💸 Funding news

🇺🇸🐕 Loyal, a US startup, raised $100M for its longevity treatment for dogs. It has developed a daily pill targeting metabolic drivers of ageing in dogs, and is seeking FDA approval as the first lifespan-extension drug in any species. It is often easier to launch innovative products and services for pets than for humans. Longevity treatments for pets could help to demonstrate the potential for the human market, notably for a regulator-validated treatment.

🇮🇳💪 Elevate Now, an Indian startup, raised $2.1M for its doctor-led weight loss platform offering personalised programs with medical supervision, health coaches, and diagnostic testing, already serving 30,000+ users who’ve lost an average of 10kg in 6 months. This kind of weight-loss platform is quite interesting, with many emerging worldwide as consumers seek effective support. This remains a huge opportunity for food companies to engage with clients and build long-term relationships.

🇩🇪🛰️ constellr, a German startup, raised €37M, to scale thermal infrared satellite intelligence from space for defense, security and agriculture applications, providing accurate water stress maps and early crop failure detection.

🇬🇧🥚 The Bland Company, a UK startup, raised $2.7M in pre-seed funding for its process that transforms agricultural side streams into egg replacers for food manufacturers.

🇮🇳🌾 BigHaat, an Indian agriculture company, raised $10M to expand its digital farmer platform and build traceable, ESG-compliant food value chains, particularly in spices.

🇮🇳🥘 Elixiir Foods, an Indian startup, raised $9M for its omnichannel platform for premium fresh groceries in the capital region, with farm-led sourcing and tech-enabled wholesale/supply chain.

🇺🇸📦 Gather AI, a US startup, raised $40M to scale its “curious AI” warehouse drones and cameras that autonomously seek inventory data, predict stockouts, and identify safety issues across facilities, including cold storage.

🇦🇪🗑️ ThrowMeNot, a UAE startup, raised $550K for its sustainability marketplace connecting suppliers with consumers to redistribute near-expiry and surplus food at up to 90% discounts.

🇦🇪🥬 QuicKart, a UAE-based startup, raised $1.5M to grow its farm‑to‑home platform for fresh produce and dairy across major emirates.

🇺🇸❄️ CryoBio, a US startup, raises $1.3M to develop a biological “anti-freeze” for crops, tackling frost damage that causes $30B in food losses per year, enough to feed 200 million people.

🇳🇿🍎 Hectre, a New Zealand startup, raised $7M for its fruit data platform, processing 17 billion apples and 37 billion cherries annually with computer vision systems that capture size, colour, and quality data before packing.

🇳🇿🤖 Agovor, a New Zealand startup, raised $2M for its autonomous electric tractors for orchards, vineyards and speciality crops, targeting labour shortage and sustainability challenges.

🇸🇬🐝 Polybee, a Singapore-based startup, raised $4.3M for autonomous drones that handle pollination and yield forecasting in greenhouses and open fields.

🇮🇳💰 Varaha, an Indian startup, raised $45M for its carbon removal platform leveraging biochar, regenerative agriculture, afforestation and enhanced rock weathering, targeting cost-competitive credits for corporate buyers.

⭐ Acquisitions, regulation, bankruptcies & partnerships

🇺🇸🍗 Wonder, the US unicorn, acquired Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken, a fast-casual brand and restaurant, making it Wonder’s seventh acquisition (after Grubhub, Blue Apron, Tastemade, others). Wonder remains a mystery: with almost unlimited funding, it started as a service delivering meals cooked in vans, then moved to a cloud kitchen operation operating multiple brands, and now it targets physical restaurants.

🇮🇱🍯 Amai Proteins, an Israeli startup, received an FDA “no questions” letter for Sweelin, its precision-fermented sweet protein (3,000x sweeter than sugar), clearing the path for US commercialisation as a zero-calorie, clean-label sweetener with no glucose/insulin impact in clinical trials. That’s a very significant update for the alternative sugar ecosystem, which has attracted a lot of attention over the past couple of years but has yet to see significant commercialisation progress.

🇹🇷🛵 Uber acquired Getir’s Turkey delivery business for $335M cash plus $100M for 15% stake in the remaining grocery/retail business. At its peak, Getir’s valuation reached $11.8B, making it one of the biggest collapses in the FoodTech ecosystem. In the meantime, Getir’s founders are suing the UAE-based fund that supported the restructuring of the company in 2024 (separating Turkey’s assets from the rest). They are asking for $700M.

🇺🇸🌾 Oatly reported Q4 2025 earnings, marking the first full year of profitability since its IPO. While the bottom line is quite thin (below $10M), the EBITDA improvement since 2022 is quite impressive, particularly given that Oatly is still pushing many product innovations and revenue growth in an otherwise depressed oat-milk market.

🇺🇸🪨 TerraDot, a US-based ERW startup, acquired Eion, another enhanced rock weathering carbon removal company, to create a vertically integrated ERW solution.

🇩🇪🦠 MicroHarvest, a German startup, secured €5.46M in public funding to support the development of its first facility. The startup produces microbial protein through industrial fermentation and agricultural byproducts, targeting aquaculture, pet food, and human nutrition.

📊 Leading Companies & Macro Trends

🍬 📉 The rapid adoption of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs is materially reducing sugar consumption in developed markets, pushing global sugar prices to a five-year low while boosting demand for protein ingredients.

🍦 💸 Magnum Ice Cream Company’s first results as a standalone company disappointed markets, creating new fears that GLP-1 weight-loss drugs could structurally pressure indulgent categories like ice cream.

🌍🥗 The EAT Foundation, behind the EAT-Lancet “Planetary Health Diet”, is closing operations, as funding from donors dried up. Its recommendations of a low‑meat, plant‑heavy diet were heavily criticised, but they were one of the only serious attempts to answer the question of “what should we do with our food system?”. As most players are only focused on a tiny bit of the equation (reducing emissions here or there), it was interesting to have a global picture (even a highly debatable one) of what we should aim for.

🇫🇷🥩 France has finally published its long‑delayed National Strategy for Food, Nutrition and Climate, more than two years late, and after intense inter‑ministerial fights over how to talk about meat. The final text calls for a “limitation of meat and charcuterie consumption” and a reduction in imported meat, rather than a clear, quantified reduction in overall meat intake, despite strong recommendations from health and climate experts.

🌍 ⚖️ Intermitent fasting is not more efficient than any other diet: a review of 22 randomised trials involving 2,000 people found that intermittent fasting does not produce meaningful additional weight loss compared with standard calorie-restricted diets.

🇺🇸🍟 McDonald’s launched a limited‑edition McNugget Caviar kit for Valentine’s Day, given away for free exclusively online at McNuggetCaviar. Useless to say that kits sold out within minutes.

🇧🇪🍫 Barry Callebaut will invest €250M to expand its Belgian site, making it the world’s largest chocolate factory.

🇺🇸🥤 Dutch beverage giant Refresco is acquiring SunOpta in a $1.1B deal. SunOpta, a US-based beverage manufacturer, produces plant‑based beverages, broths, and fruit snacks for both brands and private label.

🇬🇧 🍺 Once the poster child of UK craft beer, BrewDog, has put itself up for sale after years of losses and reputational damage.