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25 FoodTech news to know this week (2026 – week #2)

DigitalFoodLab-week2-2026-kat kin pet food-biologica women's supplements- starship christmas delivery

Published on January 5, 2026

💸 Funding news

Quite a lot of funding over the past couple of weeks: the signal is not the amounts (which remain quite small) but that, for many startups, announcing new funding is becoming less important and can be announced at a time when few people will care. As seen over and over in 2025, what counts now are proofs of scale, notably through meaningful partnerships with industry leaders.

 

Mixed bag for the cellular agriculture industry

🇳🇱 🥩 Meatable, a Dutch startup, is shutting down its operations. This follows similar news from Believer Meat, an Israeli startup. Both were among the “first wave” of players in a category which is facing existential doubts.

 

🇺🇸 🐟 BlueNalu, a US startup, raised $11M to scale the production of its cultivated bluefin tuna and hopes to receive regulatory approval in the US soon.

 

🇳🇱 🥩 Mosa Meat, a Dutch startup, raised €15 M while claiming a 99.999% cost reduction since its first burger.

 

Other ingredient news: focus on fermentation

🇸🇪 🧈 Melt & Marble, a Swedish startup, raised $8M for its fat alternative made through precision fermentation.

 

🇳🇱 🧀 Those Vegan Cowboys, a Dutch startup, raised $6.25 M to scale the production of its caseins (for dairy applications, notably in cheese), made through precision fermentation

 

🇩🇰 🧬 EvodiaBio, a Danish startup, raised €6M for its fermentation technology enabling the production of volatile aroma molecules sustainably, notably for applications in food and beverages (such as in non alcoholic beers).

 

Agtech & supply chain infrastructure

🇮🇳 🌾 Arya.ag, an Indian startup, raised over $80 M to scale post-harvest infrastructure and farmer financing

 

🇦🇺 🧪 MEQ Solutions, an Australian startup, raised $23M (~15M USD) to scale rapid food-testing and biosecurity diagnostics for meat.

 

🇨🇦 🌾 BinSentry, a North American startup, raised $25M (after a $50M last summer) to scale its AI-powered grain-bin monitoring.

 

🇫🇷 🚜 Agreenculture, a French startup, raised €6 M for its farming robots.

 

Consumer, pet food & wellness

🇬🇧 🐱 KatKin, a UK startup, raised $50M to grow its range of fresh cat food across the country. Year after year, pet food remains one of the “healthiest” categories in terms of innovation, with significant untapped potential.

 

🇺🇸 🌸 Biologica, a US startup, raised $7 M to develop women’s health supplements addressing specific stages of their lives (such as reproductive stage, post-menopause…)

 

🇺🇸 🧘 NextFoods, a US startup, raised $10 M to expand its functional wellness portfolio of brands (including GoodBelly).

 

🇺🇸 🍝 Hoboken Farms, a US startup, raised $4 M with celebrity backing to expand better-for-you comfort foods.

 

🇺🇸 💧 A new California bottled water brand is launching with $6M in capital amid growing safety and contamination concerns in the category.

 

⭐ Acquisitions, bankruptcies, and partnerships

🇸🇪 🥛 Ikea corporate VC took a majority stake in The Green Dairy, a Swedish plant-based milk producer and invested $8.5M.

 

🇺🇸 🌱 AeroFarms, a US startup producing microgreens through vertical farming, will cease operations following investor withdrawal.

 

🇵🇹 🏪 Sensei, a Portuguese startup working on automated stores, launched an autonomous pharmacy store in Lisbon, making it the first of its kind in Europe. After an initial wave of excitement, autonomous stores have largely disappeared due to technical limitations, but as technology advances, they should return gradually over the next decade.

 

🇫🇮 🤖 Starship Technologies, a robot delivery startup, deployed delivery robots for Christmas in Lapland (the “home” of Father Christmas).

 

🇺🇸 🍝 Olive Garden, a US chain of restaurants well-known for its very generous portions (it is hard to find items on the menu with less than a thousand Kcal), boosted sales via “lighter portions” menu items. In the new world shaped by GLP-1, portion control could become a key driver of traffic and profitability for restaurants.

 

📊 Leading companies & macro trends

🇮🇳 🧃 Reliance Industries, a large Indian conglomerate, is using a mix of price incentives and nationalist branding messages to challenge Coca-Cola and Pepsi in India via the Campa Cola brand. It has already gained 7% market share, up from about 2% in 2024. Could this be replicated in other parts of the food industry?

 

🇨🇭 🍫 Barry Callebaut is reportedly considering splitting its cocoa business from its chocolate manufacturing operations. From an innovation standpoint, this could be beneficial for players offering cocoa alternatives.

 

🇬🇧 🍺 Alcohol consumption in the UK has fallen to its lowest level on record, driven by a combination of factors including health concerns, ageing, and cost-of-living.

 

🇬🇧 🦞 The UK will ban live boiling of crustaceans.

 

🇺🇸 🌾 Global food systems face a productivity reckoning as yields struggle under climate pressure.

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