The food and beverage industry in the US installed 25% more robots last year , according the International Federation of Robotics.
Meanwhile, Estonia-based FlyFeed lands funds to build insect farms and more delivery robots head to university campuses courtesy of Grubhub and Starship.
From old timers with mega deals to up-and-comers just entering the space, here are the ghost kitchen startups leading the pack of a growing if somewhat controversial segment of the food industry.
Canada’s Elevate Farms got a fresh injection of capital for its indoor farming business and Gourmey raked in funds for its cultivated foie gras ambitions.
A shift has occurred in the farm robotics category and The Mixing Bowl and Better Food Ventures have put together a market map detailing nearly 250 startups automating various activities on crop farms operating both indoors and outdoors to highlight its depth.
Cloud kitchens continue to rake in the funds; agtech investors swarm around insect protein startups.
As rural producers in North-West Europe look to add controlled environment agriculture to their farms, there’s a compelling case for more greenhouses.
Front-of-house restaurant software startup Zenchef cooks up new financing and Land O’Lakes’ Truterra arm lands a grant from the USDA.
France’s Capagro launches $200 million agrifoodtech fund, Gotham Greens lands $310 million, and animal-free cheese developments proliferate.
The UK alternative protein sector could be a leader but it needs to improve its regulatory process and provide more funding to support its growth.
A couple mega-deals of $100 million and over are responsible for the bulk of ghost kitchen investment from the last 12 months.
Alternative protein technologies like casein and whole-cut “meats” are the first investments from PeakBridge and Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity’s fund.
Protestors took issue with some of the key sponsors — global food businesses accused of greenwashing and using regenerative agriculture for marketing.
An eGrocer bagged new capital, Uber and Nuro struck a major deal, and one company legally served foie gras in California.
Carbon-neutral milk company Neutral Milk closed a Series A round and a few different cultivated meat startups reached new milestones.
Ivy Farm, a cultivated meat startup in the UK, just unveiled what it claims to be Europe’s largest cultivated meat pilot plant.
Apeel Sciences and Benchling are among the startups addressing the tools and services needed in the middle of the agrifood value chain.
The Italian startup uses sensors to monitor the health of honeybee hives and provide apiculturalists with rapid and effective decision support.
Fashion designer Stella McCartney is helping launch a climate-focused fund and alt-protein heavyweight Eat Just raised capital to expand in China.
War, climatic events, and supply chain strains are putting millions of tons of grain and roughly 1.4 billion people in vulnerable countries at risk.
