This week, functional mushroom brand Spacegoods, cultivated pork fat maker Cellva, and insect-breeding-as-a-service startup FreezeM announced new funding rounds. US restaurant giant Inspire Brands, which owns Arby’s, Dunkin’, and a host of other chains, sank its teeth into more delivery tech, while a company in Denmark unveiled plant-based animal fur.
Meanwhile, cultivated meat pioneer UPSIDE Foods paused plans to build a large-scale plant in Illinois, and is instead focusing on expanding its far smaller ‘EPIC’ site in California.
Foodtech funding
🇧🇷 Brazil’s Cellva raises R$6.5 million to develop cultivated pork fat Vegconomist
🇬🇧 London-based Spacegoods munches on €2.9 million to become Europe’s leading functional mushroom brand EU Startups
🇺🇸 Cargill bets on mycoprotein with investment in ENOUGH and signs offtake agreement AgFunderNews
Agtech funding
🇮🇱 BSF ‘breeding as a service’ startup FreezeM nets $14.2m series A. ‘We want to be the seed company for the insect ag industry’ AgFunderNews
🇰🇪 Fresh funding in hand, Shamba Pride aims to digitize last-mile distribution for Kenya’s ag inputs AgFunderNews
M&A, IPOs & partnerships
🇮🇱 🇺🇸 Drone tech companies LahakX & Aero Systems West join forces to bring a ‘dramatically different’ approach to crop spraying AgFunderNews
🇺🇸 Inspire Brands buys delivery tech firm Vromo Restaurant Dive
People moves
🇩🇰 Nordic Foodtech VC expands in Denmark with new Investment Director Louise Heiberg Arctic Startup
🇺🇸 Paleo welcomes new CTO Alt-meat
🇺🇸 Benson HillL announces chief financial officer transition Benson Hill
🇺🇸 Meatable strengthens board of directors to accelerate growth of breakthrough food technology Bakersfield
Other news
🇺🇸 UPSIDE Foods’ large-scale cultivated meat plant on hold until it delivers ‘key proof points” at smaller site AgFunderNews
🇺🇸 Plant-based-food company Veg House files for IPO MarketWatch
🇪🇸 Following €40m investment, Upfield and Heura reveal plans to fast-track innovation in plant-based foods Vegconomist
🇸🇬 TurtleTree earns first of its kind vegan certification New Food Magazine
🇺🇸 WinField United Launches BioVerified Program Crop Life
🇺🇸 Pairwise stops marketing gene-edited Conscious Greens to focus on new high-value, gene-edited crops FoodNavigator
🇺🇸 Pea protein: PURIS secures initial victory in anti-dumping case vs China; Louis Dreyfus announces new plant AgFunderNews
🇺🇸 New Culture’s animal-free casein cleared for commercial sale in “world first” FoodBev Media
🇩🇰 Denmark’s Ganni unveils bags made with plant-based fur alternative BioFluff Vegconomist
🇰🇪 🇺🇸 Job cuts at AI-powered ag insights platform Gro Intelligence: ‘They have a great product, but I’m not sure they know how to sell it’ AgFunderNews
