Startup news and deals
🇫🇷 ⚗️ Calyxia, a French startup, raised €35M for its alternatives to microplastics and microcapsules (a $5B market), notably in agriculture applications. Beyond their lasting presence, microplastics create environmental (and health) challenges.
🇮🇱 🌽 MNDL Bio, an Israeli startup, raised $2M for its gene optimisation platform.
🇧🇪 🧑🌾 Soil Capital, a Belgian startup, raised €15M for its platform, which helps farmers identify the best regenerative agriculture practices and receive financial rewards through the participation of large companies.
🇩🇰 🍞 Reduced, a Finnish startup, raised €8M for its upcycling technology, which transforms food and agriculture sidestreams into umami-flavouring ingredients.
🇺🇸 🍔 Motif FoodWorks, a US-based startup, that raised $345M in total since being founded in 2019 is closing down. It was facing a complicated IP battle with Impossible Foods (the plant-based meat company) for the patent of its heme ingredient (made through precision fermentation, which makes the burger “bleed” like real meat). Motif was once seen as the leader of a FaaS (food as a service) ecosystem where agrifood businesses could tap into their biotech capabilities to create new ingredients.
🇳🇿 🧑🔬 Safe Ag Systems, a New Zealand-based startup, raised $2.5M for its safety app that improves productivity while improving the safety of farmers while working with equipment or chemicals.
Regulation & public report
🇩🇰 🥛 21st.Bio, a Danish startup received a self-affirmed GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status in the US for its whey protein produced through precision fermentation.
🇫🇮 🧁 Solar Foods, a Finnish startup, has obtained self-affirmed GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status in the US for its Solein protein (made through “transforming” CO2 into proteins).
Industry news & trends
🇪🇸 🛵 Getir will be leaving Spain. Country after country, the presence of quick-commerce is vanishing in Europe.
