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- FoodTech Weekly #249 by Daniel S. Ruben
FoodTech Weekly #249 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
June 06, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 13 minutes
In partnership with
#249
Hi there,
It’s finally summer, meaning I can dust off this favorite quote of mine by LM Montgomery:
‘I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June’.
Strawberry picking and long summer nights
This week's rundown:
🐶 Big funding rounds for alternative pet food in Europe
💩 Throne closes funding round for AI toilet device to map your gut health
🐘 The elephant in the room
Let's go!
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💰 Funding
🇩🇪 Vegan dog food company VEGDOG has closed a €9M ($10.3M) Series A round, led by the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF VC) and joined by e.g. existing investor Green Generation Fund. The startup now aims to expand across Europe and develop its product portfolio.
🇪🇸 Voltrac, which builds autonomous, electric tractors for agriculture and logistics, has harvested €2M ($2.3M) in funding from investors including FoodLabs and Antler. Here’s a good read on why electric tractors lag behind the electric vehicle market in general.
🇫🇷 Califrais, which uses AI to improve cold logistics for e.g. food wholesalers, has scored a €10M ($11.45M) round from investors including Bpifrance.
🇺🇸 Throne has secured a $4M Seed round. The company provides a mountable device for toilets that analyzes human waste to provide real-time, actionable insights around diet and gut health. Investors include e.g. Accomplice, Long Journey Ventures, V1.VC, Night Capital, Retron VC, and Myelin Ventures.
🇸🇪 Insect-based pet food company Petgood has raised ‘strategic financing’ from investors Food Pharmacy, Humbelin, DHS, and She Capital Partners, plus existing investors such as e.g. Course Corrected VC. The startup also announced national retail listing with Sweden’s largest food group, ICA, and that it has joined the Tetra Pak Accelerator Program (full disclosure: I’m an advisor to Petgood).
Pernilla Winberg, Petgood founder (plus Siri)
🎙️ Investment Climate: Giacomo Bastianelli of Rainbow Crops on how to get funded in 2025
This week, Alex Shandrovsky met with Giacomo Bastianelli, CEO and Co-Founder of Rainbow Crops. The company is a VIB (Flemish Institute of Biotechnology) spinout focused on engineering resilient crops that address climate and food security challenges using AI-driven multiplex genome editing. Rainbow Crops recently received investment from PINC, the venture arm of Paulig.
Top three findings from this conversation:
Venture Studio Spin-Out: Rainbow Crops originated from VIB using a venture studio-style model — building on mature in-house technology and preparing the business case before raising external capital. ‘They [VIB] put money to mature the technology and keep it under wrap. Then they bring in someone like me as an entrepreneur-in-residence to build the business case and key milestones.’
Cap Table & Incentives: Founder, VIB, and Investors. VIB holds the majority stake initially (reflecting their tech development and cash investment). The entrepreneur-in-residence receives founding shares or stock options. Investors join after company creation. ‘The FIB is the founding shareholder, then shares go to the entrepreneur-in-residence, and then investors come in.’
Strategic Partnerships & Early LOIs. The team secured letters of intent from breeding companies to prove commercial traction and reassure investors about exit timelines. ‘We had several letters of intents. We demonstrated that we were in advanced discussions with one player and had a scientific plan already being carved. So I was very transparent into sharing that information, of course, under confidentiality agreement. That was, I think, what helped reassure them that I was moving in the right direction.’
🧐 Noteworthy
🍣 San Francisco cultivated seafood company Wildtype has become the world’s first startup to receive U.S. regulatory clearance from the FDA to sell cultivated seafood — and will now do so, starting at restaurant Kann in Portland, Oregon.
🌻 Plants make more nectar when they ‘hear’ pollinators buzz, Italian scientists say.
📉 Startup Generation Waste’s collaboration with hospitality service provider Columbia signature has led to a 77% reduction in food waste on cruise ship Aroya. The tech platform monitors and analyzes food waste at every stage of restaurant operations, from meal prep and cooking to plate waste — and then helps culinary teams set targeted reduction strategies.
🍁 Farm Credit Canada has committed to invest $2B in the next 5 years to advance AgTech innovation in Canada’s agriculture and food industry..
💶 Finland-based Nordic FoodTech VC, which invests in early-stage FoodTech/AgTech startups in the Nordics and Baltics (and now also Europe) has announced a €40M first close of its €80M Fund II target. The firm has also promoted Louise Heiberg to Partner (full disclosure: I’m an advisor to NFT VC).
Nordic FoodTech VC Partners
🌍 News from the FoodTech Weekly community
🖊️ Green Queen has launched The Climate Feed Fellowship, a ‘first-ever fellowship dedicated to encouraging young journalists to report the food and climate story.’ The 12 week program (Sep 1 - Nov 30) will accept 6 journalists; applications are open until June 20. More background from Sonalie Figueiras of Green Queen here.
🧾 Apply for Norrsken Accelerator. It invests in the world’s sharpest pre-seed impact founders. Less than 1% get accepted, but those that do receive a €250K upfront investment and access to a world-class network (including yours truly). More info here.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
🎲 Random Stuff
☕ Starbucks owes about $2B in coffee to its customers, in the way of money stuck on virtual cards on the company’s loyalty app.
💉 Since 1974, over 150M young lives have been saved thanks to childhood vaccinations; 94M of those rescues came from a single shot — the measles vaccines.
🐝 Millions of bees escaped after a truck overturned in Washington state last week. This is what (my) nightmares are made of.
🏷️ Fast food is increasingly unaffordable for people working at fast food restaurants.
🥊 Four teams of humanoid robots recently duked it out in a robot combat tournament in China. The winning robot emphasized defensive strategy over speed.
🏪 Local elephant Plai Biang Lek just went into a convenience store in Thailand, helping himself to some rice crackers, a sandwich, and some dried bananas. ‘He's around here often but never hurts anyone. I think he just wanted snacks’, says shop owner Khamploi Kakaew.
I love you.
Daniel
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🎵 This issue was produced while listening to May Ninth by Khruangbin.
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