After years of looking for a buyer, food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com has finally sold Grubhub, which it acquired for $7.3 billion in 2020, to New York-based delivery restaurant group Wonder.
Over on the funding side of things, Elicit Plant raked in new capital for its biologicals business for row crop farming and NitroVolt raised money for its green ammonia production.
And in Europe, lawmakers backed a one-year delay to the new deforestation law and winemakers in Italy tested some gene-edited vines for vino.
Finally, Robert F. Kennedy Jr has been nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, news that is being greeted with both enthusiasm and alarm within the food industry.
Funding rounds
🇫🇷 Elicit Plant announces €45 million investment round to accelerate global expansion PR Newswire
🇩🇪 Klim raises ‘massively oversubscribed’ Series A, adds financial services layer to its insetting platform AgFunderNews
🇺🇸 Shiru raises $16m series B to expand AI-powered ingredient discovery platform AgFunderNews
🇩🇰 Kanpla raises €8M in Series A funding FinSMEs
🇩🇰 NitroVolt secures €3.5M in seed funding to realize green ammonia production Future Farming
🇧🇪 Ghent-based Zymofix secures €2 million to expand microbial solutions for sustainable agriculture EU Startups
🇬🇭 Ghanaian agtech oyster agribusiness closes $2 million to expand operation Next Billion
🇫🇮 Happy Plant Protein raises €1.8M for technology empowering local food manufacturers to produce plant protein Vegconomist
🇩🇪 feld.energy’s dual-use solution: agriculture and solar energy generation raises €1.7M Pre-Seed Tech.eu
M&A, IPOs & partnerships
🇺🇸 Wonder to acquire Grubhub for $650M Restaurant Business Online
🇺🇸 McDonald’s, Syngenta, Lopez Foods collaborate on sustainable beef Feed Strategy
🇺🇸 Fieldwork Robotics partners with Burro to help with raspberry harvesting The Robot Report
🇦🇺 Nourish Ingredients and CABIO Biotech announce strategic biomanufacturing partnership AgFunderNews
Funds, grants & accelerators
🇺🇸 Innovafeed secures $11.8m USDA grant for insect-based fertilizer, fine tunes process at Decatur pilot plant AgFunderNews
🇺🇸 Anu awarded $175K USDA SBIR grant to advance Pure Produce Container technology Purdue
People moves
🇨🇦 Jon Adams joins Sollum as VP of sales for Canada. Vertical Farm Daily
🇺🇸 Co-founders’ letter: Brightseed’s evolution & leadership change Brightseed
Other news
🇮🇹 Italy tests first gene-edited vines for winemaking Nature
🇬🇧 Meatly completes feeding trials for lab-grown petfood The Grocer
🇬🇧 Aspire Food Group cuts staff, temporarily scales back production at cricket farm AgFunderNews
🇨🇦 Cox Farms becomes largest indoor farming operator Agriculture Dive
🇪🇺 EU lawmakers seek change to deforestation law and approve delay Reuters
🇺🇸 World animal protection launches free, AI-powered cultivated meat chatbot for all your questions Vegconomist
🇺🇸 Trump picks Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his Department of Health and Human Services secretary
