Startup Funding News
🇺🇸 🤖 Chef Robotics, an American startup, raised $43 M to deploy AI-driven robotic systems for meal assembly, expanding its Robotics-as-a-Service model which has already cooked 40+ million meals.
🇫🇮 🪵 Fiberdom, a Finnish startup, secured €3.5 M (grants and funding) to develop wood-fiber “supermaterial” alternatives to plastic, transforming pulp and paperboard into biodegradable materials for applications such as food packaging.
🇸🇪 🦠 Swedish Algae Factory, a Swedish startup, raised €3 M to expand production of its silica-rich microalgae ingredient, used in cosmetics, green chemicals and energy storage.
🇵🇱 🍏 Fresh Inset, a Polish startup, raised €2.7 M to reduce food waste with its ethylene-blocking tech that extends the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.
🇮🇪 🤖 Mana, an Irish startup, raised $30 M for its delivery drones. The startup is already doing multiple experiments in the US, notably around food delivery.
Acquisitions and Partnerships
🇪🇸 🇫🇷 Heura, a Spanish leading plant-based brand, and Swap, a French startup manufacturing plant-based whole cuts have announced a partnership where Heura will commercialise plant-based chicken whole-cuts under its brands. They will be available across Europe in 2,000 supermarkets.
🇫🇷 💊 Novoma, a French food supplements startup, is getting acquired by Kresk, a cosmetics specialist. Novoma was part of our French Foodtech top 30.
🇺🇸🇯🇵 🤝 ADM (USA) and Mitsubishi Corporation (Japan) signed a strategic alliance MOU to collaborate across the agriculture supply chain, leveraging ADM’s global agri-food processing capabilities and Mitsubishi’s broad industry platform to address food security, biofuels, and sustainability challenges.
🇮🇳 🛒 Cropin (India) partnered with Walmart to deploy its AI agri-intelligence platform in Walmart’s US and Latin American operations, improving fresh produce supply forecasting to reduce waste and enhance supply chain resilience.
🇺🇸 🍽️ Uber and OpenTable (USA) formed a global partnership to integrate delivery and restaurant reservations: in coming months, users will be able to book dining via OpenTable and get Uber transport or access Uber Eats options in one single experience.
🇺🇸🇫🇷 🍔 Beyond Meat (US) and La Vie (France) teamed up for a joint campaign in the UK to create a plant-based burger using both products.
Leading Companies & Trends
🦕🥩 Using cellular agriculture, scientists have developed a range of products made from dinosaur meat. While this may seem only “fun”, this ability to create meat products that go beyond what’s available at the farm could be key for the future of this technology. Indeed, why limiting ourselves to animals that we know and not create better, healthier or more adventurous products?
📱👨⚕️ Apple is developing an AI-driven health service aiming to transform its Health app into a more comprehensive health coach, notably by integrating food tracking features.
💰The new tariffs imposed by the US administration will raise costs for food manufacturers and consumers.
🍪 📉 Snacking sales are slowing down in the US. Instead of traditional carb-rich snacks, Americans are switching to high-protein alternatives. This could be explained by the rise of GLP-1 such as Wegovy and Ozempic which are already used by 5 to 10% of US adults. This move towards “healthier” snacks explains the recent acquisition spree and the boom of protein-rich snack brands (as seen in the mapping of emerging brands here).
