Startup news and deals
🇺🇸 🍔 Wonder, a US-based startup offering delivery and dine-in with quality meals, acquired Grubhub, a restaurant delivery app, for $650M. That’s to be compared with the $7.3B that its previous owner, Just Eat Takeaway, paid three years ago to acquire it.
🇩🇪🍫 KoRo, a German startup, raised €35M to expand its healthy snacks. It is one of the fastest-growing food DTC brands in Europe, with more than 2 million customers across the continent.
🇺🇸🌿 Plantible Foods, an American startup, raised $30M to scale up production of its duckweed-derived protein for plant-based meat and baked goods. Compared with other sources of protein, duckweed has some major benefits beyond being highly nutritional: it is one of the fastest-growing plants, and it is already authorised for human consumption in most regions.
🇺🇸🍓 Oishii, a US-based startup, raised $16M to expand its production of luxury strawberries grown through vertical farming.
🇧🇪 🦠 BiocSol, a Belgian startup, secured €5.2M for its microbial-based biopesticides, providing sustainable crop protection solutions for farmers.
🇮🇳💊 HealthKart, an Indian startup, raised $153M for its omnichannel sports nutrition and wellness brand.
🇯🇵 🥬 Secai Marche, a Japanese startup, raised $2.1M to expand its B2B fresh food e-commerce platform that connects producers with restaurants and retailers across Asia.
🇮🇳 💸 Swiggy, one of India’s food delivery giants, successfully completed its IPO with a $12B valuation while raising about $1.34B
🇺🇸 🍽️ Permanent, an American startup, raised $6M for its food procurement platform, connecting buyers directly with local producers.
🇬🇧🌱 Naturbeads, a British startup, raised £7.8M for its biodegradable and sustainable alternatives to plastic microbeads.
🇨🇦🍷 InVintory, a Canadian startup, raised $2.3M to expand into its wine-management platform for the hospitality industry.
Regulation & public support
🇭🇰 🦆 Vow, an Australian cultivated meat startup, became the first to be authorised in Hong Kong. It will be able to sell its foie gras made through cellular agriculture.
🇪🇺 🍔 Impossible Foods, the well-known American plant-based meat startup obtained a positive opinion from Europe’s food safety body. Impossible is getting close (validation by the commission) to be able to commercialise its products in Europe.
