The Week in AgriFoodTech: Green Coffee Co brews up $25m, ChatGPT designs robotic harvesting, Zume shuts down
Fazla lands $6 million to stop food waste, Quorn invests in alt deli meat startup Prime Roots.
Fazla lands $6 million to stop food waste, Quorn invests in alt deli meat startup Prime Roots.
This week, Neat Burger raised $18m to take its plant-based restaurant chain into new markets, while synthetic biology startup Debut raised $34 million to expand its cell-free biomanufacturing platform.
Climate startup FLINTpro lands $9 million and Meatable says it can produce cultivated pork in just eight days.
Current Seedz customers already include major North American agrifood corporations John Deere, Mosaic, and Syngenta.
Restaurant-tech startup Incentivio scored new funding and one food delivery startup says it’s reached profitability.
Biotech startup MicroHarvest and sustainability measurement platform Improvin’ also raised funds; Beyond Steak is approved by the AHA.
Ecorobotix offers weeding and crop protection via its “high-precision sprayer” for targeted herbicide, fungicide and pesticide application.
Several biomaterials startups made headlines with fundraises, partnerships and other developments for leather, wood and oil alternatives.
While opportunistic food marketers are already jumping on the ‘regenerative ag’ bandwagon, we need more data to define what this means for individual crops before growers can see a clear business case for adopting new practices, says KIND Snacks.
Burcon NutraScience has teamed up with an unnamed “industry plant protein company” to submit a bid to acquire the assets of distressed plant protein processor Merit Functional Foods, which went into receivership on March 1.
Plus, $53 million for restaurant tech platform Odeko, new CRISPR-based research and non-browning bananas.
Meanwhile, vertical farm Kalera gets delisting notice from Nasdaq and Australian eGrocer Milkrun shuts down after just 18 months of operation.
Digital burger delivery service VICIO scored a fresh round of funding and CPG giant Danone invested in cultivated breast milk startup Wilk.
The company’s freshly raised Series A funding will go towards expanding the reach of its remotely managed network of modular veritcal farms.
Indoor mushroom startup Smallhold expanded thanks to a retail partnership with Sprouts, while reservations platform OpenTable partnered with ChatGTP.
Oatly raised $425m as it “moves towards reaching financial self-sufficiency,” cultivated meat startup Fork & Good opened a pilot plant in New Jersey, and Klimato secured €4.2 million ($4.5 million) to expand its platform to help restaurants report the carbon footprints of their cuisine.
Immi raised funds for plant-based ramen while Bayer & Microsoft launched new data tools.
Singapore’s Next Gen Foods acquired an alt-dairy startup, while agtech funding this week was all about ecosystem restoration projects.
Once focused on cotton, Texas Crop Science is now partnering with world-renowned plant genetics company GDM for high-yielding soybean varieties for farmers.
Companies including Bushel, Topcon and Afresh Technologies, launched new tools; Umami Meats & Triplebar collaborate on cultivated fish.