Jack Ellis, Author at AgFunderNews

Jack Ellis

Friday Foodtech Digest: World’s first microalgae burger unveiled; Gathered Foods nets $26m

April 9, 2021

Some tech tidbits from around the week’s wider food-o-sphere to finish off your Friday.

Impossible Foods Impossible Burger in hand

Brief: Impossible Foods prepping to go public at $10bn valuation, sources say

April 9, 2021

The plant-based burger maker is reportedly planning to go public within the next 12 months, either via a traditional IPO listing or a SPAC merger.

Trax secures $640m from SoftBank, BlackRock for retail robotics & analytics

April 8, 2021

Singapore-based Trax was Southeast Asia’s highest-funded agrifoodtech startup in 2019, according to AgFunder data.

Brief: Food delivery app Grab said to target US listing in biggest ever SPAC deal

April 7, 2021

The proposed deal would value Grab at around $35 billion and could complete as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter.

Beyond Meat opens China factory, its first outside US

April 7, 2021

The company said the facility in Jiaxing will “significantly increase” the speed, scale, and sustainability of distributing its products across the region.

Brief: Indian food delivery app Swiggy hits $5bn valuation; raises $800m from Goldman, others

April 6, 2021

Swiggy also secured investment from sovereign wealth funds Qatar Investment Authority and Singapore’s GIC, according to an internal memo.

Oatly partners with Yeo’s to build $22m plant-based milk factory in Singapore

April 5, 2021

The Swedish startup – which recently filed for an IPO in the US – is building its first production facility in Asia to target China’s lucrative dairy products market.

Friday Foodtech Digest: Animal-free fat, bee-free honey & fish-free fish get funding

April 2, 2021

Here are a few extra bits and bytes of agrifoodtech news from around the web this week.

Brief: Food ordering app Glovo raises $528m from Delivery Hero, others

April 1, 2021

The Spanish ‘q-commerce’ app delivers takeout meals, groceries, and other items on demand to more than 10 million users across 20 European countries.

Brief: Deliveroo drops $3bn on debut as investors spooked by ESG, profitability concerns

April 1, 2021

The UK-based food delivery app saw its share price nosedive by as much as 30% during its first day of trading on the London Stock Exchange yesterday.

Brief: Chinese e-grocer Nice Tuan raises $750m in Alibaba, DST-led round

March 31, 2021

The app allows shoppers to form groups to collectively buy farm produce and other groceries in bulk at competitive prices.

Brief: Japanese company brings ‘world’s first genome-edited tomato’ to market

March 30, 2021

The Japanese government has affirmed its “determination” that Sanatech Seed’s new tomato will be regulated as a GE, rather than a GMO, product.

Livekindly Collective products from its various brands

Brief: Plant-based house of brands Livekindly Collective nets $335m funding

March 29, 2021

The group will use the funding to expand in the US and China – and to “fuel acquisitions, key partnerships, and investments” in plant-based products.

EXCLUSIVE: In Ovo raises funding & hits milestone 150,000 chicks hatched without culling

March 29, 2021

The Netherlands startup can identify male chicken eggs before a fetus develops, allowing the egg industry to avoid the culling of 6.5 billion male chicks each year.

Brief: US vertical farming group AeroFarms joins unicorn club, strikes SPAC deal to go public

March 26, 2021

The Newark-based company is set to merge with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp, raising as much as $357 million in gross proceeds at a $1.2 billion valuation.

China single-handedly kept downstream agrifoodtech funding afloat in 2020

March 25, 2021

In spite of the Covid-19 bump for consumer-facing solutions, downstream agrifoodtech funding actually decreased in 2020 if a few China oversize deals are discounted.

Meatable banks $47m from DSM, others to realize the pluri-potential of its cellular pork & beef

March 25, 2021

The Netherlands-based startup is culturing meat in the lab using a technique that can change pluripotent stem cells from a newborn animal into any desired cell type.

Hydroponic farm growing leafy greens indoors

Brief: US federal court rules that hydroponic produce can be certified organic

March 25, 2021

The Center for Food Safety had petitioned the US Department of Agriculture to cease its certification of hydroponic operations as eligible for the government’s ‘organic’ program.

Crop seeds under the microscope in a lab

Amfora gets $6m Series B injection from Bayer, Spruce Capital to increase protein in crops

March 24, 2021

The US biotech startup is using gene editing to increase the nutritional content of seeds such as soybean, with an eye on the booming plant-based protein market.