For many foodtech startups 2024 has been a year of resilience and confidence, a time when they managed to win investors’ trust and secure new funding despite an ongoing credit crunch. Here are the top 15 foodtech deals of the year.
Plus…John Kempf’s Advancing Eco Agriculture nabbed a USDA rural development award.
Plus: GE salmon company AquaBounty winds down its only remaining operating farm: “We’ve been working for over a year to raise capital… Unfortunately, these efforts have not generated enough cash to maintain our operating facilities.”
While it accounts for a small fraction of global investment in the field, Africa’s agrifoodtech sector is showing mild growth in 2024, with startups raising $145 million in the first half of 2024, a 1.6% year-over-year increase vs H1, 2023.
“But one thing I will say,” says Dr. David Kaplan, “I don’t think stir tank reactors that have been used in pharma are going to work here. They’re just too expensive.”
UPSIDE Foods has engaged in a fresh round of layoffs in a bid to extend its runway as it expands its facility in Emeryville, California.
According to Olon, it is owed $112m in unpaid manufacturing fees, unreimbursed CapEx, raw materials costs and other costs, plus an estimated $32m in damages resulting from Perfect Day’s alleged fraud.
The women-led investment firm says this early stage fund will help get new innovations to Canadian producers.
eGrocery is still the biggest subsegment in agrifoodtech investing, attracting a cool $5.1 billion in funding in 2022. But that pales in comparison to the jaw-dropping $19 billion raised by food ecommerce startups in 2021, according to AgFunder’s new global investment report.
Swedish startup Millow is developing minimally processed products made from oats and mycelium grown in a patent-pending fermentation process it claims uses a fraction of the water and energy used by players such as Quorn.
A US patent recently granted to Perfect Day— the highest-profile startup in the ‘animal-free’ dairy field—has been challenged by an anonymous petitioner
Reeiwld says users its database of over 2 million products allows users to view a product’s carbon score and track their daily carbon calories.
High-protein, low-sugar “complete nutrition” brand Soylent sees opportunities to expand its retail presence and improve marketing, according to its CEO.
Arkeon claims that ingredients are a bottleneck in the alternative proteins and is out to produce ingredients combined with vital amino acids.
The Covid-19 pandemic had a clear impact on brick & mortar restaurants and retailers, forcing them to innovate to stay afloat, so while globally there was a dip in investment during 2020, it soon picked up in 2021 as these stores adjusted to a new normal that forced many of them to digitize.
Entocycle, a UK startup that provides technologies and services for the insect farming industry, has secured $5 million in a Series A round from a
The top 10 climate tech deals in agrifood in 2022 were almost exclusively upstream startups in vertical farming, alternative proteins and ag biotech.
It’s been a tough few months for the alternative protein startup category, particularly companies developing plant-based meat, dairy, and seafood alternatives
Good Meat says the approval of its new serum-free media is the first of its kind and will enable them to increase the production of its cultivated chicken while lowering its manufacturing costs.
Evigence is a food freshness sensing and analytics company that counts meal kit company Marley Spoon By Martha Stewart as a client.
