In partnership with
#274
Hi there,
Daniel here — every year around the holidays, I pick a food-themed book that I love and send it to all our Premium subscribers around the world. I know you already enjoy the newsletter because you keep saying so — so if you want to get an ad-free newsletter, the occasional bonus content, and a physical book in your mailbox once a year (selected by yours truly), now’s the time to upgrade to Premium. It’s just $5/mo or $49/year.
You might be able to expense it through work (it’s worth asking!), use your employer’s learning budget, or even access it as a union benefit in some places.
This week's rundown:
🇨🇭 Vivent Biosignals bags €7M for plant stress-detecting wearables
🇫🇷 Nutropy raises €7M for precision-fermented casein proteins
🇮🇱 SuperMeat secures $3.5M for cultivated chicken platform
Today’s newsletter was sent to {{active_subscriber_count}} subscribers. Welcome to FoodTech Weekly.
SPONSORED:
The daily health habit you’ll actually stick with…
This time of year, it’s SO hard to stay in control of your health.
Holiday travel (and meals!), big family gatherings, dark and cold days, it’s easy to skip that workout, sleep in later than you should, or have just one more cookie.
That’s why you need a daily health habit that’s easy to stick with.
Meet AG1: With just one quick scoop every morning, you’ll get over 75 ingredients that help support your immune health, gut health, energy, and close nutrient gaps in your diet.
Right now is the best time to get started - with every new subscription, they are giving away $126 in free gifts for the holidays.
Give AG1 a try today and take control of your health this holiday season.
FUNDING
AI is coming in fast — also in FoodTech
AKA Foods
🇳🇱 AKA Foods, $17.2M Seed, AI-powered platform designed to transform food product innovation by consolidating scattered R&D data and sensory evaluations into one secure, unified system. Investors: Alex and Michael Bronstein.
🇫🇮 Kuva Space, €9M ($10.4M) through Springvest, space tech solutions for various industries including agriculture. Previous investors: E.g. Nordic FoodTech VC.
🇳🇿 Ruminant Biotech, $17M NZD (US$9.5M) bolus-based methane inhibitor for cattle. Investors: Rosrain Investments, Cultivate Ventures, Marex and AgriZeroNZ.
🇨🇭 Vivent Biosignals, €7M ($8.1M), AI-powered plant “wearables” that detect crop stress early and improve sustainable farm management. Investors: Agri Investment Fund, Horticoop, Pymwymic.
🇫🇷 Nutropy, €7M ($8.1M), precision fermentation scaling its casein proteins, targeting a launch of its “cheeseable milk” powder in 2027. Investors (leads): Big Pi Ventures and Zero Carbon Capital
🇮🇱 SuperMeat, $3.5M, cultivated chicken. Investors: Agronomics and Milk & Honey Ventures.
🇺🇸 Dalan Animal Health, $3M, bioscience company developing vaccine for invertebrates, like shrimps. Investors: Good Growth Capital, Meach Cove Capital, and other global investors.
INVESTMENT CLIMATE PODCAST
Adam Bergman of Ecotech Capital
This week, Alex Shandrovsky met with Adam Bergman, Managing Director at Ecotech Capital and one of the most respected voices in global AgTech and FoodTech finance, for a brutally honest, data-driven look at the state of exits, valuations, fundraising, and what it will take for founders to survive 2025–2026.
Adam breaks down why most exits today are distressed sales, why strategics have lost trust after years of overhyped promises, and why 2026 may be both the start of a new upswing and the highest-bankruptcy year in the sector. This is an unfiltered masterclass on what founders must do to stay alive—and what success will realistically look like over the next decade.
Adam has raised $1.5B+ across AgTech, FoodTech, and ClimateTech.
The full conversation can be found on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Top three findings from this conversation:
“The Exit Winter”: Why There Are Almost No Exits in Ag & Food Tech Today. Adam explains that the current lack of exits is rooted in unrealistic valuations, overfunding from 2018–2021, and stalled IPO/M&A markets. Most exits today are either fire sales or companies selling at invested capital, not valuation. Strategics feel burned, private equity can’t touch unprofitable companies, and the sector is stuck until real profitability appears. ”Very few companies in this industry have reached profitability — and if you don’t have profitability, you’re going to struggle to get anyone in PE. And so now, who are you left with from an M&A perspective? You're left with strategics. Strategics can be great buyers.”
2026 Will Be the “Great Shakeout Year”. Adam predicts that 2026 will bring the highest wave of bankruptcies the sector has ever seen. Many companies have been surviving on SAFEs from 2022–2025, and investors will soon need to decide which portfolio companies to continue supporting. This will expose zombie companies and force consolidation. “ By 2026, you’ll have companies that’ve done SAFEs for three or four years. Investors will finally ask: Is this business actually close to scale and profitability? If we've been unable to get other outside investors to put money into the company in the last few years, has anything changed? Can we get any outside capital? What does the exit landscape look like for this company and others?”
What Companies Should Do Now: Narrow Focus and Hit Real Milestones. Adam says the strongest CEOs today are ruthlessly narrowing scope, cutting burn, and focusing on a small number of milestones that can unlock revenue or strategic partnerships. The “go-big-go-fast” era is dead; survival now requires laser focus. “ The companies getting investor interest today are the ones showing a viable business that doesn’t need huge amounts of additional capital to reach scale.”
NOTEWORTHY
Uber Eats sends in the robots
Starship Technologies
📦 Uber Eats will use Starship’s autonomous sidewalk robots to deliver food in the U.K, and then expand to ‘additional European markets in 2026’ followed by the U.S. in 2027.
⚡Sweden and Denmark will legalize virtual fencing for cattle next year.
🐮 Sea Forest, which produces a feed additive made from native Tasmanian seaweed Asparagopsis to cut methane emissions in cattle, IPO’ed on the ASX, raising $20.5M and valuing the company at $112.1M.
🥜 A new study shows that peanut allergies have plummeted in children, after new guidelines encouraged parents to introduce infants to peanuts.
🚜 Autonomous electric tractor startup Monarch Tractor has warned its staff it may have to lay off 100+ employees, and perhaps even shut down.
🥶 Australian food redistribution platform Yume Food has been placed in liquidation. Founded in 2015, Yume generates additional revenue for food manufacturers such as Mars, Unilever, and General Mills by selling surplus products. It also facilitates donating unsold food to select relief organizations.
📉 In Q3 2025, VCs deployed $1.3B into 117 AgTech transactions, a 15% drop vs. the $1.5B deployed into 117 AgTech transactions in Q3 2024, new Pitchbook data shows.
🪲 Bayer Crop Science and FA Bio have launched a proof-of-concept collaboration funded by EIT Food to deploy fungal bioinsecticides to help battle the Cabbage Stem Flea Beetle in oilseed rape.
🍪 CSM Ingredients has launched Nuaré, a range of cocoa alternative products based on carob (h/t FoodHack/GreenQueen).
NEWS FROM THE FTW COMMUNITY
Michroma bags big fungi prize; competition spores no chance
🏆 The Future of Fungi Award announced michroma as its 2025 winner. The prize comes with a €250K investment into the company. Michroma (from Argentina/U.S.) uses mycofactories to create natural food coloring and flavors. The runner-ups of the award were Mycolever of Germany and Hiro Technologies of the U.S. The award saw 187 global entrants across 59 countries. More info here.
SPONSORED:
The daily health habit you’ll actually stick with…
This time of year, it’s SO hard to stay healthy.
That’s why you need a daily habit that’s easy.
Meet AG1: With just one quick scoop, you’ll support your immune health, gut health, energy, and fill nutrient gaps.
Give AG1 a try today to unlock their best offer ever.
RANDOM STUFF
Finland tops world happiness again — even in November darkness
🐝 Researchers have found that bees can understand Morse code. Guess they’d love us to ... . -. -.. / -- --- .-. . / .... --- -. . -.--
🥸 In Namibia, politician Adolf Hitler Uunona, 59, is heading toward re-election, giving headline writers everywhere both joy and heartburn. Locals stress he’s nothing like that Adolf — except maybe when it comes to commanding attention.
🤔 Hyper realistic food candles: London-based designer Maggie Yang has created a collection of wax candles replicating different foods, including a Ploughman's pie, a wheel of brie, and an entire breakfast plate with beans and brown sauce.
Image credit: Deezen
🇫🇮 That calls for a sauna: Finland just secured first place in the 2025 World Happiness Report (for the eight year in a row), closely followed by Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden. The U.S. dropped from 23rd to 24th place. (Ilkka here — We Finns always get surprised about this, especially now in the middle of November darkness).
🍭 Why candy is used as animal feed in the U.S.
🤷🏻♂️ Roman emperor Antoninus Pius (131-161 CE) died from a cheese overdose. We can all relate.
🐮 Amid falling dairy prices, some farms have turned to offering cow cuddling as a new revenue stream. Says farmer Fiona Wilson: ‘“It’s a bit like a cow’s spa day, really. They just sprawl out while people are stroking them and cuddling them.”’
Fiona Wilson with River, a professional cuddler. Image credit: Dumble Farm
We love you.
Daniel & Ilkka
- - -
🎵 This issue was produced while listening to Si Tu Veux by Baaba Maal, Mumford & Sons, and The Very Best.
THE LEFTOVERS
Written by Daniel Skavén Ruben and Ilkka Taponen.
Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here.
Thank you for being a Premium subscriber! ❤️ It helps us cover the time and money we spend on producing FoodTech Weekly.
THE LEFTOVERS
Written by Daniel Skavén Ruben and Ilkka Taponen.
Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here.
Become a Premium subscriber of FoodTech Weekly for just $5/mo. This helps us cover the time and money we spend on paid newsletters and databases to stay updated on the FoodTech ecosystem. And you’ll get rid of ads. Plus, we’ll send you a food-themed book that we love, once a year.