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10 notable deals and things to know this week (2023 – week #46)

Published on November 14, 2023

🇺🇸 💉 Eli Lilly announced that its new weight loss drug, Zepbound, has been approved by the FDA. It will compete with other drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy. The results are impressive, as people lose an average of 52 pounds (23.6kg). As we said in a previous insight, beyond their immediate impact (decreasing sales of snacks and other foods), these drugs have the potential to change our relationship with food.

🇺🇸 🤖 Humane, a US startup, has introduced Ai Pin, a wearable AI-powered device to redefine user interaction. Among many features, it can support nutrition goals by identifying food using computer vision. Look at this video and imagine the potential of such a device to follow us and register what we eat. As said in this previous insight, measuring what we eat daily (beyond putting it manually in a digital journal app) is one of the main things blocking us on the road to personalisation.

🇫🇷 🍼 Nūmi, a French biotech startup, raised €3M to create a substitute for breastmilk through cellular agriculture. This space is expanding fast, as its implications are huge. Ingredients present in breastmilk also have exciting applications for huge markets such as sports health (recovery) and healthy ageing.

🇺🇸🔬 Cromatic, a US-based startup, raised $5.3M for its integrated platform to help companies find and manage relationships with partners to outsource their R&D.

🇹🇷 🇺🇸 Getir, the Turkish quick-commerce unicorn (one of the few players in this category still alive), has acquired FreshDirect, an online grocery delivery service based in New York. FreshDirect was owned by Ahold Delhaize, a PE firm that bought it for $300M in late 2020. This is yet another step towards concentration in the online grocery delivery space.

🇮🇹 🧀 Dreamfarm, an Italian startup, raised €5M for its plant-based alternatives to mozzarella. Compared to other cheese alternatives, it has much better nutritional rankings (nutriscore A).

🇺🇸🌾 Aigen, a US-based startup, raised $12M for its solar-powered agriculture robots. They can manage resistant weeds without the use of chemicals or fossil fuels.

🇺🇸🍲 Wonder, a US-based startup, raised $100M from Nestlé, alongside a strategic partnership, for its restaurant-quality meal deliveries.

🌎 ☁️ The world’s 20 largest meat and dairy producers had their greenhouse emissions increase by 3.28% last year. Among them, only two saw their emissions decrease, and only four had net-zero targets approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

🇨🇱🍎 Loads, a Chilean startup, raised $2.05M to help manage food imports across Latin America.

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