Series A:

🇺🇸 USA — Robigo Bio raises undisclosed Series A [Crop Inputs]
Massachusetts-based Robigo Bio engineers microbes for crop protection. Its ARGO platform aims to take a biological from design to field-tested in under 20 months. Its lead programs are a soybean Sudden Death Syndrome seed treatment targeting a 2028 launch, and a fusarium-wilt product for lettuce and berries targeting 2029.
Lead: Leaps by Bayer
Follows: Illumina Ventures, SVG Thrive, Congruent Ventures, Endeavor8

Seed:

🇺🇸 USA — Lilac Agriculture raises $2.3M [Crop Inputs]
Fargo, North Dakota’s Lilac Agriculture (NDSU spinout) builds next-generation rhizobial inoculants for pulse growers. Lilac’s lead product treats yellow pea and lentil seed, with company-reported Northern Plains trials showing a 6% yield increase versus a leading commercial inoculant. The oversubscribed seed round (original target $1.5M) funds expanded field trials, broader product deployment, R&D, and Canada entry prep.
Lead: Innova
Follows: 701 Fund, Ag Ventures Alliance, Evergreen Climate Innovations, North Dakota Development Fund, Pathway Ventures, Tall Grass Ventures

🇺🇸 USA — Spearhead Bio raises $1.62M [Agtech]
St. Louis-based Danforth Technology Company spinout Spearhead Bio is developing new plant genome-engineering methods. Its platform, TAHITI, is optimized for precise large-DNA insertion and replacement in crop genomes, addressing one of CRISPR’s shortcomings. This oversubscribed SAFE seed funds R&D and industry licensing.
Lead: BioGenerator Ventures; Danforth Technology Company
Follows: QRM Capital, Grit Road Partners, St. Louis Port Authority Helix Fund, SDH Capital

Stage undisclosed:

🇬🇧 UK — MicroLub raises £7.5M (~$10M) [Biotech]
University of Leeds spinout MicroLub uses protein microgels and water to replicate fat’s behavior in food, claiming up to 75% fat and calorie cuts without starches or gums.
Lead: Northern Gritstone
Follows: NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance (and all existing investors)

🇸🇪 Sweden — Swedish Algae Factory raises SEK 31.5M (~$3M) [Biotech]
Gothenburg’s Swedish Algae Factory cultivates diatoms and extracts porous silica shells sold as Algica for beauty and skincare (with solar/battery R&D). Growth runs on food-industry wastewater — algae consume nitrogen and phosphorus that would otherwise drive eutrophication. Impact Loop reports an oversubscribed “reconstruction round” closed after a hard stretch.
Lead: Not named in available coverage
Follows: Not named in available coverage

Grants:

🇩🇰 Denmark — React Foods wins DKK 4.2M (~$660K) [Biotech]
Copenhagen-based university spinout React Foods is piloting a two-stage process to make protein-enriched ingredients. First, microbes convert CO₂ and renewable hydrogen into acetate, then yeast turns that acetate into biomass.
Awarded by: BioInnovation Institute (BII)

Latin America is home to world-class biotechnology talent and unparalleled biodiversity, yet a frustrating paradox remains: venture capital is struggling to keep pace. While startups across the region are pioneering solutions in areas like agrifoodtech, agricultural biologicals, and climate-smart agriculture, they frequently encounter a funding gap compared to their counterparts in North America and Europe. Overall, LatAm attracts just 2% of global venture capital.

This recent deep-dive by our guest author Luz Gorostiaga explores the root causes of this capital disconnect, shedding light on the structural hurdles local founders face, with insights from Luis Stein of Andes VC, Alex Kopelyan of SOSV, Alex Bondar of Acre Venture Partners, and Bonnie Brayton of InnoVenture Iowa.

🇪🇸 Elian secured a €40M minority stake from Spanish state investor COFIDES (FOCO) to expand its soy-protein plant at the Port of Barcelona. A rare public-money bet on European plant-protein processing capacity.

🧀 Formo is scaling precision-fermented casein ahead of a US debut, with the narrative shifting from sustainability storytelling toward performance — melt, stretch, and functionality that dairy buyers care about.

🐟 120 chefs pledged to take salmon off their menus under the UK “Nobody Ordered This” campaign — a supply-side pressure point restaurants can directly control.

🗑 New York has a food-waste problem; South Korea already solved it. BBC Future walks through the policy and logistics playbook that turned food waste into a tracked, fee-bearing stream.

🍳 Wonder deployed its “Infinite Makeline” in Manhattan — automation aimed at speeding and standardizing high-volume prepared food.

🌾 VTT concluded a €3M ingredient project with new oat fiber IP and legume flavor treatment.

🌽 The strange reproductive science behind modern corn — Ambrook’s Offrange on the freaks in the cornfield that made hybrid maize possible.

🇳🇱 Fireside with Thijs Bosch, CEO, The Protein Brewery — Monday 19 October, 5:00–6:00 PM CET, virtual, 10 seats. Cohosts on the calendar: Tomas Turner (Cosaic), Ricky Cassini (Michroma). Register here.

🇺🇸 IC Meetup San Francisco — 21 October, downtown SF. Hosts on the Hub event: Nathan (Solio Bio), Alec (Tomorrow Inc), Ricky (Michroma). Register here.

🇸🇬 IC Dinner Singapore — 26 October at Paulaner Bräuhaus, Millenia Walk. Register here.

📍 Want a table in your city? Become a co-host.

Full calendar: foodtechweekly.com/events.

🐻 Fat Bear Week is back in Alaska. Vote for the chunkiest salmon-fed celebrity on Katmai National Park’s livestream. Peak autumn content 😜🍂

🍗 A Kentucky farm is serving ostrich steak to people with alpha-gal syndrome — the tick-borne red-meat allergy that makes beef and pork off-limits.

🌊 Our favorite moment from the UNGA opening: Haiti’s President drinking straight from the pitcher: