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#248
Hi there,
I’m in Finland 🇫🇮, swimming, and I must admit it doesn’t feel like summer has begun yet (the water temp of 14.3C equals 57.7F).
Good thing this country has 3.3 million saunas for its 5.5 million people (yes, that’s the per capita world record).
This week's rundown:
🐛 Big funding round for Finnish insect-as-protein company Volare
📰 ClearLeaf, maker of biofungicide, harvests $3.5M Seed round
🍌 Why there may be fewer bananas by the time you’re retiring
Let's go!
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💰 Funding
🇫🇮 Finland’s Volare has bagged €26M in funding (a mix of equity and debt) to cultivate Black Soldier Fly larvae and convert them into protein, oil, and fertilizer. The round was joined by e.g. Maki.vc, Firstminute Capital, Springvest, and Norion Bank. Volare will now start building the country’s first industrial scale plant, which will produce protein equivalent to the yield of 200M Baltic herrings annually.
🇨🇷 ClearLeaf has raised a $3.5M Seed round, led by Hawthorne Food Ventures and joined by e.g. M7 Ace NEO. Its flagship product, GotaBlanca, is a broad-spectrum fungicide and bactericide that supports regen ag practices while avoiding microbial resistance.
🇳🇴 NoMy (Norwegian Mycelium) has closed a €1.25M funding round from Japanese investor Nippon Beet Sugar Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and joined by e.g. EIT Food. The company uses fungal fermentation to turn industry sidestreams into high-value ingredients.
🇩🇪 SenseUP Biotechnology has scored a €2.4M ($2.7M) Seed round led by Capnamic and joined by e.g. Rockstart. The startup develops biopesticides through precision fermentation; the solution can help cut the use of chemical pesticides.
🇨🇦 Freshr Technologies has announced a Seed round led by the CVC of Mitsubishi and joined by others. The company develops sustainable, active food packaging that help extend shelf life and reduce food waste.
Freshr Technologies
🎙️ Investment Climate: Severin Eder of Catchfree on how to get funded in 2025
This week, Alex Shandrovsky met with Severin Eder, Co-Founder of Catchfree, which develops plant-based seafood alternatives, and recently raised a CHF 1.2M ($1.2M) round led by FortyOne Group and Stiftung Startfelt.
The full conversation can be found on Spotify and Apple Podcast.
Top three findings from this conversation:
Smart Capital Through Regional Foundations and Strategic Angels. “There was an event that this foundation regularly holds where you could pitch your startup in front of investors. What was great for us was that we not only had the chance to describe our vision in a pitch, but also let the investors experience it, via Catchfree products during a tasting afterwards. As they say, the way to the heart is through the stomach. This also applies to the success of selling food innovation. We met our lead investor during one of these events.”
Avoiding IP Pitfalls: Trade Secrets Over Patents. The team opted for trade secrets instead of early patent filings to retain flexibility, reduce cost, and avoid public disclosures until commercialization. “We work a lot with trade secrets at the beginning, and we have changed our recipes a lot and considerably over the last three years.”
Objection Handling: Taste First, Tech Second. Skepticism about consumer adoption and scalability was overcome through relentless tastings (~70) and clear scale-up roadmaps. “When you have a physical product, people want to experience it — and it’s your greatest asset. We outlined a valid technological roadmap… and projections to reach price parity.”
🧐 Noteworthy
🍯 Bee-free honey startup MeliBio has been acquired by Swiss innovation lab and venture studio FoodYoung Labs.
🍌 Two-thirds of banana-growing areas in LATAM and the Caribbean may no longer be suitable for growing the fruit by 2080 (due to rising temperatures, extreme weather, and climate-related pests), new research has found.
🌱 A Cornell University study has found that cover crops and no-till farming aren’t universal solutions for boosting yields and cutting emissions.
📉 Meatly says its newly developed pilot-scale bioreactor, priced at £12,500 ($17,000), can help slash cultivated meat expenses by 95%.
🍣 New School Foods is bringing its plant-based salmon filet to 30+ new restaurant locations across Canada; meanwhile its industry peer Oshi has launched direct online sales of its plant-based salmon filet to consumers through its website.
New School Foods / Oshi
🌍 News from the FoodTech Weekly community
🧑🔬️ New FoodTech hub in Stockholm - Labbet! If you’re a sustainable food or FoodTech company looking for an inspiring place to grow, Labbet offers a creative space with a fully equipped kitchen, lab spaces and offices where you share resources, ideas and networks with other innovators in the field. Perfect for small and growing food tech companies in need of flexible resources. Read more and apply here.
👨🏻💻 VINE Connect, a commercialization program developed by UCANR Innovate and Farmhand Ventures, is currently accepting applications for its latest cohort, specifically focused on soil-health technologies for California Central Valley agriculture. Selected participants will benefit from practical workshops around effective field demonstrations, opportunities to showcase tech to CA growers, strategic introductions to influential stakeholders, and more. Applications close on June 13, 2025. Apply here. Questions? Email Nat.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
🎲 Random Stuff
😳 Google just released Veo 3, an AI video generator which seems very powerful (scroll down this thread for examples).
🧀 The latest flex is to have a cheese grotto.
🌭 Oscar Mayer pitted six of its Wienermobiles against one another in a Wienie 500, ahead of the Indianapolis 500, a few days ago.
I love you.
Daniel
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