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
🇸🇬 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)
🇺🇸 🇨🇳 Eat Just raises $25 million from China-focused private equity firm C2 Capital Partners. The investment will support Eat Just’s business roll-out in China for plant-based and cultivated meats. (AFN)
🇮🇳 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)
🇺🇸 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)
🇺🇸 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)
🇮🇳 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).
🇺🇸 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)
🇫🇷 🇳🇬 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)
🇺🇸 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)
🇳🇱 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)
🇺🇸 ‘Ethnic’ grocery marketplace Bakkal secures $3 million seed round. The online grocery service will put the funds towards technology development and hiring. (Grocery Dive)
🇺🇸 Positive Food Co. banks $7 million to expand availability of its ‘heat-and-eat’ meals. Investors include BlueYard Capital, Y Combinator, and others. (TechCrunch)
🇺🇸 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
🇮🇱 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!)
🇺🇸 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)
🇰🇪 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)
🇳🇬 Deere & Company makes minority investment in fleet management tech startup Hello Tractor. John Deere said Hello Tractor aligns with the business’s “Leaps Ambition” which aims to see 100% of small ag equipment connectivity enabled by 2026. (AFN)
🇰🇷 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)
🇺🇸 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
🇬🇧 🇺🇸 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)
🇺🇸 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
🌍 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)
🇸🇬 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)
🇨🇦 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)
🇪🇸 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)
🇺🇸 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)
🏴 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)
🇯🇵 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)
🇨🇴 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)
