This week, retail and grocery tech startup Swiftly bagged a mega-round while front-of-house restaurant software startup Zenchef cooked up new financing to expand its presence. In agtech, Pano raised funds to fight wildfires with AI and Land O’Lakes’ Truterra arm landed a grant from the USDA.
Foodtech funding
🇫🇷 PSG Equity leads €50 million ($49 million) for Zenchef. The latter will scale its front-of-house restaurant tech software across Europe and the US thanks to the new financing. (Yahoo Finance)
🇺🇸 Grocery tech startup Swiftly bags $100 million from BRV Capital Management, others. The Series C round pushes Swiftly’s valuation over the $1 billion mark. (WSJ)
🇳🇱 Restaurant tech startup Formitable raises €8 million ($8 million). Funding from mobile payments startup Mollie founder Adriaan Mol will go towards Formitable’s expansion across Europe. (Tech.eu)
🇺🇸 Kate Farms lands $75 million Series C led by Novo Holdings. Kate Farms specializes in plant-based formulas for tube and oral feeding in healthcare situations such as hospitals. (PR Newswire)
🇮🇱 Profuse Technology raises $2.5 million to tackle the cost of cultivated meat. New York-based Green Circle led the round, which Profuse will put towards R&D and commercialization, amongst other things. (The Spoon)
🇿🇦 De Novo Dairy scores undisclosed investment from UM6P Ventures. De Novo uses precision fermentation to develop animal-free dairy products. (techcabal)
Agtech funding
🇮🇳 Farm-to-consumer produce platform Deep Rooted secures $12.5 million Series A round. IvyCap Ventures led the round with participation from existing investors including Accel, Omnivore and Mayfield. (VC Circle)
🇺🇸 Pano raises $20 million to detect and fight wildfires with AI. Initialized Capital led the Series A round, which will support Pano’s market expansion into high fire-risk areas in North America and Australia. (Business Journals)
🇮🇩 Agridesa lands $200,000 pre-seed round led by Triputra Group. The startup will cultivate five hectares of land in West Java using its “closed-loop” agriculture system connecting landowners and farmers. (Incubees)
🇲🇽 Produce procurement startup Alima bags $1.5 million. Soma Capital, Y Combinator, Dorm Room Fund, and others led the seed round. (LatamList)
🇫🇷 French insect protein startup InnovaFeed lands $250 million Series D round. Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, led the investment. (AFN)
🇩🇪 MicroHarvest raises €8.5 million ($8.5 million) Series A led by Astanor Ventures. The precision fermentation startup plans to build “the world’s fastest protein production system.” (Vegconomist)
🇸🇮 Pest monitoring & forecasting platform Trapview nabs €10 million ($10 million) Series B. Funding, led by European Circular Bioeconomy Fund, will kickstart Trapview’s commercial development in Europe, Brazil and the US. (Tech.eu)
🇮🇩 Koltiva raises undisclosed amount from Silverstrand Capital & others. Koltiva offers a suite of software products to help digitize global supply chains. (Tech in Asia)
M&A, IPOs & partnerships
🇧🇷 🇺🇸 The Production Board (TPB) invests $100 million in Brazil’s largest ag retailer, Lavoro. The SPAC deal will list Lavoro shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange. (AFN)
🇺🇸 Bayer & Perdue AgriBusiness announce regenerative farming collaboration. The partnership aims to reduce large-scale carbon emissions and create a model for a more sustainable food value chain across Perdue’s grain network. (Successful Farming)
Funds, grants & accelerators
🇪🇺 🇮🇱 EQT Growth launches €2.4 billion ($2.4 billion) to back European and Israeli startups. Climate-focused companies and technologies, including foodtech, is one of the key investment areas of the fund. (Sifted)
🇺🇸 Land O’Lakes’ sustainability arm Truterra awarded $90 million from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Funds will go towards scaling the company’s regenerative farming-focused pilot project. (Truterra)
🇪🇸 BioTech Foods snags €750,000 ($750,000) grant from the Spanish Foreign Trade Institute. The grant will fund BioTech Foods’ investMEAT project researching cell lines, cultured media, and biomaterials for cultivated meat. (Vegconomist)
Other news
🌎 Vertical farming companies sign the Vertical Farming Manifesto to set standards for the sector. Bowery, AeroFarms and YesHealth Group are among the participating companies. (Perishable News)
🇺🇸 Starbucks exploring “load-balancing” technology to help with “barista burnout.” The technology is meant to help stores cope with the influx of digital orders flooding in. (Yahoo Finance)
🇺🇸 🇨🇦 Instacart launches Connected Stores to help retailers create personalized shopping in stores and online. The suite of tools is now available for grocery stores in the US and Canada. (TechCrunch)
🇺🇸 Spirits brand Beam Suntory to invest $400 million in making Jim Beam production more sustainable. That includes expanding the distillery capacity by 50% while cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half, the company said. (Food Dive)
🇺🇸 🇫🇮 Perfect Day launches “biotech-as-a-service” business. Called nth Bio, the service will help other companies in the space to scale up, starting with egg white protein maker Onego Bio. (Food Dive)
🇪🇸 Ekonoke unveils beer made from indoor hops. The “Respect!” limited-edition beer is made from hops grown hydroponically via controlled environment agriculture. (Nature)
🇬🇧 Agri-EPI Centre launches Agritech Investment Advisory Ltd. The a new advisory service is meant to bridge the gap between investors and innovative agri-food start-ups. (Agri-EPI Centre)
🇸🇬 🇺🇸 Singapore’s Next Gen Foods picks Chicago for US headquarters. The startup’s new Chicago R&D center will be located at food business incubator The Hatchery Chicago’s facilities. (Chicago Tribune)
🇪🇸 Spain fines food delivery service Glovo $78 million for violating labor laws. Glovo says it will appeal the decision, which alleges the service failed to pay social security, among other things. (Reuters)
Sponsored
International Fresh Produce Association launches year 3 of its produce accelerator