Startup news and deals
🇺🇸 🥃 Unicorn, an American startup, raised $5.8M for its wine and spirits (mostly whisky, from what we saw) collectors platform. Users can buy and sell bottles through auctions.
🇺🇸 🍓 Oishii, an American vertical farming startup, secured $15M In loans from the USDA to convert an old building into an energy-efficient vertical farm to produce its high-quality strawberries. This is part of the much larger trend in the US of public loans and grants to fund the energy transition.
🇳🇿🌱 Jooules, a New Zealand startup, raised NZ$1M for its biomass fermentation process that “transforms” CO2 into proteins.
🇫🇷 💽 KaryonFood, a French startup, raised €1.3M to grow its tool that helps food companies and retailers to manage data better.
🇺🇸 🐟 Shinkei, a US-based startup, raised $6M for its more humane and quality-preserving fish harvesting technology.
🇺🇸 🧪 Caladan Bio, a US-based startup, raised $5M for its improved bioreactors that could increase the speed the speed of research and development. Bioreactors are one of the key bottlenecks of the alternative protein and, more broadly, synbio food ecosystems
🇺🇸 🧬 Shiru, a US-based startup, unveiled its marketplace for proteins. Shiru “discovers” proteins in plants and fungi. These proteins have functionalities close to animal proteins, such as casein, and can act as substitutes. On the marketplace, companies can buy samples or licence the use of the proteins. Just screening the marketplace is quite exciting. They are presented just like a list of products on Amazon, giving a glimpse of the “future of food” where all types of proteins (either natural or custom-made) will be available at the tap of a fingertip.
🇮🇳 💰Swiggy, one of India’s leading food delivery startups, is planning a $1.25B IPO.
🇺🇸 📊 Invent Analytics, an American startup, raised $17M for its AI-based inventory management solutions.
🇳🇬🚚 Chowdeck, a Nigerian startup, raised $2.5M to create a local food delivery leader.
🇬🇧🌾 Crobio, a British startup, raised €1.45M for its soil microbes that increase the drought resilience of crops
Regulation & public support
🇺🇸 🧀 Climax Foods, a US-based plant-based cheese startup, has won a food competition, only to be ultimately disqualified. Beyond, it shows the uneasiness around this topic of plant-based foods being judged as good as the “real stuff”.
🇰🇷 ⚖️ South Korea is establishing a regulation-free special zone for cultivated meat production, aiming to create a regional hub.
