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🇬🇧🌾 “The UK is one of the most vibrant hubs for the sector alongside Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, New York and Singapore,” Forward Fooding Co-Founder, Max Leveau Nearly 800 AgriFoodTech companies are operating in the UK, making it a global leader in the sector. According to our FoodTech Data Navigator, the UK is second only to the US in terms of the number of AgriFoodTech companies working on a wide array of innovations. The UK’s FoodTech ecosystem is distinguished by its broad distribution across various sub-sectors rather than a single area of specialization. This diversification, combined with significant investor interest and substantial capital, has led to robust growth and innovation. UK-based FoodTech startups attracted 10.5% of global AgriFoodTech investments in 2023, with notable investments in meat alternatives and cultivated pork. However, challenges persist, particularly in regulatory approval processes that lag behind countries like Singapore. But despite this hurdle, the UK remains a leader in FoodTech innovation, with many companies making significant strides in sustainable ingredients and meat alternatives. Some of these startups include: 👉 The Supplant Company, Tom Simmons 👉 Adamo Foods, Pierre Dupuis 👉 Hoxton Farms, Ed Steele 👉 IMPOSSIBREW®, Mark Wong 🍺🔄 👉 Clean Food Group, Alex Neves 👉 Zya, Josh Sauer, PhD 👉 JUX Food, Anna Wood 👉 Flybox®, Larry Kotch Recent regulatory updates and ongoing investor interest suggest a promising future for the UK's food tech sector, bolstered by an entrepreneurial spirit, a supportive consumer base, and strategic government initiatives. Learn more in the full The Grocer article: https://lnkd.in/eCnw95x9 #ForwardFooding #foodtech #innovation #foodindustry #agrifood

This year’s theme for #WorldFoodDay focusing on the universal right to foods for a better life and better future has been a driving force for my career for over 20 years starting with work that I did on the Marketing Advisory Council for Food Bank For New York City and then co-founding AeroFarms, a #CertifiedBCorporation, leveraging #indoorverticalfarming to grow locally and nourish communities. Today, I am even more committed to driving positive impact and am honored to be recognized by TheFoodCons and their select list of 99 people + 1 shaping the global foodtech. Collectively, we can make a difference to improve our food system for generations to come. Over the years, I have had the privilege of working with amazing organizations over the years to increase access to healthy, sustainable food. Chefs Collaborative, City Harvest, Community FoodBank of New Jersey, #ControlledEnvironmentAgricultureAlliance, The Culinary Institute of America, Food Bank For New York City, Food Tank, Food+Tech Connect God's Love We Deliver, Feeding America, Greens do Good, #HealthyGreensJC, International Fresh Produce Association, Ironbound Community Corporation, Meals on Wheels America, Meeting Essential Needs With Dignity, Milken Institute, Greater Newark Conservancy, Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at Montclair State University, Produce Marketing Association, Table to Table, Teens for Food Justice, World Economic Forum, United Fresh Produce Association   #WFD2024 #food #agriculture #farming #foodtech #agrifoodtech #AgTech #ZeroHunger #foodsecurity #foodsovereignty #climatechange #water #foodsystemschange #innovation #freshproduce #supplychain #localproduce #sustainableagriculture #organicproduce #foodindustry #foodsupply #fruitsandveggies #controlledenvironmentagriculture #verticalfarming

🌱🥚 FoodTech 500 alum secures funding for its sustainable egg replacer. UOBO, a Barcelona-based food tech startup, has raised €500,000 in seed funding to advance its mission of providing egg alternatives for food manufacturers. Earlier this year, the company launched liquid plant-based eggs for the food service industry, which have been well-received for their ability to replace eggs in various dishes. UOBO has also teamed up with CUBIQ FOODS, a startup specializing in plant-based ingredients, to create an egg-free product for large-scale manufacturers. This partnership aligns with UOBO’s mission to offer sustainable alternatives to traditional egg production. The plant-based egg industry is rapidly growing, with products ranging from liquid eggs to powdered alternatives. With its new funding and key partnerships, UOBO is positioned to lead in developing sustainable, high-quality egg replacements for the food industry. More about UOBO here: https://lnkd.in/eSe4pRyg Read the full vegconomist - the vegan business magazine article here: https://lnkd.in/eaeigm_h #ForwardFooding #FoodTech500 #sustainability #foodtech #innovation #futurefood #foodsystems

😍How cool is this?!?!? Sounds like natural MSG through upcycling... ➡ Through their proprietary technology called "remush," Three Mushketeers processes mushroom cultivation by-products into a savory powder. This innovative solution effectively masks off-flavors in plant proteins while enhancing the overall taste of plant-based products. #innovation #mushrooms #startups https://lnkd.in/eiWzuFve

Let's recap this week in FoodTech: 📈 What’s up? A new report from FoodLabs and Dealroom.co presented live at the HackSummit shows that European FoodTech startups raised over $2 billion in 2023, outpacing the US for the first time. 💡 Good Read: Kamil Węgliński, VC at Market One Capital and ClimateHack Ambassador in Poland, wrote this comprehensive analysis of the food waste prevention market 🎤 Exclusive: We spoke to the Winner and Runners Up of the FoodTech World Cup live in Lausanne: Riccardo Bottiroli, Shobhita Soor and Joaquín Fisch 🍜 Amusing: Denmark has recalled several flavours of South Korea’s popular instant noodle brand, Samyang Foods Co., Ltd., for being too spicy. 🦀 US-based Tender Foodraised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by Rhapsody Venture Partners. 🥓 THIS™ secured £20 million in a Series C funding round led by Planet First Partners. 🧫 Ever After Foods secured $10 million for its cultivated meat bioreactor platform, which it says will allow producers to scale up their manufacturing whilst reducing their costs by up to 90%. 🌾 Kilimo, based in Argentina, raised $7.5 million Series A funding. 💰 Inside Scoop: Sifted reveals that the elusive world of family offices is showing a greater interest in ClimateTech. Freya and Sadia spoke to Nadim El Khazen of PeakBridge, Greg Michel of Ananke and other investors at the HackSummit. 🍫 Mez Foods is using mesquite to create sustainable chocolate alternatives, as cocoa prices continue to soar. ☕️ David Klingen of Northern Wonder - Coffee Free Coffee told Sifted why adaptation tech might save our morning brew. While also serving 30,000 (reusable) cups of his coffee-free coffee to the HackSummit attendees. ❌ Perfect Day has filed a $200 million counterclaim against its Italian contract manufacturer Olon, accusing it of “gross negligence and willful misconduct.” Will no one learn anything from the Meati x Better Meat Co lawsuit? 🤝 Believer Meats is partnering with the AbuDhabi AgriFood Growth & Water Abundance cluster to develop its capabilities in the MENA region. 🌱 YASAI  and GreenState AG are merging, and will work together to provide fresh, locally-grown produce to the Swiss market. 🍝 US startup Pastazerts launched chocolate ravioli. Designed to be enjoyed as pasta-for-dessert. 🥚 Grupo Empresarial Palacios Alimentación, is partnering with The EVERY Company to use its liquid animal-free eggs in its flagship products. 🔬 Dutch Structuring Technologies (DST) has developed a novel technology called Continuous High Shear 🌾 Kellanova is partnering with Ahold Delhaize to develop Cheez-It crackers made with regenerative wheat 💡Article on what drives VC-style growth in Food and Agriculture startups by Jaap 🎙️Is there a way to balance the discussions on novel processed alternative proteins? asks Maya 🎧 The ‘most listened to’ science podcast right now covers Planet A Foods and cocoa-free chocolate. Read the full recap: https://lnkd.in/e8itVduG

#WorldVegetarianDay2024: Today, the EIT Food Accelerator Network supports and celebrates the AgriFoodTech startups that enable consumer choice in Vegetarian and Vegan food with sustainable plant-based alternatives to animal products like fish, meat, eggs, and milk.   Many of our amazing alumni and startups disrupt the exciting world of vegan and vegetarian cuisine, so we would like to spotlight some of our impactful startups from the 2024 cohort: Melt&Marble, Esencia Foods, AlgaHealth, KIDEMIS, Clean Food Group, Fabas Foods AG, The Good Pulse Company, Pacifico Biolabs and UOBO.   Today’s consumers are hungry for sustainable, eco-friendly and healthy food choices. A big thank you to all our startups and alumni for helping to transform our food system with sustainable innovations and solutions!   #AgriFoodTechInnovations #FoodSystemTransformation #StartupAcceleration #WorldVegetarianDay2024

Some highlights from FoodTech Weekly #202 (https://lnkd.in/darik-Py) sent yesterday: 💰🇬🇧 U.K. plant-based meat startup THIS™ has banked £20M (appr. $25M) in Series C funding, led by Planet First Partners 💰🇮🇱 Israeli cultivated meat company Ever After Foods has secured $10M in funding from U.S. and EU strategic investors, as well as from Tnuva Group of Israel. Ever After claims it has developed a bioreactor platform that can produce cultivated foods with ‘unmatched’ cost-efficient scalability 💰🇺🇸 Tender Food of Somerville, Massachusetts (and formerly doing business as Boston Meats) has scored $11M in Series A funding for its plant-based meats. The company uses a fiber-spinning process similar to making cotton candy to turn plant protein into structured cuts of meat, such as steak, chicken breast, and seafood. The A round was led by Rhapsody Venture Partners and joined by e.g. Lowercarbon Capital and Safar Partners 💰🇦🇺 Farmbot Monitoring Solutions of Sydney, Australia has bagged $4.6M in new funding, from e.g. Telstra and Macdoch Ventures. The company has developed an IoT platform that e.g. monitors water and gives farmers the ability to control their infrastructure remotely 🥒🇳🇱 Netherlands company Vahl brothers (Gebroeders Vahl) has installed the world’s first robot sorting and packing line for cucumbers; the system records the shape, thickness, length, and weight of each cucumber, and 7 robots then sort the cucumbers into the right crates. The sorting line can do 20k cucumbers per hour or 140k per day at full capacity — and the number of people needed for sorting and packing has fallen from 15 to just 6 🐛🇭🇺 Agroloop of Hungary has built a Black Soldier Fly production facility outside Budapest, which will turn insects into animal feed. The company has raised €20M (about $21M) in funding so far 💰🇮🇱 Israeli microalgae producer Brevel has secured an almost NIS 1.5M (appr. $0.4M) grant from Israel Innovation Authority רשות החדשנות. The company can produce proteins and functional lipids from microalgae 💰🇺🇸 Collaborative Fund of New York has raised $125M to invest in early-stage climate, health, and food ☀️🇸🇪 Swedish indoor vertical farming company Ljusgårda ABårda has entered a power purchase agreement (PPA) with e.g. Svea Solar, re. 8 GWh per year from a 13 hectare agrivoltatics park (a solar park in ag fields that produce rapeseed, ley, and wheat). This will more than cover Ljusgårda’s annual energy needs 🐷🇺🇸 Antibiotics are still being used by some farmers to fatten up pigs in the U.S., even though the practice has been banned since 2017 💡Conversation with Mikkel Precht of Alcolase ApS 🤩 New jobs at Planet A Foods (Germany), Volta Greentech (Sweden), Fermify (Austria), and Koa Switzerland & Ghana (Germany) ...and much more! Subscribe now at: https://lnkd.in/d8mUXXH5 #foodtechweekly #FoodTech #agtech #startups #funding #tech #innovation

Some highlights from FoodTech Weekly #213 (https://lnkd.in/dgfTCaj7) sent this morning: 🇩🇪 Formo has banked the third-largest alt-protein funding round in Europe in 2024, by bagging a $61M Series B, backed by e.g. FoodLabs, EQT Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, The Nature Conservancy, and REWE Group. The company uses a type of Koji mould to produce (through micro fermentation) animal-free cheeses similar to dairy-based cheeses, and is now launching its products across 2K+ supermarkets in Germany 🇪🇸 NOVAMEAT, producer of texturized plant-based meats (think e.g. steaks), has closed a €17.4M (appr. $19.3M) Series A round, led by Sofinnova Investments and Forbion Bioeconomy, and supported by existing investors Unovis Asset Management, Rubio Impact Ventures, and Praesidium 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 SOLASTA Bio, which develops nature-inspired bioinsecticides (rather than synthetic chemical control agents) has nabbed $14M in fresh funding in a round led by Forbion, FMC Ventures and Corteva Agriscience, and backed by e.g. Rubio Impact Ventures and Scottish Enterprise. In related news, Catalera BioSolutions (🇨🇦) has pulled in a Series A round to further develop its biological pest control solution 🇦🇺 Number 8 bio has harvested A$7M (appr. US $4.6M) in funding; the company develops methane reduction feed additives for cattle. Investors in the round include Main Sequence, Breakthrough Victoria, and The March Group   🇸🇪 Foodtel, which can calculate remaining shelf life and link it to expiry dates and temperature deviations in the food chain has scored a SEK 15M (appr. $1.45M) funding round from Novax and angel Anders Frankel. 🇺🇸 Switch Bioworks has landed $17M from e.g. Change Forces Capital, The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Astanor, Acre Venture Partners and Emerson Collective. The company engineers symbiotic, nitrogen-fixing microbes that live on plant roots to replace conventional fertilizer, a solution that Switch Bioworks says is carbon-neutral and lower-cost 🇦🇺 Cropify has raked in A$2M (appr. US $1.4M) in Seed funding from Mandalay Venture Partners and Hatcher+; the company leverages AI and machine learning to grade grains in the supply chain 🇩🇰 Cultivated meat startup Meat Tomorrow has netted DKK 4.1M (appr. $600K) from Keystones and Danish Business Angels - DanBAN Angels to expand R&D and build partnerships 🇸🇪 Mylla.se, a marketplace platform which enables smallscale farmers and producers to upload their inventory and sell directly to end consumers, has hauled in SEK 7M (appr. $0.7M) from Planet Zero, business angels, and existing investor BackingMinds 💡 Conversation with Ines Sánchez-Castillo Velge of Beans 🤩 New jobs at Xias Bio (Scotland), Hatch Blue (Germany), and Eatable Adventures (Spain) ...and much more! Subscribe now at: https://lnkd.in/d8mUXXH5 #foodtechweekly #FoodTech #agtech #startups #funding #tech

🥩 Ants Innovate, a Singaporean startup, debuted a cultivated pork ingredient called Cell Essence in three hybrid meat dishes at a private tasting. This ingredient enhances the flavor and aroma of plant-based meats, showcasing the potential of hybrid products that combine cultivated cells with plant-based ingredients. The startup believes these hybrid products are a sustainable, long-term solution for creating affordable and tasty meat alternatives. How do you feel about hybrid meat products that combine cultivated animal cells with plant-based ingredients—would you be open to trying them as a sustainable alternative to traditional meat? Read the full article at the link below. 🔗

🧀💼 STANDING OVATION RAISES €3.75M AND NAMES NEW CEO FOR 2025 ANIMAL-FREE CASEIN LAUNCH Parisian food tech startup Standing Ovation is gearing up for the launch of its animal-free casein protein with fresh capital and a new CEO. The precision fermentation company has raised an additional €3.75M in a Series A extension, adding to the €12M it raised in the original round in 2022. The funds will be used to scale up production of Advanced Casein, its first patented product, ahead of a planned market launch in the US in 2025. This will be helped by the expertise of Yvan CHARDONNENS, who has taken over the reins from co-founder Romain Chayot. Chardonnens is a seasoned C-suite executive who has worked at large firms like Oterra, Firmenich, IFF, Unilever, Barry Callebaut Group, and Roquette. “I am excited to be joining such an innovative company at the forefront of its sector, with the potential to have a positive impact on our food ecosystems and deliver solutions to climate challenges,” Chardonnens said. Standing Ovation is tackling casein, which makes up 80% of the protein content in milk and is responsible for many of the functional properties that make dairy desirable – like the melty and stretchy nature of cheese, or the creamy texture of ice cream. It’s a $2.7B market, but it’s a product of a carbon-heavy dairy industry. The Series A+ round comes amid a flurry of investments into fermentation startups in Europe, which have raised twice more money than plant-based and three times as much as cultivated meat companies this year. In the first half of 2024, the fermentation segment surpassed its funding total for 2023 in Europe, reaching €164M. Since then, a host of companies have added to this pot. Onego Bio secured €14M, Adamo Foods brought in $2.5M, and Formo raised one of the biggest rounds of the year with $66M, among others. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/e9bXpV-B #GreenQueen #altprotein #futurefoods #foodsystems #sustainability