Multiple restaurant tech companies made headlines this week, from Galley Solutions’ sizeable Series A fundraise to TRAY’s multi-year deal with IHOP. Meanwhile, a carbon initiative in Africa nabbed its first tranche of funding to restore land and the World Bank unveiled plans to address the escalating global food security crisis.
Foodtech funding
🇺🇸 Restaurant software platform Galley Solutions raises $14.2 million. Impact investor Astanor Ventures led the Series A round, which San Diego-based Galley will use to further product development and grow into new markets. (TechCrunch)
🇺🇸 Curated food delivery platform Locale closes $14 million round. The San Francisco-based company’s platform lets uses bundle items from multiple restaurants into a single online order. (Forbes)
🇦🇺 Fresho nabs $14 million for market expansion. The Australian company’s platform lets restaurants order produce directly from suppliers. (The Australian Financial Review)
🇬🇭 Upcycling startup Koa raises $10 million. The startup repurposes cocoa pulp from smallholder farms for use as a functional ingredient. (Food Ingredients First)
🇸🇬 Oddle secures $5 million in pre-Series B funding from Altara Ventures. The funds will enable the launch of the Singapore-based company’s restaurant tech platform in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Taiwan. (Tech in Asia)
🇬🇧 Foodsteps bags $4.1 million from Octopus Ventures to help food businesses calculate and label their carbon footprint. Foodsteps will use the capital to expand its database that currently tracks over 1,000 ingredients. (Tech.eu)
🇨🇦 Evolved Meats lands $2 million to scale up its cultivated meat made without scaffolding or binders. Maple Leaf Foods led the round with participation from Big Idea Ventures. (Vegconomist)
🇺🇸 The Engine leads $2 million pre-seed round for Hyfé Foods. The latter makes a protein-rich mycelium flour from repurposed sugar water and plans to use the new funding to scale up its process and advance towards commercialization. (Hyfé Foods)
Agtech funding
🇬🇧 Stable, ‘the home of hedging’ for commodities farmers, banks $60 million. The startup helps farmers participate in futures markets so they can offset the risk of volatile produce prices. Its Series B round was led by Acrew; other investors include Continental Grain Company and Syngenta. (Stable)
🇬🇧 Moa Technology nets £35 million ($44 million) Series B funding to launch the next generation of herbicides. Lansdowne Partners, Oxford Sciences Innovation, and Parkwalk Advisors co-led the investment in the Oxford-based startup, which is screening thousands of chemistries to discover new modes-of-action. (AFN)
🇺🇸 Regrow scores $38 million in Galvanize Climate Solutions-led round. The US-based startup will use the Series B funds to expand its regenerative ag-enabling technologies to “key food-producing regions across the globe.” (AFN)
🇺🇸 Mazen Animal Health raises $11 million Series A from AgFunder, Fall Line Capital, and others. The Iowa-based animal health startup makes an oral alternative to injectable vaccines for pigs and poultry. (AFN) [Disclosure: AgFunder is AFN’s parent company.]
🇩🇪 Revoltech closes ‘seven figure’ seed round. The startup’s leather substitute LOVR is made from hemp fibres leftover from the manufacture of CBD products. (Vegconomist)
M&As, IPOs & partnerships
🇺🇸 J&J Snack Foods to take over Dippin’ Dots for $222 million. J&J Snack says the deal, expected to close by the end of June, will enable the expansion of Dippin’ Dots’ cryogenically frozen ice cream products in new markets. (Food Business News)
🇨🇭🇧🇷 Nestlé in talks to acquire Brazilian plant-based food maker Puravida for an undisclosed sum. Pending approval from Brazil’s antitrust body, the deal is expected to close later in 2022. (Reuters)
🇬🇧🇬🇷 Ocado buys Greek robotics company Myrmex for $10.2 million. Supermarket tech company Ocado says the purchase of the startup will help it speed up the order-handling process at its automated grocery fulfillment centers. (Reuters)
🇺🇸 Eat Just lays out plans for commercial-scale cultured meat facility. The startup’s cultivated meat division, Good Meat, has signed a multi-year agreement with biotech process manufacturing company ABEC to build 10 250,000-liter bioreactors. (Eat Just)
Other news
🌐 The World Bank announces response plan to global food security crisis. It could include up to $30 billion in funding to existing and new projects across agriculture, nutrition, social protection, water, and irrigation. (World Bank)
🌍 Restore Africa carbon initiative receives first tranche of $150 million package from Climate Asset Management. The program aims to restore two million hectares of land across six African countries 2026 in addition to supporting 2 million smallholder farmers. (Agri Investor)
🇬🇧 Better Nature receives £350,000 ($440,000) grant to make tempeh from upcycled food. Innovate UK provided the grant for Better Nature, which will blend its traditional fermentation process with new methods to create a plant-based tempeh. (Green Queen)
🇺🇸 Restaurant tech company TRAY scores multi-year deal to service IHOP locations. The cloud-based restaurant management system beat out 82 competitors over a three-year selection process. (AFN) [Disclosure: AFN’s parent company AgFunder is an investor in TRAY.]
🇺🇸 Tomorrow Farms launches a new animal-free milk. The company’s first product uses Perfect Day‘s fermented dairy protein and will be available via delivery to US consumers in June. (Dairy Reporter)
🇸🇬🇺🇸 Ai Palette expands to the US, launches new food trend-spotting tool. US- and Latin America-based companies like Diageo, Cargill, Bauducco, and BRF are already using Ai Palette’s product development platform. (AFN) [Disclosure: AFN’s parent company AgFunder is an investor in Ai Palette.]
🇺🇸🇷🇺 Starbucks officially exits Russia, closing 130 stores. The coffee chain will assist the 2,000 or so workers impacted by providing pay for six months as well as some job search help. (CNBC)
🇺🇸 Orbillion Bio claims its cultivated meat will achieve price parity with conventional meat by 2026. The San Francisco-based startup says it can work “faster and cheaper” than other cultivated companies. (Green Queen)
🇺🇸 Oishii opens a vertical farm for strawberries, slashes its prices. The company’s high-end Omakase berry will now sell for $20 for 11 berries, down from $50 for eight. (Horti Daily)
🇩🇪 🇬🇧 🇹🇷 “Instant” grocery startups Getir, Zapp, and Gorillas announce staffing cuts. The slowdown comes amid the tech downturn that’s cooling investor interest in the previously heavily funded instant grocery sector. (AFN)
