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13 FoodTech news to know this week (2025 – week #49)

Published on December 1, 2025

Funding News

🇺🇸 🍽 CookUnity, a US startup, secured up to $250 M to expand its platform offering ready-to-eat meals cooked by chef for your week.

 

🇳🇱 🛒 Picnic, a Dutch online grocery startup, raised €430 M from existing investors to accelerate growth in Germany and build distribution centres.

 

🇬🇧 📦 HubBox, a British startup, raised €6.8 M to expand its software for e-commerce players, helping them to offer pickup‑point deliveries to their clients.

 

🇮🇱 🍗 SuperMeat, an Israeli startup, raised $3.5 M to “commercialise” its lab‑grown chicken in Europe. It is though still waiting for regulatory approval.

 

🇺🇸 🐄 Athian, a US startup, raised $4 M to help farmers monetise verified emissions cuts via a climate‑insetting platform.

 

🇳🇿 🐂 Ruminant Biotech, a New Zealand startup, raised NZ$17M (about US$10M) to develop long‑duration methane‑reducing supplements for pasture‑based cattle. These could help reduce methane emissions by up to 90%.

 

🇩🇪 🏭 NutriUnited, a German startup, raised €8.5 M to scale its buy‑and‑build model supporting family‑run food producers.

 

🇩🇰 🛍 Noahs, a Danish startup, raised €1.9 M to scale its digital retail‑food platform that turns convenience stores into plug‑and‑play food hubs.

 

🇫🇷 🍽 Komia, a French startup, raised €1.2M for its management platform for compliance, inventory and staffing targeting franchisee restaurants.

 

Acquisitions, regulation & macro trends

🇨🇦 🍫 TRUBAR, a Canadian plant‑based protein bar brand, will be acquired by Turkish CPG giant Eti Gıda for C$201 M.

 

🇩🇪 🍫 Ritter Sport, a German chocolate brand, is expanding in the US by acquiring Chocolove maker Creative Natural Products.

 

🇳🇱 ⚖️ The Protein Brewery, a Dutch startup, received an EFSA (Europe) regulatory approval for its mycoprotein produced through biomass fermentation.

 

🇺🇸 💄 The “beauty‑from‑within” trend is creating a new market for functional foods as brands add collagen, antioxidants and other ingredients to support skin, hair and vitality.

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What we did:

  • Mapping of the AgTech ecosystem: startups, research regulators, and other leading companies.
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What we did:

  • Education of the board through a couple of workshops to define the perimeter
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Results:

  • Creating a consensus on which categories to prioritise and how to address them.
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What we do (ongoing mission on a subscription model):

  • Kick-off where we present an overview of the AgriFoodTech ecosystem to select with the client the categories to cover and for each, the level of information required.
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Results:

  • A clear, regular and evolutive tool to follow what is happening in terms of innovation on key topics.
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What we did:

  • Kick-off to define the perimeter of the ecosystem studied.
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  • Analysis of the trends on DigitalFoodLab’s trend curve and other relevant frameworks.
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  • Shared view of the innovation ecosystem for the client with a view of the trends to prioritize.
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What we did:

  • Kick-off to define the perimeter of the client, the goals of the scouting (partnerships) and the criteria on which startups should be evaluated.
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  • Identification of 20+ targets.
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Results:

  • Different results from traditional M&A processes with a focus on the client’s innovation strategy.
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What we did:

  • Kick-off with the client to discuss its interest on this category, its expectations and existing level of information (notably on the target company).
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  • Clear view of the ecosystem and of the reasons to believe (or not) in each sub-category.
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