Singapore’s first-ever oat milk brand Oatside made headlines this week with news of its sizable Series A round while iProduce landed funds to expand its input distribution tech across Africa. Fashion designer Stella McCartney is helping launch a climate-focused fund and alt-protein heavyweight Eat Just raised capital to expand in China.
Foodtech funding
๐ธ๐ฌ Temasek, GGV Capital lead $65 million Series A for Oatside. Oatside is Singapore’s first oat milk brand and will use the funding to establish a presence across Asia. (Deal Street Asia)
๐บ๐ธ ๐จ๐ณ Eat Just raises $25 million from China-focused private equity firm C2 Capital Partners. The investment will support Eat Justโs business roll-out in China for plant-based and cultivated meats. (AFN)
๐ฎ๐ณ Organic Kitchen nabs $1 million seed round from ‘prominent angel investors.’ Funds will help build technology, including consumer- and farmer-facing apps, and expand Organic Kitchen’s range of products. (VieStories)
๐บ๐ธ Novel Farms lands $1.4 million to develop its whole-cut cultivated pork. The SAFE (simple agreement for future equity) investment comes from a group of investors, including a majority stake by Big Idea Ventures. (TechCrunch)
๐บ๐ธ Honest tea developer Seth Goldman’s Eat the Change raises $14.5 million to launch Just Ice Tea. Collaborative Fund and S2G Ventures led the round, which will go towards setting up and scaling production. (Food Dive)
๐ฎ๐ณ Hot sauce company Naagin secures $1 million in seed funding. Actor Abhishek Bachchan participated in the round along with Eight Innovate Fund-I and other high-net-worth individuals (VCCircle).
๐บ๐ธ Boisson brews up $12 million seed round to expand. Connect Ventures and Blue Scorpion Investments led the round for the non-alcoholic beer, wine, and spirits company. (FoodBev Media)
๐ซ๐ท ๐ณ๐ฌ Koolboks closes $2.5 million seed round to scale solar refrigeration in Africa. Aruwa Capital Management led the round, which Koolboks will use to expand around Nigeria. (Radarr Africa)
๐บ๐ธ Functional beverage brand Wet Hydration raises $1.3 million. Launched in 2020, the company makes zero-calorie zero-sugar beverages enhanced with electrolytes, vitamins and antioxidants. (Food Business News)
๐ณ๐ฑ Water tech company Sensoterra raises $1 million from Future Food Fund and the Regional Development Agency (ROM) Utrecht Region. New capital will support development of Sensoterra’s water management smart soil sensors. (Sensoterra)
๐บ๐ธ ‘Ethnic’ grocery marketplace Bakkal secures $3 million seed round. The online grocery service will put the funds towards technology development and hiring. (Grocery Dive)
๐บ๐ธ Positive Food Co. banks $7 million to expand availability of its ‘heat-and-eat’ meals. Investors include BlueYard Capital, Y Combinator, and others. (TechCrunch)
๐บ๐ธ Byte Kitchen serves up $6 million for its digital food halls. The San Francisco Bay Area-based company will expand beyond California thanks to the new funds. (Restaurant Business Online)
Agtech funding
๐ฎ๐ฑ Groundwork BioAg completes $18 million Series B led by Climate Innovation Capital. Groundwork is a leading producer of mycorrhizal inoculants, fungi that can enhance the growth of crops. (Yahoo!)
๐บ๐ธ Stella McCartney is helping launch a $200 million sustainability fund. In partnership with VC firm the Collaborative Fund, the fashion designer plans to launch a fund for businesses in food, agriculture, and biomaterials sectors. (Vegconomist)
๐ฐ๐ช Ag input distribution startup iProcure closes $10.2 million Series B round led by Investisseurs & Partenaires. The iProcure digital platform connects major agricultural input suppliers directly to local agro-dealers and will expand to Uganda and Tanzania thanks to the new funding. (AFN)
๐ณ๐ฌ Deere & Company makes minority investment in fleet management tech startup Hello Tractor. John Deere said Hello Tractor aligns with the businessโs โLeaps Ambitionโ which aims to see 100% of small ag equipment connectivity enabled by 2026. (AFN)
๐ฐ๐ท Mycel banks $10 million for fungal-based biomaterials. The pre-Series A funding will go towards opening a production plant in South Korea for scaling manufacturing. (TechCrunch)
๐บ๐ธ Crop monitoring startup Soiltech Wireless completes $2.5 million seed round led by Homegrown
Capital. The new funding will bolster product offerings to support sustainability and value-added traceability. (Vegetable Growers News)
M&A, IPOs & partnerships
๐ฌ๐ง ๐บ๐ธ Sport nutrition brand MyProtein teams up with Perfect Day. The two companies are co-branding “Whey Forward,” an animal-free whey protein made with Perfect Day’s precision fermentation process. (Green Queen)
๐บ๐ธ ADM partners with New Culture to scale its animal-free dairy operation. New Culture makes mozzarella and other animal-free dairy products and will be able to speed up development thanks to this partnership. (Food Navigator)
Other news
๐ Ukraine conflict puts food security at risk for 3% of global population, says McKinsey. An expected 35% to 45% decline in Ukraine crop production next year, is set to impact the nutritional needs of up to 250 million people. (AFN)
๐ธ๐ฌ Shiok Meats confirms 2023 commercial launch for cultivated meat. The company says its production costs have dropped over time from $10,000/kg to $5,000/kg to recently reaching the $50/kg milestone. (Food Navigator)
๐จ๐ฆ Chinova Bioworks develops ‘game changing’ vegan fining agent for beers and wines. The newly announced Mycobrio product is a mushroom-derived fining agent that can replace synthetic and animal-derived fining agents such as isinglass and gelatin. (Vegconomist)
๐ช๐ธ Spain preps food waste reduction law for 2030. Businesses will pay fines for not having food waste plans in place, though regulating consumer food waste will be a bit more challenging. (Food Navigator)
๐บ๐ธ Amazon will soon place its palm-scanning tech in Whole Foods stores. Some locations are already testing the tech, which lets users pay for their goods by simply waving their palms over a scanner. (The Verge)
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ Scotland’s single-use plastics ban is now fully in place. The ban, which came into force in June of this year, restricts use of items like single use cutlery, beverage stirrers, and plates. (Zero Waste Scotland)
๐ฏ๐ต Japanese airline Zipair introduces two in-flight meals made with ground-up crickets. The move is an effort by the airline to promote more food sustainability. (South China Morning Post)
๐จ๐ด CurubaTech is supporting smallholder farmers transitions to legal crops in Colombia. The platform connects farmers with independent agronomists and experts via simple and accessible tech tools like WhatsApp and SMS. (Thought for Food)
