The Week in Agrifoodtech: Food delivery’s latest unicorn, $80m for virtual restaurants, Pat Brown’s new venture

Thailand-based food delivery service Line Man Wongnai became the sector’s latest company to achieve unicorn status with a massive Series B round. Virtual restaurant/cloud kitchen startups like Not So Dark and CloudEats continue to rake in the funds and Impossible Foods’ founder Pat Brown hinted at a new venture company. In agtech, funding for insect startups continues.

Foodtech funding

🇹🇭 Line Man Wongnai bags $265 million, achieves “unicorn” status. Line Corporation and Singapore’s GIC led the Series B round for the food delivery company. (Deal Street Asia)

🇫🇷 Virtual restaurant franchiser Not So Dark raises $80 million to expand. Kharis Capital and Verlinvest led the Series B round. (Yahoo Finance)

🇺🇸 Robot-barista Artly brews up $8 million pre-Series A funding. The company will use the funds primarily to expand around the United States’ west coast. (OttOmate)

🇺🇸 Plant-based foods company Wicked Kitchen raises $20 million bridge round. New investors include actor Woody Harrelson and the Ahimsa VC fund. (PR Newswire)

🇪🇸 Vegan cheesemaker Mommus gets undisclosed investment from Dacsa Group. The two companies will co-create alternative dairy products and expand distribution. (Vegconomist)

🇪🇸 Innomy rakes in €1.3 million ($1.3 million) pre-Series A to scale up mushroom-based proteins. Corporación Cervino, Rockstart and others participated in the round. (Protein Report)

🇰🇷 Envisioning Partners leads $1.6 million pre-Series A for TissenBio. The latter produces whole cuts of cultivated and plant-based meat using 3D bio-printing technology. (Vegconomist)

🇩🇪 Blue Farm scores €3 million ($2.9 million) for “radically redeveloping” oat milk. Capital will primarily go towards expanding the online business and user experience. (Übermorgen)

🇵🇭 CloudEats cooks up $7 million Series A extension led by Nordstar. The cloud kitchen startup plans to expand further across Southeast Asia in 2023. (Tech in Asia)

Agtech funding

🇦🇹 Insect protein startup Livin Farms announces $5.8 million Series A raise. Peter Luerssen led the Series A round, which will go towards Livin Farms system for processing black soldier flies. (TechCrunch)

🇬🇭 Agribusiness marketplace Farmerline Group announces $1.5 million round. The investment, part of a pre-Series A raise from social impact investor Oikocredit, is part of a total funding round worth $14.4 million. (AFN)

🇳🇬 Food procurement platform Vendease secures $30 million Series A.  Partech and TLcom Capital co-led the round, which Vendease will use to expand and launch new products. (AFN)

🇺🇸 Carbon measurement company Yard Stick gets $18 million. The funding is part of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative. (AFN)

Funds, grants & accelerators

🇺🇸 Dairy Farmers of America gets $45 million grant to reduce methane emissions, develop low-carbon products. The grant is part of the United States Department of Agriculture‘s Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities. (FoodBev Media)

🇬🇧 The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to invest £20 million ($22 million) into alternative protein. Funds will go towards research, innovation and commercialization. (Vegconomist)

🇬🇧 Diageo announces £450,000 ($486,000) funding across three innovation “challenges.” These challenges are intended to reduce and monitor the impact of water and climate crises on smallholder farms in Africa. (Diageo)

🇫🇮 Protein-from-hyrdogen startup Solar Foods is chosen for the European Commission’s €5.2 billion project. The Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) initiative supports innovation around hydrogen projects. (Food Matters Live)

🇺🇸 Uber & Visa are issuing $1 million in grants to small businesses. The Grants for Growth program awards 100 merchants active on the Uber Eats platform with $10,000 each. (Restaurant Dive)

🇺🇸 🇳🇱 Kraft Heinz teams up with agrifoodtech accelerator StartLife. The partnership gives Kraft Heinz access to novel technologies and startups in production, processing and packaging. (Food Navigator)

🇺🇸 The National Science Foundation awards Akorn Technology $1 million. Funds will help the startup to advance and scale its edible coatings platform for fresh produce. (EIN Presswire)

Other news

🇺🇸 Former Motif FoodWorks director Michael Tai launches fermentation startup. Boston Bioworks provides advanced fermentation process development and scale-up services for ingredient companies. (Protein Report)

🇮🇳 Nala Robotics launches fast food robot “the Wingman.” The ‘bot can cook wings, fries and other foods autonomously and reportedly costs “less than half a human worker.” (Forbes)

🇺🇸 Hydroponic farms still qualify for organic certification, appellate court rules. The decision comes after a lengthy battle over whether organic crops in the US must be planted in soil. (Food Dive)

🇺🇸 Impossible Foods‘ founder Pat Brown is leading a new venture company. Tentatively known as Impossible Labs, the new company will fuel and fund innovation to support Impossible Foods. (Food Dive)

🇺🇸 Instacart unveils health program features and tools. The new health-focused business initiative will focus on nutrition security, food as medicine and making healthy options easier to access. (Grocery Dive)