Hi there,

Daniel here — After an incredible journey serving as your editor since I founded FoodTech Weekly in June 2020, it’s time for me to share some personal news.

On May 18, I will be transitioning into a new full-time role and stepping down from my post here at FoodTech Weekly (May 13 will be my final FTW issue). The new role — which keeps me firmly rooted in the AgriFood space — is with a semi-governmental agency, and due to potential conflicts of interest I have to step back from many existing commitments.

I started FoodTech Weekly because I was captivated by the rapid pace of change in our industry. I saw how new tech and innovation weren’t just changing how we produce, distribute, and consume food, but were also giving us the tools to build a more environmentally sustainable and nourishing food system.

Over the last six years, I’ve done my best to curate the stories that matter and feature the brave founders who are challenging the status quo. My goal was always to do my part in connecting this ecosystem — and looking back at the community we’ve built, I hope I’ve succeeded.

Having produced this newsletter almost every week for 6 years, it’s hard to summarize the experience. It has been my front-row seat to the evolution of our ecosystem, its ups and downs. More importantly, it’s allowed me to learn from and connect with innovators, founders, and change-makers all over the world. Your appreciation and engagement over the years have meant the world to me (here are a few such words of encouragement that still make me smile). I’ve made so many friends along the way.

While it’s bittersweet to move on, I couldn’t be leaving the newsletter in better hands. Alex and Ilkka will be taking over the stewardship of FTW, ensuring you stay at the forefront of the industry's most important shifts.

And we aren't just maintaining the status quo — we’re growing. We are currently in the process of expanding our editorial team with a fresh cohort of writers to bring even more depth and diverse perspectives to your inbox.

I leave this role feeling incredibly optimistic. I truly believe that FoodTech Weekly is poised to grow and improve in ways I’ve only dreamed of, and I can’t wait to see where this team takes it next (hint: check out FTW Hub).

A small correction from last week’s issue: Opalia doesn’t do precision fermentation dairy - they do cell-cultured dairy.

This week's rundown:

💷 Meatly lands £10M+ to build cultivated-meat facility for pet food
📰 Vori scores $22M to help independent grocers compete with the big chains
🕺 The coolest music video we’ve seen in a long time

Today’s newsletter was sent to {{active_subscriber_count}} subscribers. Welcome to FoodTech Weekly.

Ilkka here. A while ago, I had the opportunity to speak with the CEO of Finless Foods, Brandon Chen. He shared some intriguing updates with us, his views on the future of food, but maybe most interestingly, the special way the company has structured itself. Finless Foods has gone fully virtual, meaning that they have outsourced both R&D and manufacturing, a very unusual operating model. Brandon believes that the model works because the communication works, and the partner company is very professional. Indeed, the same two qualities are required of the operator, whether it is an in-house function or outsourced, and the management requirements are the same as well, while the way of managing is a bit different. Finless Foods is the first foodtech company we have heard of operating this way, and it will be very interesting to see whether the model becomes more popular in the future. You can find the full interview here. This is a must-read for all the scalers out there!

Six years of curated content, relationships, and community — for the founders transforming how we grow, produce, and distribute food. Join now!

🇺🇸 USA — Vori raises $22M Series B [Food Retail & Restaurant Tech]
Software for independent grocers that processes payments, tracks inventory, reads supplier invoices, adjusts shelf prices, creates purchase orders, and helps stores decide when to reorder.
Lead: Cherryrock Capital
Follows: Greylock Partners, The Factory

🇬🇧 U.K. — Meatly raises £10.4M (~$14.1M) Series A [Cell-Cultured Meat]
Meatly will build Europe’s largest cultured-meat facility and expect pet food product releases in 2027.
Lead: Oyster Bay Venture Capital, Clean Growth Fund, JamJar Investments
Follows: N/A

🇬🇧 U.K. — SugaROx raises £2.5M (~$3.4M) Series A [AgTech]
Crop biostimulant company.
Lead: The Mosaic Company
Follows: N/A

🇩🇪 Germany — Primogene raises €4.1M (~$4.8M) Seed [Biotech / Fermentation]
Nature-identical enzymatic biomolecules for the nutrition and wellness sectors.
Lead: High-Tech Gründerfonds
Follows: Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen, Better Ventures, Sächsische Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Golzern Holding, FS Life Science Investment, and Marc Struhalla

🇺🇸 USA — Cattler raises $2M [Animal Health]
Cattler’s platform integrates feeding, animal health, inventory, performance tracking, and financial workflows into a single unified system designed for cattle operations; it functions both online and offline, enabling real-time data capture in the field regardless of connectivity, and is built with AI embedded throughout.
Lead: Homegrown Capital
Follows: Grit Road Partners

🇩🇪 Germany — vGreens raises €2M (~$2.35M) [Vertical Farming / CEA]
Real-time AI-powered monitoring of plant metabolism in polytunnels and greenhouses
Lead: Frutania, Dürr, Christ Capital, Vornvc
Follows: N/A.

🇩🇰 Denmark — Decameal raises Undisclosed sum in Seed [Aquaculture]
Patent-pending process to convert invasive shore crabs into sustainable protein and lipid ingredients for the feed industry.
Lead: Delphinus Venture Capital, Rockstart, Aller Aqua
Follows: N/A.

🇮🇱 Israel — PhenOlives raises $270K in Undisclosed stage [Food Waste & Upcycling]
Commercial-scale production line converting olive pomace into food-grade olive flour.
Lead: OurCrowd
Follows: N/A

This week, Alex Shandrovsky had a conversation with Kim Anderson Odhner, Managing Partner at UNOVIS Asset Management. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

‘UNOVIS Asset Management is one of the most experienced and earliest venture funds in the alternative protein space. Kim pulls back the curtain on how UNOVIS manages its portfolio during the FoodTech winter, detailing the exact thesis behind their recent follow-on investments in Green Rebel Foods, The Protein Brewery, and Alpine Bio. We discuss why trying to change the habits of meat-eaters is a "lost cause," how molecular farming startups are pivoting to high-value medical-grade ingredients, and why the next era of FoodTech requires abandoning the Silicon Valley playbook of trying to overthrow legacy FMCG giants.’

🫙After decades of progress in combating hunger, the share of undernourished people is increasing again in Africa (h/t DigitalFoodLab).

🥛 Revenues at oat milk giant Oatly were up 15.6% in Q1 2026.

💸 What does a good investment in AgTech look like? Pitchbook offers some clues.

🤖 Delivery robot company Starship which operates 3K autonomous delivery robots in 300+ locations in 8 countries just made its 10 millionth delivery.

🐟 The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is urging consumers to completely avoid U.K.-caught cod as population plunges.

🇳🇱 The Netherlands just updated the country’s national food guide, cutting recommended intake of meat and dairy. Amsterdam also just banned ads for meat and fossil fuel.

😵 Swedish indoor vertical farming company Green City Farming has filed for bankruptcy.

🧨 Every vs Onego: The long-running IP-dispute between the two novel food companies Every and Onego Bio is evolving. As reported by Protein Product Technology, the US federal court has ruled that patent litigation between Onego Bio and The EVERY Company should proceed in Delaware rather than Wisconsin, after determining that the Wisconsin court lacked personal jurisdiction over the defendant. The CEO’s of the two companies viewed the development very differently: Every’s Arturo Elizondo posted on Linkedin “We’re thrilled to see the Court dismiss this lawsuit, so we can get back to what really matters.”, while Maija Itkonen of Onego wrote a post saying: “Over?? We just selected the appropriate jurisdiction. Now the real work can start” while criticizing news reporting of the case: “It’s like announcing the Wimbledon champion when the only thing decided is which court the match will be played on.”

🇺🇸 USA: The House of Representatives pass a 2026 Farm Bill. As reported by the Carbon Copy, the House Farm Bill falls short on two important priorities: investing in long-term soil and ecosystem health, and expanding access to federal programs to help producers implement climate-smart practices. Under this version, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program is cut by nearly $1B and there is an overall prioritization of precision agriculture over proven climate-smart practices.

🏆 The Global Call for Startups is back for 2026, and applications are now open. Building on the EAT-Lancet Commission framework, The Global Call focuses on identifying early-stage ventures capable of transforming food systems at scale. Selected startups will be invited to pitch at Impact/Week at Norrsken House Barcelona on October 14-15. Apply by June 15.

🚜Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator has put out a request for startups working on AI for low-pesticide agriculture.

🎤 Victor Waldenström of Frankly Foods wrote a postcard for FTW from OK, Bye in Reykjavik, Iceland.

🦾 A greenhouse in the Netherlands is using robots with AI and smart cameras to identify and pick ripe tomatoes with precision. The system, developed by Four Growers using a FANUC robot arm, ensures fast and damage-free harvesting. Check out this video showing the robot in action.

🤯 Nicotine is the newest “health” trend. Influencers are spinning nicotine as a ‘natural’ health hack.

📈 AI will create more jobs, not fewer, argues Torsten Slok (Chief Economist at Apollo and former Chief Economist at Deutsche Bank).

😴 South Korea is trying to promote the importance of sleep with its third annual power nap contest. Nearly 200 attendees dressed as sleeping beauties or princes gathered in Seoul on Saturday to compete for best short-term sleeper.

🐟 The craziest foodtech video of 2026 so far? Introducing the Fish Spanker, which spreads dead fish as feed to live ones in a fish farm. Most upvoted comments of this Reddit video include “This feels wrong” and “Thank you for flying Ryanair”.

😮 The newly released music video for STORM II by Swedish rapper Yung Lean and GENER8ION (directed by Romain Gavras) has gone viral, and for good reason: It’s hypnotic and the choreography (by Damien Jalet) is surreal — a human kaleidoscope.

We love you.
Daniel, Ilkka, and Alex

- - -

🎵 This issue was produced while Ilkka was listening to Ascend by Dimmu Borgir. Daniel was listening to STORM II by GENER8ION and Yung Lean.

By Daniel Skavén Ruben, Ilkka Taponen, and Alex Shandrovsky.
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