
#313
Hi there,
If you’re in Malmö for FoodTech Forum on Sep 15, or in London for Future FoodTech on Sep 23, join our exclusive IC Dinners. Founders and operators only — more info further below.
This week, we’re also thrilled to announce a major sponsorship:
While global airlines get the Champions League, we’ve secured exclusive rights to a powerhouse squad of Swedish 5th grader soccer players whose performance is entirely fueled by juice boxes and halftime orange slices. Keep an eye out for FoodTech Weekly’s logo on their tiny jerseys; we’re pretty sure our strategic carb-loading advice is about to bring home the title.

Got their back. Literally.
This week's rundown:
Breedr closes €23M ($27M) Series B to put a digital record on every cow
Facet Amtech raises A$3M (~$2.1M) to make ammonia from air and water
OlsAro raises SEK 56M (~$6M) for salt-tolerant wheat
FUNDING
Breedr raises €23M to become the system of record for cattle

Livestock data on the farm. Illustration: FoodTech Weekly
Series B:
USA / UK — Breedr raises €23M ($27M) [Livestock]
Breedr, founded in London in 2018 and now headquartered in Texas, gives every animal a digital record — weight, health, and family history — that follows it from birth through the farms it passes and onto the marketplace. The company says more than two million cattle are already on the platform, with close to €428M ($500M) of livestock transacted this year. The round takes total funding to €39.9M ($46.6M) and will fund expansion of connected supply chains globally. Breedr also operates an embedded cattle finance fund that advances cash against livestock still being raised.
Lead: Partech (impact fund)
Follows: Latitude (LocalGlobe's growth-stage fund), Outsiders Fund
Series A:
Hong Kong — Buddy Bites raises $4.2M [Pet food]
Buddy Bites, founded in 2020, sells subscription-first dog and cat food in Hong Kong and Singapore. More than 85% of revenue is recurring. The Series A was led by Digitalis Ventures and follows a $1M 2025 seed from Leap Venture Studio (Mars Petcare). Cash goes to those two markets, a shelf-stable fresh dog food line, and a Taiwan launch aimed at early 2027. Revenue grew 68% over the past 12 months.
Lead: Digitalis Ventures
Follows: N/A
Seed:
Australia — Facet Amtech raises A$3M (~$2.1M) [Agtech / Fertilizers]
Facet Amtech has developed a multifunctional catalyst that it says can make ammonia directly from air and water, collapsing dedicated hydrogen production and air separation into a single reactor. Cofounder Peter Richardson told AgFunderNews the cash funds a 1 kg/day pilot in early 2027, then a 100 kg/day pilot about two years later, with the company aiming to license plant design and supply catalyst rather than own commercial plants. Facet recently moved from the University of Newcastle campus to its own industrial site nearby.
Lead: N/A — no lead named
Follows: Main Sequence, Uniseed
Canada / USA — Sweet (formerly Landjourney) raises $7.4M [Ag fintech]
Sweet, founded in Montréal in 2024, builds loan-origination software for agricultural lenders and says about $10B in loan volume already runs through the platform. The all-primary seed mixed equity and SAFEs, closed in Q2, and will fund expansion of SweetAg plus a move into commercial lending beyond agriculture. Customers named include AgAmerica, CHS Capital, and Growmark.
Leads: Diagram, Builders VC, Cooperative Ventures (co-leads)
Follows: N/A
Stage undisclosed:
Sweden — OlsAro raises SEK 56M (~$6M) [Agtech / Seeds]
OlsAro, founded in Gothenburg in 2013, breeds wheat that can grow on saline soil. Impact Loop reports Industrifonden is coming in as a new large shareholder on this raise. Round stage was not named.
Lead: Industrifonden
Follows: N/A
Spain — MOA FoodTech raises €3.3M ($3.8M) [Functional ingredients]
MOA FoodTech develops functional ingredients such as an egg replacer and a yeast enhancer, via AI-optimized biomass fermentation. The funding will be used to develop new health and nutraceutical ingredients as well as scaling production ahead of commercial launches.
Lead: Swanlaab Innvierte AgriFood Tech, EIC Fund and CDTI-Innvierte
Follows: N/A
Belgium — Paleo secures €2M ($2.3M) [Precision fermentation]
Paleo produces animal-free myoglobin via precision fermentation for meat and fish alternatives. CEO Hermes Sanctorum said the company has cut production costs 613-fold over two years and demonstrated large-scale production. The round, led by existing investor Beyond Impact VC, will support regulatory submissions and commercial partnerships. Paleo previously raised €12M in 2023.
Lead: Beyond Impact VC
Follows: N/A
NOTEWORTHY
A $38M algae-to-pet-food deal, Deere money for test plots, and a sweet-protein green light in Israel

Image: Proudi
Genesis has acquired premium pet nutrition brand Proudi in a deal valued at about $38M. Queensland microalgae producer Genesis gets a consumer route for its chlorella, including Proudi's YumGuard range and a national distribution agreement with Coles. Proudi founder Dennis King joins the Genesis Group board; Eric Chen remains CEO of the combined group.
Medici Brands, owner of high-protein CPG snack brand David Protein, raised a $250M Series B at a $2.25bn valuation. The round was co-led by Greenoaks and Valor Equity Partners. Capital backs expansion of HallPass candy and Rowdy chips alongside David.
John Deere is investing $10M over three years in agtech incubator Reservoir Farms. The money supports farm operations across Salinas and Sonoma, with expansion planned into California's Central Valley and Yuma, Arizona. Reservoir currently houses 22 startups that rent test plots, and CEO Danny Bernstein said the incubator is now profitable.
Galicia approved an €805M biotechnology strategy for 2026–2030 that names alternative proteins, including cultivated meat, among its priorities. Roughly €572M is public investment and €233M is expected from private capital. GFI Europe said it took part in the consultation. The plan sits alongside an existing Hijos de Rivera / Inproteins / Xesgalicia plant-based protein facility in Teixeiro-Curtis, due to begin operations in late 2026.
Amai Proteins' sweelin has been approved for sale in Israel by the Ministry of Health, the company's third novel-food clearance in less than six months after the US and Singapore. The precision-fermented sweet protein is authorized in more than 25 food and beverage categories. CEO Dr. Amir Guttman said it is the first sweet protein approved in Israel.
ZELP launched ZELP Sense, a wearable that continuously measures methane and carbon dioxide from individual cows and sends the data to ZELP Insight. Development was supported by the Global Methane Hub's Enteric Fermentation R&D Accelerator. The company is evaluating a future equity raise to support commercial deployment and is still developing a separate methane-mitigation wearable, ZELP Mitigate.
Nūmi has secured €3.7M ($4.3M) in non-dilutive France 2030 i-Démo funding, carried out by Bpifrance, to scale cell-cultured breast milk. CEO Eden Banon-Lagrange said the grant will fund bioprocess scale-up and industrialisation. This is a grant, not equity.
Fysh Foods (formerly Finneato) has been acquired by City Roots Hospitality, the plant-based restaurant group behind Beyond Sushi, Colette, and Anixi, led by chef Guy Vaknin. Terms of the all-cash deal were not disclosed.
FTW Column
Why FoodTech Fails Before It Scales

FTW columnist Jürgen Keil has spent 35 years in agrifood value chains, much of it as a senior executive at Cargill, scaling and running businesses from small operations up to global supply chains. In his latest column for FTW, he explains how FoodTech fails because the cost doesn’t work — and how to mitigate this from day one. Great read!
IC DINNERS
Santa Fe sat down at Farina di Famiglia

IC Dinner Santa Fe, 31 August 2026. Farina di Famiglia.
The table. Off the record.
On Aug 31, after the Biotech & Agrifood Afternoon at Michroma, we hosted an IC Dinner as a side event of the Santa Fe Business Forum.
Huge thanks to our cohosts: Ricky Cassini of Michroma, Sebastián Zaera of BioBlends, and Joaquín Fisch of NAT4Bio.
Same format as always: founders and operators, off the record. Next tables: Malmö 15 September at Fisky Business Dockan, and London the night before Future Food-Tech at The Pilot with Tomas Turner of Cosaic. We are looking for additional London cohosts. Become a cohost.
IC LIVE GLOBAL EVENTS
Malmö 15 Sep. London 23 Sep. Additional cohosts for FFT London.
Two Investment Climate dinners are live on the calendar. Founders and operators only. Off the record. The full list is here.
IC Dinner Malmö, Fisky Business Dockan — Tuesday 15 September, 7:30–9:30 PM CEST, Dockgatan 1, 211 12 Malmö. Harbour tavern at Dockan, Västra Hamnen. If you are at FoodTech Forum the same day (Slagthuset), come to the harbour after. $9 covers entry and your first beer; extra drinks on the house. Register here.
IC Dinner London, The Pilot — Wednesday 23 September, 7:00–9:00 PM BST, 68 River Way, Greenwich SE10 0BE (~15 min walk from InterContinental O2). Night before FFT London (24–25 Sep). Already cohosted with Tomas Turner, CEO of Cosaic. Same table: founders and operators, about 12 people, no investors, no pitches. $9 first beer, own tab after. We are looking for additional cohosts — local founders who will help fill the table. You bring the people and the room sense. We bring the playbook, logistics, and recruitment. Register here or become a cohost.
Fireside Chat with Paul Shapiro — Wednesday 9 September, virtual, sold out. Waitlist here.
RANDOM STUFF
Seagull heists, mad honey, and cookies from plastic bottles

Giphy
Britons lose an estimated £171 million worth of food a year to seagulls, according to a Compare the Market survey of 2,000 UK adults. Fish and chips are the most stolen item.
Real world Grand Theft Auto: A drunk Hungarian man stole a plane, flew a little too close to a Nuclear Power Plant, landed in a sunflower field, stopped a passing motorist and tried to hijack the car, before he was arrested.
Malaria has declined from about 40% to 0.04% in Zanzibar over the past 25 years, bringing the islands close to elimination.
Himalayan "mad honey" is now being sold online worldwide. Grayanotoxin from rhododendron nectar can slow the heart to dangerous levels after little more than a teaspoon, depending on the batch.
Researchers at Boulby mine in North Yorkshire are growing lettuce and pak choi more than 1,000 metres underground, testing whether disused mines can cut the energy cost of vertical farming. The 12-month trial is a University of Sheffield / Farm Urban partnership.
A walk down memery lane (28 sec video).
NASA-funded scientists at Southern Illinois University turned PET bottle waste into cookie-shaped "µBites" using engineered yeast. Nobody has tasted them yet — human testing is still awaiting approval. But since the only thing standing between the FTW team and our goal weight is one bad food poisoning, we’re willing to volunteer.
We love you.
Alex, Kat, Steve, and Ilkka
- - -
This issue was produced while listening to 360 by Charli xcx, Robyn, and Yung Lean.
THE LEFTOVERS
By Alex Shandrovsky, Kat Tarasova, Steve Edgerton, and Ilkka Taponen.
Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here.
