect ag recalibrates after a brutal shakeout: Where are the key players now?

Why regen ag producers can’t get capital—and what alternative lender Steward is doing about it

🎥 Fermelanta introduces “unprecedented’ number of genes into microbes to make rare plant compounds

🎥 As cocoa prices swing, Kawa Project offers an upcycled alternative from spent coffee grounds

David Protein lawsuit: Plaintiffs home in on calories from protein in final bid to make antitrust case

AgriFood Signals: Circulate Capital closes $220m fund, All G GRAS approval, Unilever & McCormick

🎥 Digital twins: Heritable Ag combines AI, genomics and environmental data to slash R&D timelines

Inside Cairnspring Mill’s bold new model for financing regenerative food systems

Beyond Meat bets on beverages as alt meat sales slide 19.7% in Q4: ‘We believe we can be disruptive and win’

NC farmer weighs in as Persian Gulf fertilizer crisis widens: ‘You will see a massive decline in yield and acres’

🎥Bindbridge taps targeted protein degradation to ‘unlock a new toolbox’ for the crop protection industry

How Chestnut Carbon built a blueprint for financing carbon-capture projects

Standing Ovation nets $34m, gears up for US launch of casein via precision fermentation

🎥 21st Bio on strains, scale, and the valley of death: Fixing precision fermentation’s weak links

🎥 Beyond glyphosate: Quercus Bio targets weeds with designer proteins

🎥Totality Biosciences bets on plants to scale human milk oligosaccharides for a wider audience

Halter says it’s not an agtech company on the heels of $220m Series E

AgriFood Signals: Danone buys protein maker Huel, Miraterra Soil bags $16m, Grab buys Food Panda Taiwan

Persian Gulf fertilizer crisis: Global food prices could rise 12-18% by the end of 2026, warns Helios AI

South Korea says ‘AI is no longer a choice’ as agrifoodtech funding jumps 171%

How Lumi AI helps CPGs find ‘multi-million-dollar opportunities’ hidden in their supply chain data

SMEY’s Lipid Atlas taps yeast diversity + AI for custom oils via fermentation

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