8-13 May, 2022
Stay up to date with the most recent news, investments and partnerships regarding the Agrifood Tech industry and Sustainability.
IPOs, M&As & Investments:
US nutrient discovery company Brightseed has raised $68 million in funding. The capital will be used to commercialize the launch of its first ingredient and accelerate new compound discovery and their clinical validation. Singapore sovereign fund Temasek led the Series B round.
US biofertilizer company Anuvia Plant Nutrients has packed a lot of milestones into a short period of time, its latest being a $65.5 million Series D fundraise co-led by Riverstone Holdings and Piva Capital.
Touchless checkout maker Mashgin announced a $62.5 million Series B round raising its valuation to $1.5 billion. The company will use the funding to build out its team, speed up expansion and scale globally.
Slutty Vegan - Atlanta’s vegan fast food chain has closed a $25 million Series A funding round, led by New Voices Fund and restaurateur Danny Meyer’s Enlightened Hospitality Investments. The funding will be used to scale and for key hires.
French micro-climate tech startup Sencrop, announced that it has raised an $18 million Series B fundraising round led by Israeli venture capital firm JVP, as part of the VC fund’s climate and food tech initiative.
Australian grain management platform AgriDigital raised A$25 million ($17.7 million) in a recently closed funding round, as it seeks to expand its offering to help smaller industry players access same-day working capital loans.
New York-based food tech company Tomorrow Farms has announced the closing of $8.5 million in seed funding which it will use to recreate refrigerator and pantry staples with healthier ingredients.
The latest alt-fat startup to raise funding is CUBIQ Foods, which announced they have raised €5.75 million Euros ($6M USD) from Cargill and other investors
London-based Lollipop has raised £5 million in a seed funding round led by Octopus Ventures. The app targets families and brings meal planning, shopping, and cooking services all under one umbrella.
Agronomics Ltd said on Friday it invested a further $2 million into Chinese cultivated meat company CellX Ltd.
Retail tech startup NutriTap Technologies said it has raised about $1.5 million and will use the funding to ramp up technology and R&D and well as scale its growth.
US-Australian precision fermentation startup Change Foods has secured a $1 million grant to create a platform for upcycling sugarcane fiber waste that will be processed to offer a low-cost and accessible feedstock for dairy products.
The alt-seafood startup Happy Ocean Foods welcomed backing from former Formula 1 racing champion Nico Rosberg and Dagmar Wöhr this week.
News & Trends:
The Global Alliance for the Future of Food recently released a toolkit to help countries adopt a food systems approach to climate change through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Israeli alternative dairy pioneer Remilk is building the world’s largest precision fermentation facility to produce milk proteins without cows.
Sweetgreen announced they are opening their first pickup-only location in Washington DC’s Mt. Vernon Square neighborhood.
Chilean plant-based brand NotCo has launched its milk alternative, NotMilk, at Starbucks Colombia. The plant-based milk will be available at all the coffee chain locations in the country.
Shanghai’s Haofood has announced distribution partnership with Chinese convenience store giant Lawson that will see its new satay nugget stick product being stocked in 2,300 stores across the country.
Monsanto is investing $125 million in gene-editing technology through a new partnership with Pairwise Plants. This California agricultural startup will help Monsanto to create gene-edited corn, soybeans, cotton and canola crops.
HEINZ is teaming up with Pulpex to develop a paper-based, renewable, and recyclable bottle made from 100 percent sustainably sourced wood pulp. The sustainable paper bottle packaging will be used for the company’s range of condiments.
Tesco and WWF have launched Innovation Connections, an accelerator that pairs startups with Tesco suppliers to fast-track sustainability innovation in the supply chain, with the goal of tackling both environmental impact and food security.
Food systems are in need of urgent reform if millions are to be spared from critical food insecurity, according to the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES).
21 Michelin stars French chef Alain Ducasse recently opened a vegan burger kiosk called Burgal in the Bastille district of Paris.
A new community housing development in the Bronx will feature a cool piece of kit: an on-site aerobic digester that can turn 1,100 pounds of food scraps into 220 pounds of high-quality fertilizer every single day.
Corteva Agriscience has just opened a seed treatment lab in Rosslyn, Pretoria in South Africa. The facility named Centre for Seed Applied Technologies (CSAT) will focus specifically on recipe development and safety testing of seed-applied solutions.
Chocolate without cacao might sound like science fiction but WNWN Food Labs is releasing its first dark variety this month and it says its product has 80% fewer emissions than conventional chocolate.