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8 notable deals and things to know this week (2023 – week #12)

Published on March 22, 2023

🇸🇪 🍽️ Klimato, a Swedish startup, raised €4.2M for foodservice carbon management platform. It helps restaurants and canteen managers to measure their footprint. Then, shown to the consumers with what we could call “climate cost” tags (in CO2eq), they guide the buying decisions.
Climate/carbon accounting and labelling is one of the topics we are the most excited about at DigitalFoodLab (who could have predicted we could ever be excited about anything related to accounting?). The startup(s) that will define the carbon accounting norms of the future, and will find the best way to communicate them to the consumer, will be able to leverage very significant power over the whole industry.

🇺🇸 🦃 Tofurky, one of the US legacy (founded in the 80s) plant-based brands, was recently acquired. It is creating a wave of soul-searching in the alternative protein ecosystem as it sold for “only” around $50M while its sales were around $40M. This is much more sales than many startups do while being valued many times more when they raise funds.

🇺🇸 🌽 After Alphabet and Amazon earlier this year, Microsoft is now launching, with Bayer, its own cloud platform dedicated to agriculture.

🇩🇪 🥣 Foodji, a German startup, raised $23M for its connected fridges, which act as a substitute for a canteen for SMEs. It offers its employees a wide range of fresh meals and snacks.

🇪🇺 🧀 5 precision fermentation (an alternative protein technology where a genetically engineered yeast produces a desired protein) startups created a European association. The goal is to lobby the EU’s regulatory authority to become clearer on the process, which should lead the startups should be authorized to sell on the continent.

🇸🇦 ☕ Cofe, a Saudi startup, raised $15M for its coffee marketplace in the middle east.

🇺🇸 🚀 Food Rocket, a US-based quick-commerce startup, shut down its operations. Here the interesting point is the fact that the startup clearly “accuses” its main investor: Alimentation Couche-Tard, a Canadian grocery retailer. The company was unwilling to invest additional money into the startup, even if it says it was profitable overall.

🇬🇧 🧬 Zoe, the UK-based food personalisation startup, raised $2.5M in additional funding (it already raised $38M). This startup may be one of the most interesting players to follow in the personalised nutrition space in Europe.

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