Midweek Digest: Delivery deals win the week as Gopuff gets $1bn, Bolt bags $711m

Your weekly roundup of agrifoodtech funding, partnership, and product headlines from around the web. Grocery delivery took the big bucks with Bolt and Gopuff each closing funding mega-deals.

Gopuff raises $1 billion at $15 billion valuation (US). The Philadelphia-based startup, which offers express delivery of groceries, medicine, and alcoholic drinks, scored the funding from backers including Guggenheim Investments, Hedosophia and SoftBank Vision Fund I. (Reuters)

Ride-hailing app Bolt banks €600 million ($711 million) to expand into on-demand grocery delivery (Estonia). Bolt investors include Sequoia Capital, Ghisallo, G Squared, D1 Capital, Naya, and Tekne. (Forbes)

Texan startup ConverseNow scores $15 million for AI-powered food ordering assistant (US). Its tech is used at 750 restaurants, and is 85% accurate in interpreting customers’ voice orders. The Series A round was led by Craft Ventures. (The Spoon)

Chipmaker Spectricity raises €14 million ($16.6 million) in Series B round (Belgium). The company is developing semiconductors for hyperspectral imaging, with applications across agriculture, food, and health, among other sectors. (Tech.eu)

Protera’s AI-powered protein discovery platform nets $10 million (Chile). Sofinnova Partners led the round, with Mexican bakery giant Grupo Bimbo and Israeli chemicals firm ICL Group also investing. (Protera)

Notch banks $10 million to digitalize wholesale food supply chain (Canada). The platform includes Notch Pay, an automated payment and collection solution for restaurants and distributors, and Notch Marketplace, which is used by 1,500 North American restaurants to browse and buy hundreds of thousands of wholesale food items. (Notch)

NovoNutrients raises $4.7 million to produce protein out of carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and microbes (US). Hong Kong’s Happiness Capital led the round with E2JDJ, Marinya Capital, SOSV’s IndieBio, the Grantham Environmental Trus, Stanford Graduate School of Business Impact Fund, Purple Orange Ventures, and Joyance Partners among the other investors taking part. (NovoNutrients)

How Foods raises $2.22 million funding, launches plant-based subsidiary (Singapore). The ingredients discovery platform is launching Hegg, a plant-based egg analog. The pre-Series A round was led by Farquhar VC. (Hoow Foods)

Filipinos get ‘golden rice’ (Philippines). The country’s government has issued regulatory clearance for the provitamin A-infused rice variety to be grown commercially – the first such approval for genetically engineered rice in both Southeast and South Asia. (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center)

Thai Union issues pioneering sustainability bond (Thailand). The world’s biggest seafood processor successfully priced a ฿5 billion ($151 million) seven-year senior unsecured sustainability-linked bond – the kingdom’s first such instrument. (Thai Union)

Plant-based dairy startup Yofix Probiotics scores $3.5 million (Israel). Millenium Food-Tech led the round, with Big Idea Ventures, the Strauss Group’s The Kitchen FoodTech Hub, Muller Ventures, and Le Groupe Bel among the other investors to participate. (Calcalist)

GoodDot Foods nets funding from Sixth Sense Ventures (India). The startup produces plant-based meat alternatives, selling its beef, chicken, and mutton substitutes through direct-to-consumer channels. (VCCircle)

Small Robot Company closes £2 million ($2.77 million) crowdfunding raise (UK). The startup builds a range of weeding and drilling robots for farmers. (The Spoon)

Cloud kitchen operator Yummy Corp raises Series B extension (Indonesia). Government-linked BRI Ventures put up the latest tranche, adding to the $12 million the startup raised from SoftBank Ventures Asia and others last October. (Tech in Asia)

Farmer network Krishify banks $2.7 million pre-Series A funding (India). The Gurgaon-based startup raised the capital from lead investors Omidyar Network, Ankur Capital, and Orios Ventures, among others. (The Economic Times)