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10 notable deals and things to know this week (2023 – week #14)

Published on April 3, 2023

🇦🇺 🧫 Cauldron, an Australian startup, raised $10.5M for its precision fermentation pilot facility. It wants to develop a network of facilities used by other synthetic biology companies to produce alternative proteins.
For more on this fascinating topic, read our insight on the future of food production (bioreactors in the cloud).

🇦🇺 🦣 Vow, an Australian startup, revealed a mammoth meatball made with cellular agriculture. It’s not made for consumption (as we don’t know about we would react to a type of meat not eaten by humans for millennia). This experiment was a statement on the impact of climate change on our diets (mammoths went extinct due to warming and hunting). Beyond that, the startup is looking to “invent” new types of meats better suited to humans rather than only replicating those we know today.

PS: this news is upsetting a Belgium startup which claims to be the first to have made mammoth proteins. This is a great example of how being first is many times less important than being the first to find the best way to communicate innovation.

🇮🇹 ✋ Italy will ban cellular agriculture for meat, fish and dairy products. The goal is to protect food traditions and health. Beyond the noise and the somewhat populist posture of banning something that doesn’t exist yet, this project is showcasing all the questions that the cellular agriculture industry will have to answer if it ever hopes to become mainstream.

🇫🇷 🍇 Les Grappes, a French wine e-commerce startup, is acquiring Plugwine, which offers services to winegrowers.

🇺🇸 🥬 Local Bounti, a US (public) startup, raised $145M for its indoor farms.

🇩🇰 💨 Agreena, a Danish startup, raised €46M for its soil carbon credit platform dedicated to farmers using regenerative agriculture practices.

🇺🇸 🥫 Momofoku, the famous restaurant, is raising $17.5M for new activity: Momofoku Goods. This spinoff will market pantry products inspired by what it serves in the restaurant. Can this be a path to profitability for high-end restaurants?

🇺🇸 🐈 Smalls, a US-based, cat-focused pet food startup, raised $19M.

🇬🇧 🤖 Defra, a British startup developing farm robots, raised £9M.

🇮🇱 📦 TripleW, an Israeli startup, raised $16.5M for its solution to transform food waste into lactic acid and bioplastics.

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