12-18 November , 2022
Weekly Roundup: Stay up to date with the most recent Agrifood Tech news, investments and partnerships
IPOs, M&As & Investments:
Climate tech startup BeZero Carbon has netted $50m (£42.4m) in a Series B investment for its voluntary carbon market scoring platform. The proceeds will go towards a new Singapore location and expand its New York office.
Soft Robotics announced that it raised $26M in an initial Series C closing led by Tyson Ventures and will use the funds to expand commercial deployment of its mGripAI™ robotic picking solutions.
Freight Farms nabs $17.5M Series B3 funding round to support the company as it expands with more in-house training for customers' R&D and new product offerings.
Israel-based supply chain platform Clarifruit closes a $12 million Series A funding round led by Champel Capital and Firstime Ventures. The capital will be used for international expansion and sales, key hires in R&D, and overall scaling of its sales activity globally.
Supply chain management software Butter bags a $9 million Series A led by Google’s AI-focused Gradient Ventures. The new funding will go toward hiring sales and engineering teams.
Chester-based Bio&Me, a health food brand backed by England captain Harry Kane has secured an extra £1.6m investment. The company has deals with Asda, Boots, Holland & Barrett, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, the Co-op, and Waitrose.
Instant meal bowl startup Ikayu Foodlabs has raised ₹20 crore in its series A funding that will be used to ramp up capacity and distribution in India, while continuing to expand its global footprint across markets like Africa, Middle East and the US.
Pet's Table has raised a $2 million seed round led by Left Lane Capital. The company provides direct-to-consumer pet food products across Latin America. Goodwater Capital also participated in the funding.
Peptyde Bio closed an oversubscribed $1.2M pre-seed funding round. Peptyde Bio is the first company spun out of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.
Alberta-based agtech startup HEMPALTA has successfully completed an equity crowdfunding round on FrontFundr. With a little over $1.0 million the company will acquire strategic technology, support sales and marketing activity, and for working capital purposes.
With backing from Big Idea Ventures, ProVeg International, and Realum.cloud, cultivated fat startup Cultimate has raised €700,000 in a pre-seed funding round.
Africa’s Stable Foods closed a $600,000 funding round led by Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) and Mercy Corps Ventures. Monies will be used to scale up Stable Foods’ proof of concept to 500 farmers by the end of 2023.
VEGDOG, which says it is the first pet food manufacturer specialising in 100% plant-based and gluten-free complete dog food, has secured €3.5 million in a Series A round led by Green Generation Fund.
As part of its plan to establish a Keiretsu in the global food supply chain, WayCool Foods, India's top food and agri-tech company, has announced an investment in AllFresh Supply Management Private Limited
In continuing the efforts of Bayer’s Crop Science R&D pipeline to deliver novel systems biology approaches for innovative crop protection discovery Bayer Acquires German Biotech Start-up Targenomix.
Funds, Grants & Partnerships:
Indoor vertical farm expansion with Qatar Free Zones and Doha Venture Capital to scale AeroFarms proprietary smart AgTech to meet year-round growing appetite in Qatar for fresh and locally grown leafy greens
Bel Group and the start-up Standing Ovation announce an exclusive partnership to incorporate the startup’s casein milk protein in Bel's alternative cheese offerings. In September, Bel acquired an equity stake in Standing Ovation.
New Israel-based venture capital firm NevaTeam Partners launched an $80 million early-stage agrifood tech fund. Its first two investments are Solato and Clarifruit.
Tetra Pak is collaborating with food technology incubator Fresh Start to help burgeoning businesses in Israel develop food and food packaging solutions to combat some of the global food systems' challenges.
Canada’s Konscious Foods, Merit Functional Foods and Canadian Pacifico Seaweeds announce a new partnership to develop an extensive line of plant-based seafood alternatives that will bring more than 20 sustainably sourced alt-seafood products to the shelf.
Korean social impact-focused VC Sopoong closes $8M fund for startups focused on environmental impact including food tech. The early-stage VC has already set up five funds and backed 81 startups since 2020.
The University of Maryland has announced a five-year, $41 million cooperative agreement with the FDA to expand the University’s Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN).
News & Trends:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has declared that chicken grown in a lab by Berkeley food tech company Upside Foods is safe for human consumption.
Israel’s Beyond Oil, a food-tech company extending the life of frying oil, reducing costs and waste, announced that it is expanding its testing and pilot program with the addition of three restaurant chains in Canada.
Future Meat rebrands as Believer, and looks to the US. The cultivated meat company says there are “no big challenges left” with its regulatory approval process, though no date is yet named.
Soli Organic announces a new soil-based vertical farm in Texas. This $50M facility will be operational by the end of 2023.
Subway has expanded its nontraditional development to include interactive, unattended AI-smart fridges at Grab & Go retail locations.