The week brought a seemingly endless stream of fundraising announcements from European startups across the food system, from AI-for-restaurants company Nory to robotic organic farms from NeoFarm.
In agrifood corporate land, Danone North America announced a conservation project with Ahold Delhaize USA and The Nature Conservancy. McDonald’s threw its hat into the conservation ring with a $200 million grasslands project, while agro-chemicals company Corteva hinted that it might be splitting up.
Funding news
🇫🇷 Genomines raises $45m Series A to mine battery-grade nickel from genetically enhanced plants AgFunderNews
🇮🇪 Nory closes $37M Series B to automate restaurant operations with AI Tech.eu
🇳🇴 NoFence plots US, European expansion for virtual fencing following oversubscribed $35m Series B raise AgFunderNews
🇨🇦 Phytokana advances $32.5M project to turn Canadian fava beans into plant-based food ingredients Vegconomist
🇫🇷 NeoFarm raises €30M to scale robotic organic farms across Europe iGrow News
🇩🇪 Bioweg lands $19m Series A to replace microplastics with bio alternatives in everyday items AgFunderNews
🇵🇹 Armed with $13m in seed funding, BRAINR ramps up plans to digitize food manufacturing AgFunderNews
🇳🇱 Delft-based agri-tech company PATS bags €2.7M to scale its AI pest control solutions Silicon Canals
🇺🇸 Insignum closes $2.4M funding round Agrinovus Indiana
🇳🇱 Time-Travelling Milkman gears up to launch dairy fat alternative with $2.3M funding. Green Queen
🇩🇰 Summ Ingredients nabs $2M to transform plant-based food with fermented proteins Green Queen
🇷🇴 Terra Wave secures €1.2 million EU grant to advance fermented protein technology Protein Production Technology
🇮🇱 Molecular farming startup Finally Foods raises $1.2m, strikes deal with CBC Group AgFunderNews
🇮🇳 India’s Biokraft Foods raises $230K for high-quality cultivated meat Vegconomist
🇦🇺 Two Victorian circular farming startups harvest $35,000 from LaunchVic Startup Daily
🇨🇦 Cellar Insights secures oversubscribed seed round to expand AI-powered potato storage technology across North America Potato Pro
M&A, IPOs & partnerships
🇺🇸 Ahold Delhaize USA is on mission to decarbonize dairy Progressive Grocer
🇫🇷 🇺🇸 Danone abandons acquisition of Lifeway Foods Food Dive
🇺🇸 🇲🇽 CoryPro Ingredients signs deal with Polymerals to establish guar protein facility in Mexico AgFunderNews
Funds, grants & accelerators
🇸🇬 Asia Ocean Fund gets S’pore firm Octave Capital’s backing; aims to raise $96m for marine health Straits Times
People moves
🇬🇧 Deliveroo founder Will Shu to step down as CEO after DoorDash takeover CNBC
🇨🇭 Nestlé Chairman Paul Bulcke decides to step down; Pablo Isla takes over as Chairman on October 1 Global Newswire
🇺🇸 Checkerspot announces new CTO, Casey Lippmeier Business Wire
🇺🇸 Inari announces new chief commercial officer, Rob Dunlop Inari
Other news
🇺🇸 Wild Fork Foods ends sale of foie gras in North America stores Feed Stuffs
🇺🇸 Shinkei Systems more than doubles size of headquarters after strong uptake of its processing equipment Seafood Source
🇺🇸 Corteva, a $50 billion seed-and-pesticide maker, is exploring a breakup WSJ
🇸🇬 Terra Oleo emerges from stealth with fermentation platform to make high value fats with microbes AgFunderNews
🇮🇳 Swiggy launches budget food app Toing Tech in Asia
🇺🇸 McDonald’s launches $200M grassland conservation initiative Restaurant Dive
🇺🇸 Revol Greens makes ‘painful’ decision to close operations in California, chase efficiency gains in Texas AgFunderNews
🇺🇸 California Cultured breaks new ground with patent on cocoa butter via plant cell culture AgFunderNews
🇺🇸 FarmTogether launches iInnovation Labs to pilot technologies on professionally managed U.S. farmland FarmTogether
🇺🇸 Egg protein IP fight escalates as VTT challenges Every Co patent in Europe AgFunderNews
