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12 FoodTech news to know this week (2025 – week #2)

Published on January 7, 2025

Startup news and deals

🇨🇭🍺 YeastUp, a Swiss startup, raised €9.5M to transform a dairy site into a facility for upcycling brewers’ yeast to produce proteins.

🇺🇸🌱Sound Agriculture, a US-based startup, raised $25M to scale its biostimulant solutions that reduce the need for nitrogen and phosphorus in agriculture.

🇩🇪🧪🤖 New Wave Biotech, a German startup, raised €1.2M for its AI-powered bioprocess simulation platform for synthetic biology and alternative protein R&D.

🇫🇷👩‍🍳 Meet My Mama, a French startup, raised €3M for its social business model, empowering immigrant women and helping them find a career in the food service industry.

🇬🇧🌳 Terradot, a UK-based startup, raised $58.2M to scale the use of Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), a technology that optimises soil carbon sequestration.

🇮🇳 🍽️ Rebel Foods, a leading Indian startup, raised $210M to expand its cloud kitchen model globally. Rebel already operates a large network of cloud kitchens that prepare food for its own set of brands.

🇺🇸🔬 One Bio, a US-based startup, raised $27M to scale its technology for extracting fibres from agricultural byproducts. This transforms them into valuable food ingredients that can enhance the amount of dietary fibre without altering taste or texture.

 

Industry new & trends

🤐 📱 Interesting read on the development of AI-driver tools that analyze facial photographs to estimate an individual’s biological age, which may provide insights into overall health and longevity. There is already a link with food as most of these apps are selling subsriptions to help increase your longevity, notably through diet or custom supplements. If you have a few minutes to spare, I encourage you to do the test here with Novos.

📉 ☁️ Unilever is merging its sustainability and communication roles. This move comes after a revision of its sustainability goals to make them more “realistic”. Many other companies are revising or simply moving away from their climate pledges as they feel a pressure to be more focused on their profitability.

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