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14 FoodTech news to know this week (2025 – week #43)

Published on October 20, 2025

💸 Startup Funding News

🇮🇳 ⚡ Zepto, a leading Indian startup, raised $450M at a $7B valuation to consolidate its lead in ultrafast grocery delivery. As we often say here, quick-commerce is far from being dead; it is actually thriving in many developing economies.

 

🇺🇸 🤖 Starship Technologies, a startup with European roots, raised $50M to expand its fleet of autonomous delivery robots across US cities. After complicated times, we observe a resurgence of interest in automated food delivery, notably in the US, where the pool of low-skilled workers is decreasing. This could finally be the “moment” for robot delivery players.

 

🇨🇭 🌾 ecoRobotix, a Swiss startup, raised €129.3M to ramp up production of its AI-powered precision spraying trailers (again a European-based startup which is deploying its technology in the US).

 

🇬🇧 🌾 Wild Bioscience, a British startup, raised €51M for its improved crop varieties created through computational biology (traditional breeding enhanced by AI).

 

🇬🇧 🧈 All Things Butter, a British startup, raised over £2M to expand its premium flavoured butter line. The “modernisation” of staple products continues. Here we have a typical example of this new wave: exit the vegan and healthy alternative, welcome to an indulgent, well-marketed brand.

 

🇺🇸 🥩 Tender Food (now named Lasso), an American, raised $6.5M to scale its fibre-spinning technology, which aims to reproduce the texture of meat.

 

🇺🇸 🌱 Ascribe Bioscience, a US-based startup, raised $12M for its biological crop protection technology targeting plant stress resilience.

 

🇫🇷 ⚗️ Allergen Alert, a French startup, raised €3.6M to deploy its real-time allergen detection devices for consumers and professionals.

 

🇸🇪 ⚙️ Arevo, a Swedish biotech, raised €7.3M to scale the production of its bio-based fertilisers. 

 

🤝Acquisitions, Partnerships & Closures

🇿🇦 🪳 Inseco, a South African insect-protein company, shut down due to energy shortages and funding challenges.

 

🇫🇷 🧫 Gourmey, a French cellular agriculture startup, acquired Vital Meat (another French startup) and consolidated France’s cultivated-meat ecosystem.

 

📊 Leading Companies & Macro Trends

🇩🇰 💉 📉 Novo Nordisk is waiting for the results of a potentially “game-changing study” on its GLP-1 drugs. The weight-loss drugs are tested on their effect on Alzheimer’s treatment. Whereas other GLP-1 suppliers are focusing on prevention, this could be the first time ever that a drug shows significant positive improvements in patients with ongoing Alzheimer’s.

 

🇺🇸 🥩 Beyond Meat faces mounting financial pressure and has become a “penny stock” (its stock price is now below $1).

 

🇺🇸 🤖 Cargill deployed Boston Dynamics’ robotic dog to automate plant safety inspections.

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