💸 Startup News
☕ 🇺🇸 Green Coffee Company, an American startup, raised $5M from 2,000 investors via equity crowdfunding for its fully integrated coffee business, from coffee cultivation in Colombia to distribution in the US. The funding round was mostly intended as a community-building strategy to convert consumers into shareholders with an active interest in advocating for the brand. This is a strategy that many brands (notably in Europe’s plant-based products sector) are deploying, and it can be a valuable marketing lever.
🍺🇺🇸 Crazy Mountain Brewing, a US startup backed by George Clooney, raised $15M to scale its premium non-alcoholic beer portfolio.
🍟🇺🇸 Jesse & Ben’s, an American startup, closed a $10M for its seed-oil-free frozen french fry brand, made with beef tallow. The anti-seed oil campaign in the US is creating a wave of opportunities for new brands, but it is hard to tell which will survive in the long-term, notably if the “trend” fades away.
💧🇦🇹 Waterdrop, an Austrian startup, raised €11M for its solid hydration microdrink brand.
🧠🇺🇸 MOSH, a US startup, raised $13M for its brain health brand, marketing protein bars enriched with creatine and what it calls its “brain blend” (including functional mushrooms such as Lion’s Mane).
🐔🇬🇧 Meatly, a British cellular agriculture startup focused on pet food, raised £10.4M to build Europe’s largest cultivated meat facility, with a 20,000-litre pilot site in London.
🦠🇩🇪 mbiomics, a German startup, raised an additional €12M for its microbiome therapeutics derived from the human gut microbiota, targeting conditions including cancer, metabolic disease, and inflammatory bowel disease.
🧫 🇺🇸 Biosphere, a US startup, was awarded a $9M US Army contract to develop a bioreactor capable of producing ready-to-eat protein rations from air, water and electricity alone.
🛒🇺🇸 Vori, an American startup, raised $22M for its operating system for independent grocery shops, covering ordering, inventory, analytics and supplier payments. It targets the independent US grocery operators who lack the tech infrastructure of giants like Walmart.
🍽️🇺🇸 Dishio, an American startup, raised $2.5M to build a guest data and CRM platform for restaurants, turning transactional data into personalised marketing and loyalty programs.
🤖🇬🇧 Corvera, a British startup, raised $4.2M for its operating system for CPG supply chains, automating demand planning, inventory, logistics and financial workflows via AI agents that act autonomously.
🌽🇺🇸 Pacific Hybreed, a US startup, raised $1M for its aquaculture hatchery operations to meet growing demand from shellfish farmers in Hawaii.
🥬🇳🇱 vGreens, a Dutch startup, raised €2M for its vertical farming operating system, using computer vision and sensors to optimise yield, energy and water use.
🦠🇮🇱 NanoStruct, an Israeli startup, raised €2.6M for its same-day pathogen detection platform for the food industry.
⭐ Leading companies
🧒🇫🇷 Bel Group has acquired Brainac, a US functional snacking brand for children and families, with a focus on brain health.
🥛🇩🇪 Müller, Germany’s second-largest dairy company, is acquiring Berief Food, one of Germany’s oldest plant-based dairy companies.
🍔🇺🇸 McDonald’s reported Q1 2026 global comparable sales growth of +3.8%, beating all estimates. While consumer spending is “getting a little bit worse,” McDonald’s is leaning further into value to stay ahead of any downturn.
🍺🇧🇪🇩🇰 Carlsberg and AB InBev, two major brewers, reported positive Q1 2026 results, both with volume growth above 5%. Sales were notably boosted by new drinks, including RTD (ready-to-drink) beverages (including cocktails) and non-alcoholic options.
📊 Macro Trends
🥢🇯🇵 What explains Japan’s obesity rate of 4% vs. 42% in the US? It’s not genetics but a constellation of food culture factors: smaller-portion norms, higher food prices, a universal school meal system that teaches children to eat diverse and balanced meals, a deeply embedded culture of eating to 80% full, and built-in daily physical activity.
🛑 🇳🇱 Amsterdam is banning advertising for meat (and fossil fuels). This is the first capital city to implement such a measure for meat, and all fossil fuel-related categories (including airlines).
