Farmers Business Network—better known to the grower community as FBN—this week secured $50 million from GV, Temasek, and other high-profile investors to build out its AI platform for ag intelligence. Saudi Arabia-based food delivery service Calo bagged another notable raise with its $39 million Series B.
Elsewhere, vertical strawberry farmer Oishii announced a new R&D facility in Japan, Pina Earth and Tree.ly merged to create Europe’s largest forest carbon market, and Beyond Meat is dumping “meat” from its brand going forward.
Funding news
🇺🇸 Farmers Business Network secures $50 million To develop products, AI tools Precision Risk Management
🇸🇦 Calo raises $39 million Series B extension to boost global growth Wamda
🇨🇦 4AG Robotics raises $29m Series B to expand autonomous mushroom harvesting tech AgFunderNews
🇬🇷 Greek FoodTech innovator StiQ secures €20 million for its “Virtual Kitchen” platform EU Startups
🇮🇪 Irish-founded FloVision raises $8.7m to bring AI to global food production Business Post
🇨🇿 Mewery secures $3.3m in government grants to scale up cultivated pork Green Queen
🇳🇱 MUCHgroup raises €375,000 to scale shiitake-based meat alternatives in foodservice Vegconomist
🇺🇸 Armed with fresh funds, TRIC Robotics plans aggressive fleet expansion across CA’s strawberry fields AgFunderNews
M&A, IPO & partnerships
🇩🇪 🇦🇹 Pina Earth and Tree.ly merge to create Europe’s largest forest carbon platform Tech.eu
🇺🇸 WisdomTree to acquire Ceres Partners, premier U.S. farmland investment manager and family farmer partner Wisdom Tree
🇯🇵 🇳🇱 DENSO acquires Axia Vegetable Seeds to realize sustainable agriculture Denso
🇺🇸 Growers Edge buys FarmTest FinSMEs
🇳🇱 🇨🇳 Prosus offloads $250m stake in Chinese food delivery giant Meituan Deal Street Asia
🇺🇸 🇧🇷 Cargill to acquire Brazilian feed producer World Grain
People moves
🇺🇸 Sound Agriculture CEO Adam Litle steps down LinkedIn
🇺🇸 AgriNovus Indiana announces cChanges to its board of directors AgriNovus
Other news
🇺🇸 Beyond Meat is ditching ‘meat,’ pivoting to Beyond Fast Company
🇯🇵 🇺🇸 Square Roots launches Sage, an AI copilot for indoor farmers iGrow News
🇺🇸 Friends & Family Pet Food Company gets Singapore approval for cultivated meat Green Queen
🇬🇧 Automated vertical farming startup Vertical Future up for sale after posting $13m loss AgFunderNews
🇨🇳 China backs laser weeders with new robot Hg LaserWeeder Future Farming
🇧🇷 Brazil installs first in-ovo sexing machine: major milestone for Latin American egg industry and in-ovo sexing Innovate AnimalAg
🇺🇸 Ahimsa Companies pumps $12m into Ohio plant, takes long view on alt meat: ‘We’re on the right side of history’ AgFunderNews
🇧🇪 FlyBlast files for bankruptcy: ‘It became clear that the focus on cultivated meat was going to kill us’ AgFunderNews
🇯🇵 🇺🇸 US indoor strawberry grower to set up Japan R&D facility Nikkei Asia
🇩🇪 Bayer submits novel herbicide for regulatory approval in U.S., Canada, Brazil and EU The Packer
