Following our DigitalFoodLab’s report on the European FoodTech, we have updated our list of the 50 most interesting European FoodTech (the 2021 list is available here).

The selection is based on the following objective and subjective criteria:

• Who is on board both in terms of money (amounts invested, presence of renowned investors) and the background of the entrepreneurs
• Hype and trend: is the startup able to create noise and attract interest even before having a working product or service? And does it match a current trend that we identify as key for the coming years?
• Geography and category distributions: we have selected startups that somewhat match the distribution of investments and categories across the continent
• Potential: does the startup have a big potential, and how much impact can it have?

Here is the mapping of the 50 startups for 2023:

Compared to 2021, the Foodscience category has become the most important one due to alternative protein startups. However, the distribution of startups by countries didn’t change (see below).

Evolution since 2021

• Only 50% of the startups remain in the ranking
• 16% were acquired (Hummingbird, Vitibot, Orderbird, Alkemics, Glovo, Wolt, Gorillas, Dija), that’s significantly more than what happened at the ecosystem level.
• 1 IPO: Oatly
• 2 moved out of Europe to relocate their headquarters in the US: Vivino and Starship (while raising significant funding).
• Only one shut down: Simple Feast
• More promising startups substituted others.

The TOP50 European Startups

AGTECH

• AgTech startups with a strong focus on animal-feeding using insects: Ynsect, InnovaFeed
• Agriconomie, the B2B marketplace for agriculture supplies such as fertilizers, seeds, spare parts, workshop equipment, and crop protection products
• Tropic Biosciences, the leader in the development of novel high-performing commercial tropical crop varieties and traits, using cutting-edge genetic editing technologies
• [new] The modular vertical farming startup IGS
• [new] The farming robot startup Naïo Technologies
• [new] Moa Technology, which works on novel herbicide modes of action
• [new] The soil carbon platform Agreena

FOODSERVICE

• Karma Kitchen, the leading cloud kitchens operator
• Deliverect, a solution that integrates online orders from food delivery channels into restaurants’ POS to improve their operational flow
• Choco, the app that connects food suppliers and restaurants on one global platform
• Flipdish, which helps on-demand food businesses create branded food ordering systems, websites, and apps.
• Karakuri, the UK food robotics company
• [new] Clone (formerly Not So Dark), a creator of exclusively online brands dedicated to food delivery platforms.

FOODSCIENCE

• Huel, the leading European meal replacement startup
• Mosa Meat, the Dutch startup working on clean meat, and Gourmey, that aims at replicating foie gras from duck cells
• The plant-based companies Planted Foods,  N!ck’s, [new] This, [new] Heura and [new] Umiami
• Formo, which develops dairy-based products using precision fermentation
• Solar Foods, that produces an entirely new kind of nutrient-rich protein using only air and electricity as the main resources
• [new] The functional ingredient company Nuritas, which is working on peptides
• [new] 21st.bio, a Danish bioproduction startup focused on scaling up the manufacture of proteins and peptides
• [new] The CPG startups Waterdrop (dissolvable cubes), Air-Up (a drinking system) and Koro (a long-lasting food brand)

SUPPLY CHAIN

• Too Good To Go, an anti-squandering app that allows users to recover unsold merchants at low prices, at closing
• Phenix, the French startup which aims at ending food waste with a set of solutions for the whole food value chain
• [new] CarbonCloud, a SaaS company building the digital infrastructure for calculating and communicating climate footprints for food
• [new] The autonomous startups Sensei and Boxy
• [new] Relex, a supply chain & retail planning platform

CONSUMER TECH

• Chefclub, a cooking channel that shows and broadcasts cooking recipes on social media
• Lifesum, a digital health startup that helps clients become healthier by using applied psychology and technology
• [new] Oviva, which digitizes the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity
• [new] The personalisation nutrition startup Zoe
• [new] Jow, which helps customers to do their grocery shopping. according to what they like to eat

DELIVERY

• The leading new retailer startups: Rohlik (Czech Republic), Oda (Norway), Matsmart (Sweden), Picnic (Netherlands), [new] Cortilia (Italy)
• Gousto, the leading meal kit startup
• [new] Flink, the last-standing quick commerce company
• [new] Allplants, the leading ready-made food delivery startup
• [new] HungryPanda, a Chinese food and grocery delivery company
• [new] The drone delivery company Manna