Five Green Transition Champions of 2024
Graphic of the Week: Five Green Transition Champions of 2024
Welcome to the New Food Finance weekly newsletter, where we report on a green transition in food and ag, highlighting a growth opportunity in response to environmental regulation and changing consumer choices.
This week, we look back on 2024, and consider which investors and companies made the biggest difference, in developing, supporting and executing technologies and strategies to cut the environmental impact of food production!
- Most Active Seed Funder
In 2024, we saw $340 million of seed stage, fund-raising deals, involving 3,537 investors. The lead investor by deal number was Ponderosa Ventures, which participated in five deals worth a total of $22 million. - Most Active Venture Capital Funder
Last year, we reported some $4,003 million in venture capital fund-raisings, featuring 4,871 investors. The lead investor by deal count was S2G Ventures, participating in 11 deals worth a total $161 million. S2G was also the lead investor in 2021 and 2022, making it the stand-out VC supporter of a green transition in food and ag. - Most Active Corporate Venture Capital Arm
Many giant food and ag companies, including pesticide and fertiliser companies, farm equipment manufacturers, and food producers, have venture investing arms. Among these corporates, we found the stand-out investor last year was seed and chemical company, Corteva, which made three venture capital investments, in deals worth a total of $65 million. - Fastest Growing Technology by Fund-Raising – Lead Company
We tag agtech and foodtech companies according to 931 different technologies. The technology which saw the biggest fund-raising growth last year, up $271 million, was “Soil Carbon Project Development”. The lead company, accounting for the vast majority of this fund-raising, was Indigo Ag. - Best Start-Up Some seven companies founded in 2024 managed to raise funds in the same year, even though they were less than one year old. The lead among these, by amount raised, $1.9 million, was Happy Plant Protein, a spinout from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The company produces textured vegetable protein (TVP), based off whole cereal flours directly, achieving a higher protein and fibre content, and using less processing, than conventional methods, making ingredients for plant-based food producers.
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“Green Transition” Deals of the Week
In our “Green Transition” space over the festive holiday period, we saw fund-raisings and M&A deals worth $176 million, which we summarise as follows:
Netherlands, January 2 – Odd.Bot, a creator of autonomous weeding robots, raised $2.05 million in pre-venture capital from Iconic Ventures and PolKa Capital, to scale its Maverick system.
United Kingdom, December 24 – Arborea, a producer of microalgae-based food ingredients, raised $5.2 million in venture capital from Indico Capital Partners and Banco Português de Fomento, to expand its cultivation technology.
United States, December 19 – Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA), a developer of non-synthetic fertilizers and soil biology products, raised $3.8 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to support regenerative agriculture systems.
United States, December 19 – Sound Agriculture, a developer of microbiome activators for crops, raised $25 million in venture capital from BMO Capital Markets and S2G Ventures, to expand its SOURCE product.
United States, December 19 – Monty’s Plant Food Company, a developer of humic-based soil solutions, was acquired by AgroLiquid in an undisclosed deal, to expand its product offerings.
United Kingdom, December 19 – New Wave Biotech, a provider of computational modeling for precision fermentation, raised $1.24 million in pre-venture capital from EIT Food and Innovate UK, to optimize downstream processing.
Lithuania, December 19 – Freya Cultivation Systems, a manufacturer of hydroponics and aeroponics hardware, raised $0.52 million in pre-venture capital from CoInvest Capital and BSV Ventures, to expand its indoor farming solutions.
Switzerland, December 18 – Planted, a producer of plant-based meats, raised an undisclosed amount in venture capital from SevenVentures, to scale its transparent production facility.
Portugal, December 18 – CarboCode, a producer of human sphingolipids for skincare and nutrition, raised $15.52 million in venture capital from Iberis Capital, to scale its fermentation technology.
Switzerland, December 17 – Yeastup, an upcycler of brewers’ yeast by-products, raised $9.97 million in venture capital from Beyond Impact and Newtree Impact, to scale its circular economy solutions.
United States, December 13 – Terradot, a carbon dioxide removal company using enhanced rock weathering, raised $58.2 million in venture capital from Google and Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, to scale its technology.
United Kingdom, December 13 – Fotenix, an AI-based crop health monitoring platform, raised an undisclosed amount in funding from River Capital, to enhance its plant screening software.
United States, December 12 – Chonex, a developer of soil amendments from black soldier fly larvae by-products, raised $4 million in undisclosed funding, to improve soil health solutions.
United States, December 12 – one.bio, a developer of plant-based fibers from agricultural waste, raised $27 million in venture capital from Alpha Edison and Leaps by Bayer, to expand its Glycopedia catalog.
Denmark, December 11 – AgriRobot, a developer of autonomous agricultural safety solutions, raised $2.63 million in venture capital from Tall Grass Ventures and NORMINAL, to enhance its obstacle-detection technology.
Spain, December 11 – HEMAV, a provider of AI-driven crop prediction models, raised $8.4 million in venture capital from Future Food Fund and PureTerra Ventures, to enhance its SaaS platform.
United States, December 11 – Everest, a developer of alkalinity sensors for carbon sequestration measurement, raised $3 million in venture capital from Carbon Removal Partners and Ponderosa Ventures, to scale its technology.
Canada, December 11 – The Better Butchers, a producer of mushroom-based meats, was acquired by CULT Food Science, in an undisclosed deal to expand its plant-based product line.
Denmark, December 10 – Endless Food Co, a creator of cocoa alternatives from upcycled brewers’ spent grain, raised $1 million in pre-venture capital from Nordic Foodtech VC and Rockstart, to expand its THIC product line.
Israel, December 10 – Gavan, a developer of high-purity protein extraction technology, raised $8 million in venture capital from MoreVC and EIT Food, to scale its protein solutions.
Regulatory News Round-Up: December
Here is our round-up of regulatory news, during the festive holiday period:
Dec 20 – Finnish food tech startup Onego Bio submitted a formal notice to the FDA, asserting the safety of Bioalbumen, its precision-fermented egg protein. Onego Bio is targeting the U.S. as the first market for its recombinant egg protein.
Dec 19 – OnePointOne and its consumer-facing brand, Willo, achieved Organic Certification. Willo becomes one of the few U.S. hydroponic vertical farming brands to offer certified organic produce.
Dec 11 – Imagindairy, an Israeli startup, received regulatory approval to sell its precision fermentation whey protein in Israel.
Dec 5 – Israeli startup Aleph Farms submitted the first application for cultivated meat in Thailand, and expects regulatory clearance by mid-2026.
Dec 5 – In a U-Turn, UK court banned the use of the word “milk”, on Oatly and other plant-based dairy labels.
New Food Finance Resources
Our Deep-Dive Briefings each give the low-down on an emerging technology up-ending food production:
December 10: Cutting Methane Emissions – Are Feed Supplements the Answer
November 27: Cultivated Meat Optimisation and Innovation
November 13: Bacteriophages in green agriculture
October 30: Sustainable Animal Feed Additives
October 15: Proteins as Biological pesticides