Hi there,

Kat here — my first note to you as Managing Editor. Thank you for the welcome last week. We’ve got lots more stories brewing that we will be rolling out over the next few weeks as we onboard our crew of Contributing Writers. Do let us know if there are specific topics you’d like us to cover!

Also, our friends at The Good Food Institute Europe are looking for a new Executive Director. The role can be based in Belgium or the UK, with relocation support available. Deadline to apply is September 13. More information is here.

This week's rundown:

🐟 Oceanloop raises €38.5M to farm giant grouper on land in Europe
🐮 Ranchbot closes a $15M+ series B to expand into the US
🌱 Goodleaf Farms achieves profitability across it’s vertical farms

🇩🇪 Germany — Computomics raises €6.3M [Ag Biotech]
Computomics based in Tübingen pairs genomics and environmental data with machine learning to predict crop field performance. This round will allowing scaling of the platform across additional breeding programs.
Lead: Convent Capital Agri Food Fund (€5M of the round)
Follows: High-Tech Gründerfonds, MBG Baden-Württemberg, Amathaon Capital, plus founders and scientific advisers; backed by the EU via InvestEU

🇺🇸 USA — Ranchbot raises over $15M (A$22M) [Agtech]
Ranchbot integrates IoT devices and satellite connectivity to enable remote management of livestock, soil, and water infrastructure. With 12,000+ customers including 10M cattle and 15M sheep, this round will fund their expansion in Australia and the US.
Leads: Lewis & Clark Partners, Fulcrum Global Capital (co-leads)
Follows: Builders VC, The Cultiv8 Livestock Technology Fund, Lever VC, Macdoch Ventures

🇮🇱 Israel — Ever After Foods raises $2M [Alt Protein]
Ever After Foods makes cultivated meat using edible scaffolds and a packed-bed production system. This week they also announced acquisition of Belguim’s Fishway for its aquatic cell lines and animal-free growth media.
Lead: N/A — no lead named
Follows: N/A

🇩🇪 Germany — Oceanloop raises up to €38.5M in equity and venture debt [Aquaculture]
Oceanloop develops flexible software-driven recirculating aquaculture systems for premium seafood. The financing includes €32 in EIB venture debt and will fund a 250-ton farm in Kiel, followed by a 2,000 ton facility in Gran Canaria. The company wants to turn its modular technology into a replicable platform for land-based marine farming.
Lead: N/A — no lead named
Follows: Hatch Blue (Blue Revolution Fund), Stolt Ventures, European Investment Bank

🇨🇦 Canada — Mid-Day Squares secures C$8M in debt financing [CPG]
Mid-Day Squares which makes plant-based snacks is installing a new production line to move toward 24/7 operation, increasing annual capacity ahead of its US rollout at Walmart and Costco.
Lead: N/A
Follows: Investissement Québec, Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions

🇬🇧 UK — Versatile RobotX raises €1.17M in equity and grants [Robotics]
Versatile RobotX builds autonomous robots for fruit and vegetable picking, and hydroponic harvesting. The company plans to use this funding to support manufacturing-readiness and scale up.
Follows: British Design Fund (equity), Innovate UK Growth Catalyst, Defra Farming Innovation Programme, University of Essex Enterprise, EPSRC, Freeport East

This week, Alex Shandrovsky had conversations with:

🧮 Iris Ventures Partner Florian Wojewodzki, who breaks down the venture math behind the Barcelona-headquartered firm’s €225M across two funds: why it underwrites MOIC (vs. IRR), targets 4x over 3-5 years, and leads or co-leads for 15–25% with initial checks of €7–8M that can stretch to €20M with follow-on. He also explains why Iris sometimes asks existing investors to hand equity back to founders, and why he’s betting on a 10–15 year health-and-wellness cycle driven by strategic exits rather than IPOs. Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

📉 Livelyhood Founder Lance Lively — formerly of The EVERY Company and BioLumen — challenges a premise that better technology will drive adoption on its own. Looking at everything from kerosene and automobiles, to recombinant rennet and precision-fermentation, he argues that new technologies win when they address existing demand, and not simply because they offer better features. Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

🎥 You can catch both conversations on YouTube as well.

🔬 Tufts opened a 17,000 sq ft food and materials innovation hub in Medford, MA with $4.6M in funding from the university and a $2.1M Massachusetts Technology Collaborative grant. Operated by BioLabs, the facility includes 46 lab benches, a test kitchen, cell culture and bioprocessing equipment, and a plant cell repository of 2,000+ species.

🥩 Baltimore's Offbeast says it has made the first hybrid whole cuts by combining beef and plants in a 50:50 ratio in a “continuous muscle-like fiber structure.” Its pilot plant can produce up to three tons per shift, and 16/20 tasters couldn’t readily distinguish between its blended beef tips from conventional meat.

🌱 GoodLeaf Farms says all three of its Canadian vertical farms are now profitale. Their revenue grew from $6.4M in 2023, to $34M in 2025, and is up another 31% YTD, driven by growing demand and retail distribution for its microgreens and salad blends.

🏚️ ClimateAi has wound down after raising around $38M and working with customers including Dole, Suntory, Oatly and McCain. Co-founder Himanshu Gupta cited geopolitical and climate headwinds, and said capital would be returned to investors.

🍎 Spring freezes have wiped out much of this year’s fruit crop in parts of the US. Ela Family Farms in Colorado harvested just nine(!) peaches from its12,000+ trees, and one Pennsylvania grower lost 95% of its stone fruit, with NY State estimating total losses at over $30M.

Five FTW events between now and mid-September. The full calendar is here.

🍻 IC Dinner Berlin — Monday 24 August, 6:00 PM CEST, at 3 Schwestern in Kreuzberg. Founders and operators only, no investors, Chatham House rules, one table. $9 covers entry and your first beer. Huge thanks to our co-hosts Arianna Spaggiari (FoodHack Ambassador, Berlin) and Oliver Fuss (CEO, FoodFunder). Register here.

🇮🇳 Food Innovation, An Investment Opportunity for India — Wednesday 26 August, 6:00–9:00 PM IST, at CHHAV by Kissa, Oshiwara, Mumbai. A side event at Fi India 2026. Ayana Bio, The Better Meat Co. and Prefer show what they have built and why they are choosing India to fuel global expansion for plant cell culture, fungal fermentation and bean-free coffee. Reporting by Ashita Patodia, Senior Associate at Omnivore, and co-hosted with Biokraft Foods. 20 seats, invite only, no pitching. Request a seat.

🇮🇳 FTW IC Meet Up Bangalore — Tuesday 1 September, 5:00–7:00 PM IST, at FLO Club & Kitchen, Bengaluru. An invite-only event for Series A+ deep tech investors. Featuring Moonrider, Ayana Bio, Fragaria, Benzai10, and Zenfold Ventures. Request a seat.

🔥 Fireside Chat with Paul Shapiro — Wednesday 9 September, a closed-door, virtual Mastermind session for founders with the co-founder and CEO of The Better Meat Co, and author of Clean Meat. Hosted by Michroma CEO Ricky Cassini. Off the record, and not recorded. Register here.

🇸🇪 IC Dinner Malmö, at The Drop — Tuesday 15 September, 7:30 PM CEST. If you're coming to The Drop, come the night before: same format, founders and operators only, off the record. $9 covers entry and your first beer. Register here.

📍 Want one of these in your city? We are actively looking for hosts. You bring the vision and the content — we bring the playbook, the logistics, and the recruitment. Become a host.

🍳 7,200 eggs went into a four-meter pan over an open fire in Malmedy, Belgium, for the 30th Annual Giant Omelette Festival.

🐶 150 corgis from 9 countries showed up in Vilnius to compete for corgi glory. An American named Gustave the Girl Dog took the racing crown, and Mr. Corgington, won for loudest bark.

🎮 Can video games recruit actual farmers? Stardew Valley, a farming simulation game, draws over 120K players a day, but turning virtual farmers into real ones may be a tougher sell.

📊 Hannah Ritchie built a world agricultural production explorer on USDA data to easily visualize yield, production and harvested area, by crop and country.

We love you.
Kat, Steve, Ilkka, and Alex

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🎵 This issue was produced while listening to Blackmill.

By Kat Tarasova, Steve Edgerton, Ilkka Taponen, and Alex Shandrovsky.
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Disclosures | Boring disclaimer