Green Shoots? Fund-Raising Jumps in October
Chart of the Week – Green Shoots? Fund-Raising Jumps in October
It is too early to call – but October may have seen a first green shoot, after a venture capital fund-raising meltdown through the second half of 2023 and most of 2024 to date.
New Food Finance tracks investments in foodtech and agtech companies which are reducing the environmental impact of food production, from alternative proteins to precision ag.
In this “green transition” space, total fund-raising in October 2024 reached $834 million, up both month on month and year on year, and the highest level since January this year (see our Chart of the Week above).
Fund-raising in the previous month, September, was $390 million, and $385 million in October 2023.
Part of the reason for falling venture capital fund-raising over the past two years has been an expensive funding environment, but global interest rates may now be firmly down, after a big cut in the United States in mid-September, the first in four years – notwithstanding a Donald Trump U.S. presidential victory on Wednesday which is expected to slow rate reductions.
The top five fund-raisings in October were:
Mitsubishi Corporation contributed towards a $261 million fund-raising for Finnforel, a producer of rainbow trout in land-based fish farms, using Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS).
Carbon Robotics raised $70 million for its driverless and tractor-towed weeders that identify, target, and eliminate weeds using thermal energy, in real-time, focusing on large-scale specialty crops. Investors included Bond Capital, NVentures, Anthos Capital, FUSE, Ignition Partners, Revolution, Sozo Ventures and Voyager Capital.
Basecamp Research raised $60 million for its “foundational dataset”, which applies AI to what the company describes as the world’s largest biological database, with goals including to use deep learning models to design genomes and proteins. Investors included S32, True Ventures, Redalpine, Hummingbird Ventures and Singular.
Entosystem raised $58 million in venture capital from Sanimax, Fondaction, and Idealist Capital, to develop a business producing proteins from black soldier fly larvae, offering whole larvae, oil, meal, and frass for animal feed and organic farming.
Helaina raised $45 million from Avidity Partners and Spark Capital, for a technology platform to replicate functional proteins found in the human body, such as human lactoferrin, initially with the company’s product, effera™.
Product Launch: Deep Dive Briefings!
New Food Finance launches today a new feature for subscribers to our platform, a Monthly Market Report. The report aims to increase transparency around market prices in our “green transition” space, and underlying drivers. The report includes:
Regulatory news, kicking off with October’s news that the European Commission proposed to delay by 12 months the EU deforestation regulation
Monthly updates of our Alternative Protein Index and Precision Ag Index, which compare the marketcaps of relevant listed companies with conventional benchmarks
Price reporting of sustainable inputs, starting with an India-based index for biological pesticides
Reporting of retail prices for novel foods, starting with insect-based protein
Soil carbon offset prices
The month’s company-level investments and M&A deals
New Food Finance: Sign up for a 3-day free trial
“Green Transition” Deals of the Week
In our “Green Transition” space last week, we saw fundraising worth over $301 million and one M&A deal.
United States, October 31 – BLU3 is a seaweed farming company with commercial operations in Mexico and Alaska, which merged with Blue Evolution to expand its reach and resources.
Spain, October 31 – Matteco is a materials technology company focusing on green hydrogen production. Matteco develops high-performance catalysts, coatings, and electrodes used for renewable hydrogen production through electrolysis. The company raised $16.3 million from Grupo ASV, Zubi Capital and Napali.
Finland, October 30 – Finnforel is an industrial-scale producer of rainbow trout using Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) in land-based fish farms. The company raised $261 million from Mitsubishi Corporation.
India, October 29 – Bioprime Agrisolutions creates formulations that support crop growth, based on plant-environment interactions, using soil microbes. Its product lineup includes microbe consortia, humic acids, and seaweed extracts. Bioprime raised $6 million from Edaphon, Omnivore and Inflexor Ventures.
France, October 29 – C&DAC provides R&D support for alternative protein companies, assisting with formulation and industrialization to develop eco-friendly, sustainable, and clean-label products. C&DAC also produces its own range of plant-based ingredients from fermented legumes. The company raised $1.7 million from Yeast, ILP and Alsace Business Angels.
France, October 29 – HUBCYCLE is a producer of food ingredients sourced from plant-based waste side-streams. The company raised $16.2 million from ETF Partners, RAISE Ventures, Techmind, Bleu Capital, Citizen Capital and Daphni.