Announcements from this week suggests foodtech funding rounds are slowly gaining speed again. Crisp bucked the downward trend of food delivery startups with a Series C raise, Sunnyside raised funds for its alcohol monitoring app, and Le Fourgon bagged funds for its reusable container business for beverages. Elsewhere, Grow-NY announced its grand prize winner and vertical farming heavyweight Bowery is doing layoffs.
Foodtech funding
🇳🇱 Food delivery startup Crisp bags €35 million ($38 million) Series C from Target Global, Keen Ventures. The company will continue focusing on its two key markets, the Netherlands and Belgium. (Sifted)
🇺🇸 “Mindful drinking” app Sunnyside nabs $11.5 million to help users monitor alcohol consumption. Motley Fool Ventures led the Series A round. (Behavioral Health Business)
🇫🇷 Le Fourgon raises €10 million ($10.8 million) Series A for its reusable container business for beverages. Id4, Teampact and others participated in the round. (Silicon Canals)
🇪🇸 Last.app secures €5 million ($5.4 million) round led by Nauta Capital. New capital will help Last.app expand its restaurant operating software across Europe. (EU Startups)
🇮🇪 Positive Carbon raises €2.3 million seed round led by Business Venture Partners’ EIIS Fund. The startup aims to reduce food waste in commercial kitchens. (Irish Times)
Agtech funding
🇨🇦 TechBrew Robotics rebrands as 4AG Robotics, raises $17.5 million for autonomous mushroom-harvesting robots. BDC Capital’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund and InBC Investment Corp led the round. (AgFunderNews)
🇺🇸 Aigen Robotics raises $12 million to scale its fleet of solar-powered, autonomous ag robots. ReGen Ventures led the Series A round with participation from New Enterprise Associates and others. (AgFunderNews) [Disclosure: AgFunderNews’ parent company AgFunder is an investor in Aigen.]
🇰🇪 Bio-Logical secures $1 million to build Africa’s “largest” biochar production facility. Steyn Group led the seed round with participation from angel investors. (Farmers Review Africa)
M&A, IPOs & partnerships
🇨🇦 Protein Powered Farms, which operates Canada’s dry largest fractionation facility, acquires Lovingly Made Ingredients. The latter operates an extrusion facility for plant-based products. (Food in Canada)
🇩🇪 🇦🇹 Dairy company Bauer partners with Kern Tec to launch alt milk. Dubbed Zum Glück, the range is made from upcycled apricot kernels and will launch in January 2024. (Vegconomist)
🇧🇷 European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT Food) partners with Foodtech HUB Latam. The two will expand EIT’s food accelerator network to Brazil to start. (Food Navigator)
Funds, grants & accelerators
🇺🇸 Material Impact announces $352m materials science fund. Fund III will address “problems that transcend time and generation such as water scarcity, the food supply chain, sustainable manufacturing, mobility and energy, and under-represented healthcare.” (AgFunderNews)
🇺🇸 Biotech startup Hypercell Technologies wins $1 million grand prize for Grow-NY business competition. Other winners include grain storage tech startup Crover and mycelium meat company Mush. (New York Ag Connection)
🇺🇸 Big Idea Ventures launches second portfolio company through its Generation Food Rural Partners fund. BioBond Adhesives will develop bio-based adhesive products for food and ag. (Big Idea Ventures)
🇺🇸 United States Department of Agriculture to invest $28 million into beginning farmers and ranchers. The investment is part of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. (USDA)
People moves
🇺🇸 Motif FoodWorks Brian Brazeau replaces Dr. Mike Leonard as CEO as the company does more layoffs. Brazeau is the startup’s third CEO since it spun off from Ginkgo Bioworks in 2019. (AgFunderNews)
🇺🇸 Sustainable ag company Truterra announces Jamie Leifker as its next president. Leifker brings over 25 years of experience in agriculture working including roles at WinField United and Land O’Lakes. (Truterra)
Other news
🇺🇸 Vertical farming startup Bowery does layoffs. The company has conducted multiple rounds of layoffs and also seen a “steep” decline in its valuation. (Vertical Farm Daily)
🇳🇱 Dutch cultivated meat startup Meatable opens facility at the Bio Science Park in Leiden. This will increase its bioreactor capacity from 50L to 200L and later to 500L for cultivated pork production. (Just Food)
🇺🇸 Supply chain intelligence company Ancera launches Salmonella System Monitoring software. The software can deliver insights on salmonella throughout the poultry supply chain. (Meat + Poultry)
🇪🇺 Coca-Cola, Danone and Nestle accused of misleading eco claims around plastic water bottles. Consumers and two environmental groups have filed a legal complaint to the European Commission. (BBC)
🇺🇸 🇸🇬 Tindle makes official US debut at Giant Eagle and Fresh Direct. The plant-based meat company plans a nationwide rollout in 2024. (PR Newswire)
🇺🇸 Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) startup Eion completes partial delivery of $1 million carbon removal purchase from tech co Stripe. This is the first ERW solution to meet Stripe’s criteria for carbon credits. (Tullahoma News) [Disclosure: AgFunderNews’ parent company AgFunder is an investor in Eion.]
🇺🇸 Florida Republican proposes cultivated meat ban. Ryler Sirois introduced a bill aiming to make it illegal to manufacture, sell, hold, or distribute cultivated meat within the state. (Action News Jax)
🇮🇹 Italy bans cultivated meat. The product risks undermining Italian culture and identity, according to Italy’s minister for food sovereignty and agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida. (Financial Times)
🇺🇸 US Senate approves Farm Bill extension. A funding measure avoids partial government shutdown and funds the USDA through Jan. 19, 2024. (Agriculture Dive)
