💸 Funding news
🏭🇩🇰 Unibio, a Danish startup, signed a $373M joint venture with the Saudi Industrial Investment group to build the world’s largest gas protein factory in Saudi Arabia. The facility will convert methane (a byproduct of gas extraction, often burned) into a source of single-cell protein to be used in aquaculture.
🌾🇬🇷 WikiFarmer, a Greek startup, raised €7.1M for its B2B agriculture marketplace that helps connect producers with food businesses. It also provides a “Wikipedia of farming” available in 17 languages, which it wants to leverage to support farmers in their B2B transactions.
🌿🇸🇬 Virdalis, a Singaporean biotech startup, raised $700K to develop duckweed as a protein ingredient for animal feed, with operations in the Philippines, hence helping reduce Southeast Asia’s dependence on imported feed.
🌿🇺🇸 AgZen, a US startup, raised $10M for its precision spray optimisation system, enabling farmers to cut chemical inputs by up to 50%.
🧪🇨🇦 Solugen, a Canadian startup, raised $50M to scale its low-carbon organic and circular fertiliser.
🤖🇩🇪 Eternal.ag, a German startup, raised €8M to deploy autonomous harvesting robots in European greenhouses, starting with tomatoes.
📱🇺🇸 Eileen, a Pittsburgh-based startup, raised $1M for its retail shelf intelligence platform, which leverages data gathered by a network of “shoppers”, and gives CPG brands instant visibility into out-of-stocks, misplacements and shelf compliance.
🧀🇫🇷 Jay & Joy, a French startup, raised €2M to scale its plant-based cheese brands across France and Europe.
🥙🇺🇸 Habiza, a US startup, raised $2.5M for its hummus brand targeting Gen Z consumers.
🥟🇺🇸 Laoban, a US-based startup, raised $7.2M to expand its Asian frozen food brand in retail stores.
⭐ Acquisitions, regulation & partnerships
🥛 🇬🇧 Danone is acquiring British meal replacement startup Huel in a deal of €1B. The complete nutrition brand (powders, ready-to-drink shakes, protein bars) has built a strong DTC business with a strong following across the UK, Europe, and the US. This follows Nestlé’s acquisition of Yfood (a German competitor to Huel) a couple of years ago.
🧬🇺🇸 Ingredion is partnering with two foodtech companies, Shiru and Holobiome, to accelerate next-generation prebiotic and functional protein discovery.
⚠️🇺🇸 David Protein, the US protein bar brand with very low calorie counts (150 cal, 28g protein, 0g sugar), is facing a class action lawsuit alleging its bars contain up to 83% more calories and 400% more fat than stated on labels, based on third-party testing. The issue is the fat alternative David used, which isn’t bioavailable and shouldn’t count as digested calories.
📊 Leading Companies & Macro Trends
🌶️🇬🇧🇺🇸 Unilever confirmed it is in talks with McCormick over the potential sale of its €12.9B Foods division. It has also been leaked that Unilever was previously in discussions with Kraft Heinz about merging its food business with Kraft’s condiments division. After listing Magnum as a separate company on the stock market and making two attempts, Unilever appears set on divesting all its food assets to reposition around beauty and home care.
🍫🇺🇸 McDonald’s has launched McValue 2.0 ($3 items and $4 meals), in a move that follows other QSR chains to address the “affordability crisis” felt by many US consumers.
💊🌍 Generic versions of Ozempic and Wegovy began hitting shelves in India this week, with at least a dozen Indian manufacturers launching semaglutide at ~$14/month (88% cheaper than Novo Nordisk’s brand price). China, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa and Canada are expected to follow within months. As explained in our latest insight on the topic, this could be one of the biggest game-changers of the decade, with billions of consumers being able to access these drugs at a very low price.
📦🇩🇪 HelloFresh, the German (and global leader) meal kit company, reported FY25 revenues down 9% to ~€6.7B, with a cautious forward guidance (–3% to –6% revenue in 2026), but the margins are improving. The question remains whether the current reinvestment in the product can help the company reverse the structural subscriber decline.
