This week, precision pollination company BeeHero landed Series B funding and US-based cultivated seafood company Wildtype caught new funding for its forthcoming alt-salmon product. Elsewhere, collaborative investment platform FoodShot Global announced the winners of this year’s esteemed GroundBreaker Prize.
Foodtech funding
🇰🇷 🇺🇸 SK Group invests $7 million into cultivated salmon company Wildtype. Besides Wildtype, SK’s alt-protein investments also include Perfect Day and Meatless Farm. (Vegconomist)
🇬🇧 Nutritional food brand Huel bags $24 million round led by Highland Europe. With this round, Huel is now valued at $560 million. (Tech.eu)
🇫🇷 Yeasty brews up €1.4 million round led by Asterion Ventures. Yeasty will now industrialize its alt-protein samples, made from leftover brewers yeast, to share with food manufacturers. (EU Startups)
🇬🇧 Julienne Bruno raises £5 million ($6.1 million) for cheese made from soy milk. Cherry Ventures, Outsized Ventures, Seedcamp, and Nicoya led the seed round. (Green Queen)
🇺🇸 Pursuit Spirits secures $8 million from private funding and asset-backed loans. The company will use its funds to expand its whiskey business across the US. (The Spirits Business)
Agtech funding
🇮🇱 BeeHero grabs $42 million Series B from Convent Capital, General Mills & others. Precision pollinator platform BeeHero now has more than 100,000 acres of commercial crop under management. (CTech)
🇮🇳 DeHaat, an ag marketplace for farmers based in India, has raised $60 million in Series E funding. Sofina Ventures and Temasek co-led the round. (AFN) [Disclosure: AFN’s parent company AgFunder is an investor in DeHaat.]
🇺🇸 Verdant Robotics closes a $46.5 million Series A for its robotic crop application technology. Cleveland Avenue led the round joined by DCVC Bio, AgFunder, Future Ventures and others. (AFN) [Disclosure: AFN’s parent company is AgFunder.]
🇦🇺 Oyster-tech startup Oceanfarmr nets $1.45 million from Katapult‘s global accelerator program. The startup will use the bridge round to kickstart international growth. (Startup Daily)
🇧🇪 ClimateCamp raises €700,000 ($735,000) pre-seed round. The SaaS startup aims to help food and beverage corporations better track their scope 3 emissions. (Silicon Canals)
M&A, IPOs & partnerships
🇨🇳 🇳🇬 Fintech company MICT acquires agrifintech platform Tingo. The latter operates an ag marketplace in Africa that allows smallholder farmers to buy inputs, pay bills and access insurance, among other things. (GlobeNewswire)
Other news
🇺🇸 Collaborative investment platform FoodShot Global announces winners of the GroundBreaker Prize. Winners were chosen for their work in bioactive foods, precision protein and soil health. (FoodShot Global)
🇺🇸 DoorDash lays off 1,250 employees to bring down its operating expenses. Company CEO Tony Xu said DoorDash was “not always as rigorous” as it should have been in in managing team growth. (NPR)
🇸🇬 Perfect Day‘s precision fermentation animal-free milk arrives in Asia. The milk, made from microflora, is now available across grocery stores in Singapore. (Green Queen)
🇮🇳 Amazon shuts will shutter its Amazon Food delivery business in India. The move is planned for Dec. 29 and comes as the e-commerce giant plans to lay off 10,000 employees. (Reuters)
🇩🇪 Vertical farm startup Infarm will lay off more than half of its workforce, around 500 employees. The Berlin, Germany-based startup cites skyrocketing energy prices and the wider downturn as reasons for the cuts. (AFN)
🇺🇸 PepsiCo, King Arthur Baking, Anheuser-Busch & others invest in the Trusted Advisor Partnership. The goal is to help expand regenerative ag practices across the US. (Sustainable Food Lab)
