The Week in AgriFoodTech: Bactolife raises $33m, FAO scoops up $27 million, irrigation tech in the spotlight

This week, Danish startup Bactolife raised funds to develop gut microbiome-strengthening proteins and the UN’s FAO scooped up funding from the EU for its Sustainable Wildlife Management program. CPG giant Campbell made a new acquisition, as did irrigation management company Lindsay, and a new cultivated meat facility is ready for production in China.

Foodtech funding

🇳🇱 Meatable bags $35 million in a series B round led by Agronomics. The cultivated meat startup is readying the launch of its pork sausages and dumplings in Singapore next year. (AFN)

🇩🇰 Bactolife raises €30 million ($33 million) Series A to develop gut microbiome-strengthening proteins. ATHOS led the round with participation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & others. (Pharmaceutical Technology)

🇨🇭 KetoSwiss secures €4.4 million pre-Series A for its medical nutrition platform. The company will work on product development and getting to market with the new capital. (EU Startups)

🇳🇱 BeerMate, maker of automatic beer dispensing machines, raises €1.4 million ($1.5 million). Notable investors include Tomorrowland festival founder Michiel Beers. (Tech.eu)

🇲🇾 🇨🇱 Malaysia pharma giant Duopharma Biotech Berhad invests $1 million in The Live Green Co. Investment will go towards developing plant-powered pharmaceutical products and functional foods. (Vegconomist)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 MiAlgae secures capital from the Investbridge AgriTech fund to make sustainable omega-3s “on tap” from microalgae. Terms of the deal are undisclosed at this time. (Cell)

Agtech funding

🇪🇺 The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) nabs €25 million ($27 million) from the EU. FAO will scale up its Sustainable Wildlife Management program with the new investment. (FoodBev Media)

🇬🇧 Matter raises $10 million to filter microplastics out of the food chain. S2G Ventures and Sound Ventures’ SOUNDWaves led the Series A round. (TechCrunch)

🇺🇸 Irrigation management startup GroGuru closes $2.3 million Seed A round. Cove Fund and Impact Venture Capital co-led the round. (FinSMEs)

🇬🇧 Fieldwork Robotics raises £1.5 million ($1.9 million)from Elbow Beach Capital & others. Fieldwork will use the new capital to bring its raspberry harvesting robot Alpha to more farms. (UKTN)

M&A, IPOs & partnerships

🇺🇸 Campbell Soup Co. to buy Rao sauce parent company Sovos for $2.7 billion. Campbell stated that it would not be changing the beloved sauce, addressing fan pushback over the deal. (Reuters)

🇺🇸 Irrigation systems company Lindsay acquires precision irrigation startup FieldWise. Financial terms of the deal are undisclosed. (Lindsay)

🇺🇸 Gene-editing startup Pairwise parters with retail broker R Squared Fresh Solutions. Via the partnership, Pairwise will release its CRISPR-edited greens under its Conscious Greens brand. (Yahoo Finance)

🇩🇰 Biotech company Novozymes & Arla Foods Ingredients ink deal to produce proteins via fermentation. The companies say they’ll be able to produce at medical nutrition products industrial scale. (Food Ingredients First)

🇬🇧 🇨🇴 Alt-palm oil maker Clean Food Group teams with Latin America foodtech company Alianza. The two will work to bring cost-competitive oil and fat alternatives to market. (FoodBev Media)

Other news

🇺🇸 Synthetic biology firm Amyris files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a US court and plans to sell its consumer brands to improve its liquidity position. Amyris has secured a $190 million financing commitment to support day-to-day operations. Its entities outside the US are not included in the bankruptcy proceedings. (Reuters)

🇸🇬 Umami Meats rebrands to Umami Bioworks. The cultivated seafood company said “a unified engineering approach would be needed to bring cultivated from promise to reality.” (Medium)

🇮🇱 🇺🇸 Precision pollination startup BeeHero launches a new pollination insights platform. Growers can monitor bee activity outside the hive to optimize pollination for orchards, almonds and other crops. (AFN)

🇺🇸 Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown under fire after the alt-protein company posts grim Q2, 2023 results. Gross margins, which moved into negative territory last year, were just 2.2% in Q2, down from 6.7% in Q1. (AFN)

🇨🇳 CellX completes first pilot factory for cultivated meat. The company will apply for regulatory approval in Singapore and the US, with the aim to launch by 2025. (Green Queen)