๐ฅย 2 big failures this week from well-known startups:
๐บ๐ธ ๐คย Zume, the famous pizza robot, is shutting down. After a lot of hype, $500M raised, and a $1B+ valuation, it looks like a tale of everything that can go wrong with food startups: too much money, a tech that doesnโt work, no real product market fit and strange picots.
๐บ๐ธย ๐ฅฌย Aerofarms, a vertical farming startup, announced that it has filed for bankruptcy protection.
๐ฌ๐งย ๐ฅฉ Higher Steaks (now rebranded as Uncommon), a British startup, raised $30M for its cell-based meat production technology.
๐ซ๐ทย ๐ง Jay&Joy, a French startup, raised โฌ2M for its plant-based cheeses. Recently, the startup went into receivership as its products were called back due to a listeria contamination. It hopes to achieve a successful return with this new funding and a new CEO. It will be interesting to see how it performs in the current context of sluggish sales and consumer defiance against plant-based alternatives (especially in France).
๐จ๐ดย โ Green Coffee Co, a Colombian startup, raised $25M for its sustainable coffee farming and direct trade platform.
๐ฌ๐งย ๐ฑ Nium, a British startup, raised $3M for its system that enables on-site synthesis of ammonia (a key component of fertilisers).
๐บ๐ธย ๐ MyForest Foods, a US-based startup, raised an additional $15M for its meat alternatives (notably bacon and beef jerky) made of mycelium.
๐น๐ทย ๐ฅฆย Fazla, a Turkish startup, raised โฌ6M for its waste reduction and surplus food management platform.
๐ช๐ธย ๐ฅฉย JBS, Brazil’s largest meat producer, announced that it is starting to build in Spain the โworldโs largestโ cellular agriculture meat production facility. This comes a year after the acquisition of BioTech Foods, a Spanish startup. The new facility could produce up to 4,000 tonnes per year.
