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12 FoodTech insights and deals to know this week (2026 – week #37)

DigitalFoodLab-week-37-top-deals-goodles-david-protein-medici-brands-sharpa-robotics

Published on September 5, 2026

💸 Funding News

 

🥤🇺🇸 Medici Brands, a US company, raised $250M to scale David Protein (a brand of protein bars and now also frozen desserts and ready-to-drink meals), and its new, more affordable brand HallPass. Medici is focusing on high-protein, low-calorie products. It is growing exceptionally fast: it sold its first products less than two years ago and is on track to reach $300M in revenue this year.

 

🤖🇸🇬 Sharpa, a Singaporean robotics startup, raised $669M for its general-purpose humanoid robots. The company opened a fully autonomous Dairy Queen restaurant in Shanghai, where robots execute the entire 55-step process of preparing and serving ice creams using standard restaurant equipment.

 

🍼🇫🇷 Nūmi, a French startup, secured €3.7M in public funding for its cell-cultured human milk technology and to prepare for industrialisation.

 

🥩🇧🇪 Paleo, a Belgian startup, raised €2M to advance US and European regulatory filings and customer trials for its myoglobin produced through precision fermentation.

 

✅🇧🇪 Backbone, a Belgian startup, raised €4M for its AI platform that automates food quality and compliance tasks, from checking supplier certificates and laboratory results to identifying gaps against food-safety standards.

 

🧫🇪🇸 MOA Foodtech, a Spanish startup, raised €3.3M for its fermentation platform and to commercialise ingredients produced from agrifood sidestreams, including an egg replacer and a functional yeast ingredient.

 

🌾🇺🇸 SweetAg, a US startup, raised $7.4M for its platform automating lending workflows for agricultural lenders, co-ops and agribusinesses.

 

🧪🇦🇺 Facet Amtech, an Australian startup, raised $2.1M to pilot a catalyst that could produce ammonia directly from air and water.

 

⭐ Acquisitions, regulation & partnerships

 

🧀🇺🇸 Barilla agreed to acquire US better-for-you brand GOODLES, which has rapidly grown its protein-enriched mac & cheese range over four years.

 

🐶🇦🇺 Australian algae producer Genesis acquired pet-nutrition brand Proudi in a $27M deal, combining its chlorella production technology with a consumer brand already widely distributed.

 

🧬🇪🇸 Galicia has made alternative proteins a priority in its €805M biotechnology strategy, explicitly including cultivated meat within its agrifood priorities.

🥇 Leading companies

 

💊🇨🇭 Nestlé is selling its mainstream supplements business for $1B to better focus its portfolio on high-growth, premium and science-oriented brands.

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