3-8 April, 2022
Stay up to date with the most recent news, investments and partnerships regarding the Agrifood Tech industry and sustainability.
IPOs, M&As & Investments:
Mexico’s online grocer Jüsto announces $152 million Series B and plans to use the funding to expand its business within Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and new markets in Latin America.
Season Health announced today it raised $34 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other investors include LRV Health and Company Ventures.
French food tech Umiami has closed a $30 million Series A -the largest total round raised for any French alternative protein company so far. Funding is earmarked to scale industrial production and bring the chicken analogue to market.
Horizon Technology Finance closed a $15 million venture loan to mycelium based meat alternative startup MyForest Foods.
Inspired by nature’s waste cycle and with the vision to take the food chain back to its roots, Better Origin has today raised over €14.6 million in a Series A funding round led by Balderton Capital.
Philadelphia-based startup Treeswift bags $4.8 million to continue the development of drones that can perform a number of tasks including deforestation monitoring, carbon capture readings, and forest fire prevention.
New Zealand’s Sustainable Foods has raised $2.15 million and plans to use its fresh funding to support product development and marketing.
Los Angeles- based allergen-friendly ice cream brand Sunscoop has raised $2 million seed financing round. The fresh capital will be used to lend support to upcoming product developments, new launches and commercial outreach strategies.
Lord of the Trees has raised US$1.25 million (AUD $1.6 million) in a pre-seed round, with funds to bolster the Sydney-based business' mission of using precision drone technology to restore ecosystems worldwide.
Lisbon-based Pleez has raised €1.5 million in a seed funding round led by Berlin’s FoodLabs. The restaurant tech startup is slated to use the funding to further develop its technology and advance with its expansion.
CultYvate raises $592,000 in pre-Series A funds. The Farm2Fork startup will use the funding to further develop the company’s platform, which provides smart irrigation, sensing, and other precision AI tools to farmers
News & Trends
The United Nations moves to build a “Blue Deal” coalition that will preserve oceans and create a sustainable, seaweed-based ocean economy.
Eat the Change Impact (ETC Impact), a grant program by plant-based snack company Eat the Change, is offering $500,000 in grants in 2022 to promote healthy, planet-friendly foods.
The latest results of the EIT Food Trust Report surveying 20,326 consumers across 18 European countries reveal that less than half (48%) trust food manufacturers and authorities while only a third believe the food they eat is sustainable.
Del Monte Foods said it plans to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 after making changes to its own operations rather than purchasing carbon credits to offset them.
Data Snapshot: Agrifoodtech accounted for 8% of total VC funding in record-breaking 2021
The Danish government will invest over $100 million into a new ‘Plantefonden’ – or Plant Fund – to promote climate-friendly plant-based foods. The Danish Plantbased Business Association has been named on the board of the Plant Fund, an initiative of the Danish Agency for Agriculture.
According to The Politics of Protein, the new report published today by the Brussels-based International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) alt protein “will not save the planet”.
Eat Just, Inc. announces today that its mung bean protein — the key ingredient in global phenomenon JUST Egg — has received approval from the European Commission, paving the way for a European launch in Q4 of this year.
luu Seafood and CellX today announce a strategic partnership, committing to a shared goal to “make cellular agriculture a reality” and advance regulatory approval in their countries, respectively Germany and China.
Mogale Meat Co. has successfully created its first cell-based chicken breast product, hailed as the first-of-its-kind in Africa.
Israel’s Redefine Meat announces that Selfridges London has become the world’s first department store to feature the company’s plant-based New-Meat.
Fermented meat analog maker The Better Meat Co. plans to introduce an analog of foie gras this spring which will be made from the company's mycelium-derived Rhiza protein.
This week, four SpaceX crew members will conduct groundbreaking experiments on cultivated meat in space. The historic Axiom-1 will test the effects of microgravity on the formation of muscle tissue cultivated by Aleph Farms.
Indoor farming was a $79.3 billion market in 2021, according to PitchBook, which expects the segment to expand at a 14.4% compound annual growth rate to hit $155.6 billion by 2026.
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions to prevent the worst of climate change would be relatively cheap and technologically feasible, but governments and financial bodies are failing to do so. That’s the conclusion of a landmark report published Monday by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).