💸 Funding News
🦠🇫🇷 Edonia, a French startup, raised €15M to industrialise Edo, its protein ingredient made from spirulina. Its process changes spirulina’s colour, taste and texture into a brown mince. It says it already has €30M in pre-orders.
🫘🇺🇸 Bare Beans, a US company, raised $2.79M and launched its ready-to-eat bean pouches directly to consumers after years supplying foodservice. Its refrigerated products contain only cooked beans, with no added salt or preservatives, combining simple ingredients high in protein with convenience.
🩸🇬🇧 Sava, a UK startup, raised $36M for its wearable “minimally invasive” glucose monitoring device
⚕️🇸🇪 Yazen, a Swedish startup, raised €50M for its digital obesity care platform. It combines weight-loss medication (GLP-1), with support from doctors, dietitians, psychologists and health coaches, and reports more than 50,000 patients currently in treatment across eight countries.
🌾🇩🇪 Finches, a German startup, raised €2M for its platform that helps food producers anticipate agricultural supply risks. It combines procurement records with weather, satellite imagery and field reports, allowing buyers to identify alternative suppliers, purchase earlier or adjust production before disruptions reach the factory.
🍷🇺🇸 Santé, a US startup, raised $15M for its software platform for independent wine and spirits retailers.
🌱🇩🇪 Hexafarms, a German startup, raised €4.8M for its crop monitoring platform for horticulture. It combines wireless sensors with AI software to forecast yields and detect pests and diseases.
🍳🇮🇳 Beyond Appliances, an Indian startup, raised $11.4M for its smart kitchen appliances, including connected extractor hoods and cooktops. The funding will support a new manufacturing facility and expansion into categories such as ovens.
⭐ Acquisitions, regulation, bankruptcies & partnerships
🥚🇺🇸🇫🇮 A Delaware court dismissed Onego Bio’s lawsuit against The EVERY Company, both startups developing egg proteins through precision fermentation. Both companies were accusing each other of infringing on the other’s patent. They are now both free of potential litigation and can move towards commercialisation.
🍽️🇺🇸 Uber agreed to acquire workplace catering platform ezCater for $2.3B. The platform connects businesses with more than 140,000 US restaurants and generated over $2.5B in bookings over the past year, with average orders exceeding $400.
🌾🇪🇺 The EU is considering loosening pesticide rules following lobbying by chemical and agricultural groups. Proposed changes include removing routine reassessments for approved substances and extending withdrawal periods for banned products in certain circumstances. The measures remain under negotiation and could weaken the regulatory incentive to adopt alternatives.
🥇 Leading companies
🏪🇯🇵 FamilyMart recruited Lady Gaga to front a staff recruitment campaign as Japan’s labour shortage intensifies. I must say that mentioning Lady Gaga in a relationship with a Japanese convenience store in a list of insights on the future of food was not something I anticipated, but here we are in this unpredictable world: FamilyMart is looking for around 10,000 part-time workers.
☕🇺🇸 Starbucks has explored a potential takeover of Chipotle. Chipotle’s market value of around $41B would make any transaction exceptionally large for the restaurant sector, but no formal offer or agreement has been confirmed. The prospect raises questions on how such an acquisition would help Starbucks execute its own turnaround.
📊 Macro trends: alcohol is not over (yet)
🍶🇰🇷 Jinro is using Korean culture to attract Western consumers, with soju standing out against a weakening US alcohol market. Apparently everything related to Korean culture and K-dramas can sell, even elements which are often depicted negatively, such as the heavy drinking of soju, the traditional Korean drink.
🍷🇮🇹 Thieves stole 30,000 bottles worth approximately €5M from Marchesi Antinori’s cellar in Tuscany, in a large-scale, organised wine theft.
