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14 FoodTech news to know this week (2025 – week #37)

Published on September 8, 2025

💸 Funding news

🇺🇸 🍎 Orchard Robotics, an American startup, raised $22M to expand its precision agriculture platform dedicated to orchards. It uses a tractor-mounted camera to assess fruit and plant health, providing real-time, actionable data to farmers.

 

🇮🇳 🛒 CityMall, an Indian social commerce startup, raised $47M to scale its grocery delivery model in tier 2 and 3 cities.

 

🇮🇳 🥫 FirstClub, an Indian startup, raised $23M at an impressive $120M valuation for its grocery delivery. Instead of competing on speed like other Indian players (even if it still operates the quick-commerce model with dark stores), it focuses on premium products. While food and grocery delivery innovation has slowed in most developed economies, it is still very strong in Asia, especially in India and China. These two countries should be looked at with great care by retailers and even more by CPG manufacturers for a hint of how consumers will access food in the future.

 

🇫🇮 🥛 Finnish Food Factory raised €10M to develop its contract manufacturing capabilities in plant-based dairy.

 

🇫🇮 🐟 SuperGround, a Finnish startup, raised €1.15M to upcycle poultry bones into consumer products (like burgers and nuggets).

 

🇺🇸 🚚 HappyRobot raised $44M to build AI agents for freight operators, including food logistics.

 

🇫🇷 🌱 NeoEarth, a French startup, raised €1M for its solutions to improve the production of microalgae for human and animal nutrition.

 

🇬🇧 🌿 Xampla, a UK-based startup, raised $14M to scale its compostable alternative to single-use plastics with natural polymer alternatives made from plant proteins.

 

🤝 Acquisitions, Partnerships & Bankruptcies

🇫🇷 🇩🇰 🇪🇨 BioMar, Innovafeed, and Auchan launched a sustainable shrimp feed model, leveraging the French startup’s insect protein to feed shrimp at an industrial scale.

 

🇸🇬 🐟 Umami Bioworks, a Singapore-based startup, received EU approval for its cultivated fish… for pet food applications.

 

📊 Leading Companies & Macro Trends

🇺🇸 🧬 Cultivated meat startups are suing Texas over its ban on cultivated meat, citing constitutional violations.

 

🇺🇸 🧀 Kraft Heinz will split into two entities, a decade after the 2015 $46B merger, which never delivered the promised efficiency results.

 

🔥 👨‍💼 Not a good time for food leaders: Nestlé’s CEO was dismissed abruptly after its relationship with a direct report was revealed to the board. Suntory’s (a global beverage leader) CEO resigned amid a drug investigation.

 

🌍 🥩 World meat prices reached new highs, driven by demand from Asia and lower US supply.

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