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)
Sponsored
International Fresh Produce Association launches year 3 of its produce accelerator