3 NOTABLE DEALS & SOME INTERESTING NEWS:
💨 🇪🇪 eAgronom, an Estonian startup raised $7.4M. It uses blockchain to create a platform that manages carbon credits awarded to farmers that practice regenerative agriculture (which emits less and keeps more carbon in the soil). It already works with more than 1,500 players across Europe.
🥃 🇺🇸 Endless west raised $60M for its technology that enables it to recreate spirits with more available plants, fruits and yeasts. Basically, the startup identifies the molecules that are behind the flavors of our favorite spirits and try to recreate them by using other ingredients. It has already put on the market three varieties of whiskies. It will use this funding to increase its production
🥫 🇺🇸 Splendid Spoon raised $12M for its plant-based meal kits. This topic of weekly (plant-based) meals delivered at your door is quite hot with the recent fundings of Allplants and SimpleFeast. Splendid Spoon adds it with a twist by focusing on soups, smoothies and grain bowls.
🍔 The Economist updated its “Big Mac Index” which compares the price of a McDonald’s Big Mac in dozens of countries. Created in 1986, it is a very crude while interesting way to measure countries purchasing power and currency under or over-valuation over one another.
📉 Delivery Hero stock plunged by more than 30% last week after it announced disappointing guidance for 2022. Even as the company expect its platform to hit breakeven during the year, its profit margin will remain negative on the whole of 2022. It seems that investors are worried about the prospects of food delivery as things go back to normal.
🤖 🇨🇳 Yum China (the subsidiary of Yum Brands, known for chains such as Pizza Hut and KFC) is increasingly robots and digital in its restaurants. Actually, it grew its number of locations by 56% between 2016 and 2021, while its number of employees… didn’t change. This certainly contributed to the 97% growth of its net profit in the same period.
