#307
Hi there,
Steve here. On August 5, we’re hosting a closed-door Mastermind session with Arturo Elizondo, co-founder and CEO of The EVERY Company.
Arturo is one of the world’s most successful AgriFoodTech entrepreneurs. He’s raised roughly $290M, most recently a $55M Series D, to scale EVERY’s animal-free egg protein from lab concept to commercial products now carried by the likes of Walmart and Target.
Bring a business challenge you're stuck on, and Arturo and the group will work through it with you. Free for FTW Hub members, $19 otherwise. Register here.
This week's rundown:
📈 Moa Technology lands $30M Series C to tackle herbicide resistance
🚀 Bezos Centre launches a new FoodTech accelerator
🐷 Pig jaws are now growing human teeth
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FUNDING
Moa Technology leads the week with $30M Series C
Image credit: Moa Technology
Series C:
🇬🇧 U.K. — Moa Technology raises £22.2M (~$30M) [Crop Protection]
Moa Technology is an Oxford-spun agricultural biotech discovering novel herbicides to break weed resistance. The Series C raise will advance its discovery platform that has already screened 900,000+ compounds and identified 80+ novel modes of action.
Leads: Oxford Science Enterprises, Supernova Invest
Follows: Agri Investment Fund, GrainInnovate, Infinity Investment Partners, Magdalen College Oxford, Lansdowne Partners, Parkwalk, Oxford University Innovation
Series A:
🇮🇱 Israel — Plantopia raises $9M [Molecular Farming]
Plantopia grows casein compositionally identical to cow's milk in sprouted plants instead of livestock or fermentation tanks, the first platform to produce all four major casein subtypes. The round funds its shift from R&D into commercial production.
Leads: Schreiber Foods, Siddhi Capital.
Follows: Tara Dairy, Yotvata, Tempo
Seed:
🇮🇹 Italy — Nous raises €2.3M (~$2.5M) [Novel Ingredients]
Nous is pitching Koncentra, a botanical functional ingredient, as a natural alternative to caffeine for energy and focus. The round funds clinical validation and supply chain expansion ahead of a planned US launch.
Lead: dsm-firmenich Ventures
Follows: FoodSeed, Eatable Adventures (Accelera Ventures)
Undisclosed Stage / Round:
🇪🇸 Spain — Sensesbit raises €1M (~$1.2M) [AI]
Sensesbit's Sensory AI platform digitizes and standardizes sensory analysis, a discipline that was historically slow and expert-dependent. The round funds international expansion and the rollout of agentic AI capable of analyzing large volumes of sensory data.
Leads: Clave Capital, Eoniq Fund
Follows: Paraíso Natural Ventures, WindOne Consultores
🇺🇸 U.S.A — FireHawk Bioherbicide raises $5.6M [Crop Protection]
The raise closed through conversion of options, with participation exceeding 98%, as FireHawk's nonanoic-acid herbicide gains EPA registration in all 50 states.
Lead: N/A
INVESTMENT CLIMATE PODCAST
Ricky Cassini of Michroma, Alan Valicenti of We Are Palta and Giacomo Bastianelli of Rainbow Crops
This week, Alex Shandrovsky had conversations with:
🎨 Ricky Cassini, Co-Founder & CEO of Michroma, the precision-fermentation startup making natural food colors from fungi, and Alan Valicenti, Partner & Chief Growth Officer of We Are Palta. They break down how high-caliber design and data-room discipline turned a $5M seed target into an oversubscribed $6.4M round with ~$8M raised to date — and unlocked a flood of inbound customer requests without changing the core product. Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
🌈 Giacomo Bastianelli, Co-Founder & CEO of Rainbow Crops — and one of the first founders to return to the podcast. Eighteen months ago we were talking about his pre-seed, and recently he's closed a €9.7M seed round led by LIFTT, alongside AIF, PINC, VIB, Corteva (via Corteva Catalyst), and Maia Ventures plus a $7M grant from the Gates Foundation. Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
🎥 You can catch both conversations on YouTube as well.
NOTEWORTHY
Bezos backs a new sustainable foodtech accelerator
Image credit: Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein
🚀 The Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, in partnership with Imperial College London, launched a new FoodTech accelerator program. Participating startups will be able to access up to £100,000 ($134,000) in equity-free funding and potential venture investments from Oyster Bay VC and Foodlabs.
🌊 The EU invested €5.7M in Alganova, a 12-institution project building a biorefinery to grow protein-rich microalgae on marine waste and CO2, targeting cost parity with plant proteins.
💰 Australia's plant-based major Noumi agreed to a roughly $518 million take-private by Arrovest, the billionaire Perich family's investment vehicle.
🧬 All G launched a low-iron, precision-fermented lactoferrin in the US, with a human-identical version said to be imminent.
📋 The FDA's proposed rule eliminating the self-affirmed GRAS pathway has slipped to December.
♻️ Singapore's National Environment Agency awarded S$5.3M ($4.1M) to three food waste upcycling projects to support its push toward 20% fibre and 30% protein self-sufficiency by 2035.
RANDOM STUFF
When pigs grow human teeth
🩸 Singapore lifted a decades-old ban on pig blood. It’s selling out everywhere.
🦷 In other pig news: pig jaws are helping regrow human teeth.
🍇 The American grocery store produce aisle is sweeter than it has ever been.
🍷 Why is wine a status symbol and soup isn't?
🙃 In striving to solve its office heat problem, Tokyo created a hairy leg problem.
We love you.
Steve, Ilkka, and Alex
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🎵 This issue was produced while listening to Weather Remixes by Tycho
THE LEFTOVERS
By Steve Edgerton, Ilkka Taponen and Alex Shandrovsky.
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