💸 Funding News
🧬🇺🇸 DMC Biotechnologies, a US startup, raised $18M to commercialise its ingredients made through precision fermentation, notably for metabolic health and infant nutrition.
🧫🇯🇵 IntegriCulture, a Japanese startup, raised $635K as part of a Series A extension for its cellular agriculture platform, with applications for cultivated meat…. and cosmetics.
🦠🇦🇷 BioClé, an Argentine startup, has raised $500K for bacterial vesicles designed to improve the delivery of bioactive ingredients to intestinal cells.
🍿🇮🇳 Troovy, an Indian startup, raised $10.5M for its snack brand, led by chips and puffs, as it expands into physical retail and additional categories.
🥐🇺🇸 Sunshine Buns, a US startup, raised $7M for its frozen cinnamon rolls as it expands in retail stores. This and other recent deals show that beyond health claims (and proteinmaxxing), there is still room for indulgence.
🐶🇫🇷 Qru, a French startup, raised €1.65M for its raw dog and cat food business, already distributed through 300 retail outlets.
🌽🇺🇸 Vaca Chips, a US startup, raised $5.6M for its tortilla chips fried in beef tallow. This is its second funding round this year, tapping into demand for snacks made without seed oils.
💊🇮🇳 Ace Blend, an Indian startup, raised $9.9M for its nutrition and supplements brand, including clinical trials to substantiate product claims.
🥪🇺🇸 Sunnie, a US startup, raised $1.6M to expand its children’s lunch kits and snacks.
📱🇳🇱 FLTRD, a Dutch startup, raised over €500K for its app that scores food products by their degree of processing and suggests alternatives.
🪨🇺🇸 Terradot secured a $34M loan to deploy crushed rock on farmland in the US and Brazil, capturing carbon through enhanced rock weathering.
🥬🇺🇸 Loamy, a US startup, raised $6M for its AI platform that helps growers and distributors anticipate quality problems and prevent rejected shipments and food waste.
☀️🇪🇬 NoorNation, an Egyptian startup, raised $1.05M for solar-powered irrigation and off-grid water and energy systems. It is developing a pay-per-use model to replace farmers’ diesel pumps.
🍎🇺🇸 Strella, a US startup, raised $4.25M for sensors and software that monitor fruit ripening, helping suppliers optimise storage and distribution before produce spoils.
📱🇮🇱 Bites, an Israeli startup, raised $40M for its AI platform that turns company procedures into short training videos delivered to food industry workers’ phones.
⭐ Acquisitions, regulation, bankruptcies & partnerships
🛒🇺🇸 DoorDash has agreed to acquire Instacart in a $17B deal, combining grocery technology with restaurant and local delivery. Closing is expected in late 2027 or the first half of 2028, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. This is a major consolidation step in the grocery delivery space, as Instacart remains widely used in the US.
🧀🇩🇪🇳🇱 Formo and Those Vegan Cowboys received a joint FDA “no questions” letter for their precision-fermented casein. The review covers use in cheese alternatives and the two companies are now pursuing commercialisation.
🍫🇺🇸 Undercover Snacks, a US brand of chocolate-covered quinoa snacks, sold a majority stake to Mondelēz. Details were not disclosed, but the deal is said to be “significantly smaller” than the usual $500M-$1B acquisition range.
🥇 Leading companies
🍺🇧🇪 AB InBev’s non-beer volumes rose 4% while beer volumes fell 0.1% in Q3. Within its beer portfolio, alcohol-free beer revenue grew 35%, highlighting a different source of growth for the brewer, but also a source of worry for the long-term prospect of the overall alcohol industry.
🥛🇫🇷 Danone reported 4% like-for-like sales growth in Q3, driven mainly by pricing. High-protein products, gut health and medical nutrition remain key growth platforms.
🍽️🇩🇰 GLP-1 pioneer Lotte Bjerre Knudsen (the biochemist who was behind Ozempic at Novo Nordisk) argues that food companies must adapt to customers who want less food and different products. Her point: the pleasure of eating remains, but the quantities and cravings change.
