Startup Funding News
🇯🇵 🍜 Wada Bento, a Japanese startup, raised $5M to scale its foodservice hot meals vending machines that enable restaurants to reach consumers in high-traffic areas.
🇦🇺 🩺 Vively, an Australian startup, raised AUD $1.6M for its continuous glucose monitoring programs to track pre-diabetes.
🇮🇳 🌾 Growit, an Indian startup, raised $3M to scale its operations as a provider of solutions to increase the productivity of Indian farmers.
🇫🇷 💧 Kumulus Water, a French water tech startup, raised $3.1M to scale its atmospheric water generators for off-grid water access.
🇨🇦 🌾 Protein Industries Canada committed CA$10.9M to a new genomics and AI program for crop development.
🇫🇮 🐛 Volare, a Finnish insect protein startup, raised €26M to scale up industrial production for feed and pet food.
🇩🇪 🐶 Vegdog, a German vegan pet food brand, raised €9M to scale its plant-based nutrition solutions for dogs.
🇮🇳 💰 Drools, an Indian pet food brand, is become a unicorn after Nestlé took a minority stake. While most of CPG categories are suffering globally, that’s not the case of pet food which remains a space with strong growth and nice margins!
🇫🇷 🧊 Califrais, a French cold chain AI startup, raised €10M to optimize cold logistics for fresh food.
🇪🇸 🚜 Voltrac, a Spanish robotics startup, raised €2M to launch its autonomous tractor platform.
Failures, Rebirth & Regulation
🇦🇹 🧫 Arkeon, an Austrian biomass fermentation startup, “transforming” CO2 into a source of amino acids, filed for insolvency after failing to secure additional funding.
🇺🇸 🍓 Plenty, a former vertical farming unicorn, is emerging from its bankruptcy. Instead of focusing on leafy greens (as most startups that have gone bankrupt in the space), it is now working on strawberries. Focusing on high-value berries that consumers value all year long seems to be a much more viable business model than providing salads.
🇺🇸 🐟 Wildtype, an American cultivated seafood startup, received FDA approval for its lab-grown salmon. Already available in a restaurant, this is the first time that consumers can taste fish products made through cellular agriculture.
Leading Companies & Macro Trends
🇺🇸 📉 US retailers are slowing down food innovation, focusing on margin pressure, private label, and fewer risky launches.
🇫🇷 🧀 Bel is shutting down its plant-based brand Nurishh. The brand, created after acquiring a plant-based cheese company in 2020, failed to attract enough consumers.
🇬🇧 🍫 Mondelez is suing Aldi in the UK over alleged Oreo packaging imitation. This reveals the growing tension between large brands and private labels, notably in the snack category.
🇺🇸 🧃 Walmart, Mars, Nestlé, and Mondelez exited the US Plastics Pact, raising doubts about voluntary commitments to reduce packaging and plastic waste. This comes in a context where many large agrifood players are revising their ESG commitments.
