Funding News

🇩🇰 🎨 Chromologics, a Danish startup, raised €7 M to complete regulatory approvals and scale production of its red colourants made through precision fermentation.

🇺🇸 📦 Keychain, a US startup, raised $10 M for its “operating system” dedicated to helping retailers manage their private‑label products’ supply chain.

🇳🇱 🤖 AKA Foods, a Dutch startup, raised $17.2 M to launch its AI platform that helps food R&D teams to slash food‑product development time. Interesting deal, as the use of AI to reduce development timelines and costs is one of the hottest topics inside food companies (with, for now, very little concrete progress).

🇬🇧 🍄 Rhizocore, a British startup, raised £4.5 M for its fungi-based solutions that help trees grow and survive.

🇬🇧 🦟 Biocentis, a British startup, raised $19 M for its insect control solutions based on genetically engineered insects.

🇦🇺 🍹 Hopr, an Australian startup, raised $3 M to scale its non‑alcoholic drinks brand.

🇺🇸 🍸 Aplós, a US startup, raised $5 M to grow its premium non‑alcoholic spirits brand. Alternatives to alcohol are popping everywhere, with quite significant funding rounds. It remains divided between players betting on premium niches and others which want to address a broader market (such as the Australian example above) through beer alternatives. Looking at where the market stands, notably after a first wave of premium non alcoholic beverages that mostly failed, it seems that the second approach may be smarter.

🇺🇸 💧 BioFiltro, a US‑based startup with Chilean roots, raised $35 M to expand its regenerative wastewater treatment technology across sectors like dairy and food processing.

🇮🇳 🚜 Tractor Junction, an Indian startup, raised $22.6 M to scale its platform on which farmers can buy, sell, and insure tractors and other vehicles.

🇮🇳 🌾 AgroStar, an Indian startup, raised $30 M to expand its sustainable farming solutions and services.

🇨🇭 🌱 Vivent Biosignals, a Swiss startup, raised €7.5 M for its digital crop‑diagnostics platform that uses signals sent by plants to assess their health.

🇪🇸 🤖 Voltrac, a Spanish startup, raised €7 M to ramp up production of its autonomous electric tractors. Again, a proof of the appetite of investors for agriculture robots, one of the (few) thriving AgriFoodTech categories.

Regulation, Partnerships & Bankruptcies

🇨🇭 🍫 Barry Callebaut partnered with Chilean startup NotCo AI to co‑develop chocolate recipes using artificial intelligence in order to use less cocoa.

🇭🇺 🥩 Hungary’s parliament banned lab‑grown meat, allowing its production only for medical or veterinary uses.

🇸🇬 🐔 Tindle, a Singapore-based plant-based startup, is moving out of the US and will focus on the European market, but only as a private-label supplier. This reduces again the number of brands competing for consumer attention in the US. The consolidation movement in the plant-based sector should be almost over.

🇺🇸 🚜 Monarch Tractor, a leading autonomous tractor startup, warned it may lay off over 100 employees or even shut down. Not everything is rosy in the world of agricultural robotics: the number of players has skyrocketed, and competition is fierce, even for a startup that has raised above $220M. And, as it seems to be the case here, autonomous tractors are still not yet fully operational and ready to be deployed at scale.

Leading Companies & Macro Trends

🇺🇸 🥤 Monster Beverage will launch FLRT, a female‑focused energy drink with collagen and botanicals in early 2026.

🇬🇧 🍔 A Lancet‑backed review linked ultra‑processed foods to harm in every major organ system and called for stricter labelling, taxation, and ad restrictions.

🇮🇹 🍝 Barilla opened its innovation centre in Parma, a hub of about 200 specialists dedicated to product development and R&D.