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10 FoodTech news to know this week (2025 – week #9)

Published on February 25, 2025

Startup news and deals

🇯🇵🥛 Kinish, a Japanese startup, raised $800k for producing caseins (a dairy protein that is key to cheesemaking) through molecular farming. This technology, leveraging genetically engineered crops to have them produce desired proteins, is getting a lot of attention right now, as it could be an answer to the scalability problems encountered in other techs, such as precision fermentation.

🦠 🇫🇷 Spore Bio, a French startup, raised $23M for on-site microbiology testing solutions, accelerating pathogen detection for the FMCG (and notably food) industry.

🇨🇭🍫 Food Brewer, a Swiss startup, raised CHF5M for its plant cell cocoa, notably from Lindt and Sparkalis (the VC arm of Puratos). It targets the US market and plans to have products there by the end of 2026.

🌱🇫🇷 Seaweed Concept, a French startup, raised €2M for its innovative fermentation process to transform algae into new food ingredients.

🚁 🇺🇸 Hylio, a US startup, raised $2M for agricultural spray drones for precision crop spraying.

🍄 🇪🇸 Moa Foodtech, a Spanish startup, raised €15.4M for its biomass fermentation technology, creating alternative proteins from food waste.

🍄🇩🇪 Kynda, a German startup, raised €3M for its biomass fermentation technology turning byproducts into a mycelium-based meat ingredient.

🌾🇧🇪 Fyteko, a Belgian startup, raised €13M for its biotech-based crop protection solutions, helping farmers improve sustainability.

 

Beyond food startups

🍌 Tropic, a UK biotech startup working on engineered crops, notably bananas, will launch a “non-browning” bananas in a month (they can stay fresh once the peel is removed for 12 hours) and another variety with increased shelf life by the end of the year. This innovation could have a very noticeable impact as more than half of exported bananas go to waste.

🥛 A fascinating story about Fairlife. First, who would mention a dairy brand as the fastest-growing brand in Coca-Cola’s portfolio? Then, there is the business story: instead of simply buying the company, Coca-Cola made a deal with its founders based on the success of their brands. In total, it has spent more than 7 billion on the acquisition.

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