🇺🇸🌱 AgroSpheres, a US startup, raised $25M to build a pilot facility for its biopesticides which are delivered encapsulated to plants, reducing the quantity required.
🇨🇦 🥡 Fantuan, a Canadian startup, raised $40M for its Chinese food delivery service. Ethic delivery marketplaces (delivery apps targeting minority populations with a dedicated offering of groceries and/or cooked meals) is one of the rare food delivery categories doing particularly well (due to higher margins and less competition). There are still many underserved communities, notably in Europe which could benefit from such dedicated apps.
🇳🇱 🧪 Farmless, a Dutch startup, raised €4.8M to build a pilot plant for its biomass fermentation process. It creates a new source of proteins by feeding microorganisms with a mixture of CO2, hydrogen, nitrogen, and renewable energy.
🇩🇪🍕 Milano Vice, a German startup, raised €9M for its virtual restaurant brand centred on pizzas. With this funding, it wants to expand across Germany and beyond.
🇺🇸 🍔 McDonald’s is piloting a new beverage-focused type of location named CosMc’s. It is interesting to observe that the competition in this space (coffee joints / third place between home and office) is so hot that it drives a giant such as McDonald’s to create a new dedicated brand.
🇬🇧 💰 The UK government announced a £2B plan dedicated to new biology-related technologies, among which cellular agriculture and different types of fermentation are mentioned as key components.
🇸🇬🥩 Meatiply, a Singaporean startup, raised $3.75M for its cultivated meat products with health benefits.
🇺🇸 🐖 Clever Carnivore, a US-based startup, raised $7M to commercialise their pork meat made through cellular agriculture
🇦🇪 🇬🇧 🌿 IGS, a British startup developing tech solutions for vertical farms, will power ReFarm, a GigaFarm that will be built in the UAE to replace 1% of the country’s fresh produce imports.
🇫🇷 🍽️ Carbon Maps, a French startup developing carbon accounting tools for food CPG companies, raised an additional €2M to expand its seed round to €7M.
🇫🇷 ☁️ Tasty Cloud, a French startup developing digital menus for restaurants, is being acquired by Lundi Matin, a French ePOS provider.
🇬🇧 🌱 Agricarbon, a UK-based startup, raised £9M for its soil carbon measurement services. Measuring carbon in the soil is a key component of regenerative agriculture. Indeed, if we don’t measure the impact of the new practices put in place by farmers, we can’t value them correctly (through carbon credits and other incentives)
🇺🇸 🤖 Travis Kalanick, Uber founder and former CEO, is developing a restaurant automation and robotics business named Lab37.