Startup Funding News
🇺🇸 🍽️ Wonder, an American food delivery platform, raised $600M at a $7B valuation to expand its “mealtime super app.” The amount of funding for this startup alone is staggering. It already raised a similar round to acquire Grubhub (restaurant delivery) recently. I wonder if this is a rare example of innovation going “full circle”: food delivery started with companies such as Wonder combining both the ability to cook internally (with their own ghost kitchens) and delivery. Most of these players disappeared as they faced the competition of restaurant delivery platforms (Uber Eats, Delivery Hero…). However, I don’t see what has changed in the market conditions or in the technology that could make it work now.
🇮🇸 🐟 Laxey, an Icelandic company, raised $130M to scale its on-land salmon farming facility. On-land aquaculture has been one of the hottest AgriFoodTech themes of the past year, notably in Europe.
🇺🇸 🥤 Culture Pop, an American probiotic soda brand, raised $15M to expand its gut-friendly, low-sugar beverage line. Better-for-you beverages are still attracting capital after the recent $2B acquisition of Poppy by PepsiCo.
🇮🇹 🌱 Planet Farms, an Italian vertical farming startup, secured €125M in funding from Swiss Life Asset Managers to expand its vertical farms across Europe. As most players in this category are going bankrupt, this deal comes as a reminder that even in the most challenging ecosystem, there are outperformers.
🇺🇸 🤖 Posha, an American kitchen robotics company, emerged from stealth and raised $8M for its countertop robot that cooks full meals.
🇫🇮 🧪 Foodiq, a Finnish startup, raised €10M to scale its multi-layer production facility for fermented, plant-based, and functional foods.
🇺🇸 💡 Uviquity, an American disinfection startup, raised $9.6M for its miniaturized far-UVC light chip for food-safe environments.
🇺🇸 🍪 Flings, an American startup, raised $2.3M for its better-for-you snacks.
🇦🇺 🌴 Levur, an Australian startup, raised $1.2M for its clean palm oil alternative. Fat alternatives are attracting more and more attention as they are seen as one of the key elements to making plant-based meat and dairy products healthier and tastier.
🇺🇸 🥗 FoodHealth, an American startup, raised $7.5M to expand its food-health benefits platform for employers and insurers.
Acquisitions, Partnerships & Shutdowns
🇺🇸 🌱 Meati, an American biomass fermentation startup, secured bridge funding to stay afloat after nearing collapse. The startup, which raised a staggering $100M last year (and a total of $365M in funding), is now looking to sell its assets for… $4M. Beyond some technical financial challenges, it seems to be yet another story of investors buying into impossible to achieve growth goals.
🇧🇪 🥛 Bolder Foods, a Belgium alt-dairy startup, ceased operations after failing to raise capital.
🥩 🥛 Beyond Meat, an American plant-based meat leader, released disappointing Q1 sales data. In the meantime, Oatly, a Swedish oat milk giant, reported less negative results pointing toward what could be its first full profitable year.
🇺🇸 🛒 Instacart, an American grocery delivery platform, acquired Wynshop to expand its white-label tech offering for grocers.
Leading Companies & Macro Trends
🇺🇸 ⚖️ WeightWatchers, the embodiment of weight loss, filed for bankruptcy. If there was a need to show how strong the impact of GLP-1 is, I think that should be the nail in the coffin. Agrifood companies need to adapt fast!
🇺🇸 🧬 The FDA approved CRISPR-edited pigs for human consumption — a first for gene-edited livestock.
🇺🇸 🧠 Toast, an American restaurant tech firm, launched ToastIQ, an AI-driven optimization platform for restaurants. While there is a lot of talk about AI, I think this real-world application is really interesting as it shows both the (business) potential of AI and the risks (deshuminasation of serveurs).
