💸 Funding News
🩺🇬🇧 Rem3dy Health, the British startup known for the brand Nourished, raised £14M for expansion into the US, MENA and India. Nourished uses 3D printing to make personalised nutrition “gummy stacks” combining ingredients. Suntory (Japan) and UPSA (France) are among the investors.
🍫🇺🇸 Stars + Honey, a US startup, raised $24M for its collagen protein bars (15g protein, under 200 calories).
🍫🇮🇳 Manam Chocolate, an Indian startup, raised $9M for its craft chocolate brand, which operates across the value chain (cacao sourcing, fermentation, chocolate making, retail). After the wave of craft beer and craft coffee brands, we are observing a global surge in consumer appetite for more expensive, differentiated chocolate brands.
☕🇺🇸 Diamond Brew, a US startup, raised a seven-figure round (amount undisclosed) for its premium soluble coffee pods, made via liquid-nitrogen flash-freezing into single-serve pods.
🐟🇨🇦 NS/TX Industries, a Canadian startup, raised $10.5M to build an automated assembly line for its whole-cut plant-based meat and seafood. Inter IKEA Development is among the investors.
🌾🇺🇸 Leaf Agriculture, a US startup, raised $13M (notably from Bayer) to deliver structured agricultural data that partners can use to build digital tools.
🌱🇬🇧 Cordon Technologies, a British startup, raised £1M for its precision-spraying system, which dynamically adjusts the concentration of multiple treatments in real time to cut pesticide and fertiliser use.
🤖🇺🇸 SWARM Engineering, a US startup, raised $10M for its operational platform for agrifood and manufacturing, enabling supply chain and production optimisation.
⭐ Acquisitions, regulation, bankruptcies & partnerships
🥩🇫🇷 Swap Food, a French startup, formerly known as Umiami, was placed in judicial liquidation. The plant-based meat substitute company’s CEO blamed a slower-than-expected takeoff in the category.
🐛🇧🇪 Aphea.Bio, a Belgian startup, signed a strategic partnership with Bayer to co-develop next-generation bioinsecticides targeting sap-sucking insects, combining Aphea. Bio’s microbial-metabolite pipeline with Bayer’s commercialisation reach.
🥩🇺🇸 UPSIDE Foods, a US cultivated meat startup, submitted a $50M bid for the US assets of distressed cultivated-meat firm Believer Meats, notably its production facility. Believer had raised nearly $400M before ceasing operations.
🥇 Leading Companies
🥛🇨🇭 Nestlé, the Swiss food giant, filed a patent to produce precision-fermented donkey beta-lactoglobulin (whey) protein, targeting infants and adults with cow ‘s-milk allergies via recombinant, allergen-free dairy proteins.
☕🇺🇸 Starbucks, the US coffee giant, is pushing into the healthy beverage market, expanding its protein and energy drinks and exploring collagen and creatine options. CEO Brian Niccol framed the strategy around “wellness, hydration and energy”.
📊 Macro trends
🌍🇬🇧 The World Bank warned that El Niño risks driving up global food prices, compounding pressure from high fertiliser costs tied to the Iran war. A strong El Niño could lift global food commodity prices by up to 9% after 16 months, hitting emerging economies hardest.
🥦🇬🇧 A UK plan to tighten healthy-food rules provoked an industry backlash. Proposed revisions to the “nutrient profiling model”, which scores foods on calories, salt, fat, fibre, protein and sugars, would affect labelling, in-store promotions and TV advertising. Companies, including Haribo and Innocent Drinks, warned of inflation risk and reduced investment in the UK.
🌡️🇺🇸 Climate standard-setter SBTi set new net-zero rules, now allowing companies to count acquired environmental credits (including carbon removals) in their decarbonisation calculations — an acknowledgement that firms cannot control all emission sources.
🍷🇺🇸 A surprising pregnancy trend is alarming US health experts: alcohol use during pregnancy has risen since 2020, with 15.2% of pregnant women reporting drinking and 4.9% binge drinking.
