🌳 Bioeconomy Newsletter #22
News, recent funding announcement and very interesting reads
This is a weekly newsletter of what was interesting and important in the Bioeconomy. If you like what you are reading why not share it with your friends and co-workers?
Funding
🌿 Origin.Bio - Germany - $ 15 m - early stage - synthetic biology company - LINK
🌿 Arugga - Israel - $4 m - Series A - robotic pollination for indoor farming - LINK
🌿 Invaio - US - $89 m - Series C - crop health technology - LINK
🌿 Kula Bio - US - $10 m - Seed - sustainable nitrogen fertilizer - LINK
🌿 Bowery - US - $300 m - Series C - vertical farming - LINK
🌿 Heura - Spain - €4 m - Crowdfunding - plant based meat replacement products - LINK
🌿 PL Bioscience - Germany - €3.7 m - Series A - replacing animal-derived serum for cell growth using human-based nutrient mediums - LINK
🌿 GOOD Meat - US - $170 k - N/A - cell-cultured meat products - LINK
🌿 Bast Fibre Technologies - Canada - $7 m - Series A - natural fibre engineering - LINK
🌿 Fiils - UK - n.a. - Angel round - natural refillable beauty products - LINK
🌿 Evolve Biosystems - US - $65 m - N/A - infant nutrition company - LINK
🌿 Chromologics - Denmark - €6 m - Seed - natural colourings via fungal biotechnology - LINK
🌿 Aeropowder - UK - £480 k - Angel round - sustainable insulation/packaging material made from waste feathers - LINK
🌿SupPlant - UK - $24 m - Series A - natural sugar replacement using plant fibre from wheat straw, rice straw and corn stalks - LINK
🌿DayTwo - Israel - $37 m - Series C - provides users customized diet recommendations based on their gut bacteria - LINK
News, Readings & Interesting Things
🌿 World’s First Vegan Diamonds With Carbon Sourced from Air Pollution - Aether diamonds are made using sustainably sourced energy and carbon sourced from air pollution. LINK
🌿 Andromeda: World’s First 100% Vegan Motorcycle Clothing Brand - creating using high molecular weight polyethylene, which is used in the astronauts’ suits on the International Space Station. LINK
🌿 High Tech, Low Understanding: Dear European ‘deep tech’ tech investors, we need to talk. Great read around what deep tech companies are. LINK
🌿 Discussing the ethical and environmental issues surrounding traditional meat consumption and the need for rise in synthetic meat production. LINK
🌿 VCs, stop figuring out how to measure impact — just start having some. Thoughts around frameworks, principles and guidelines and why there will be no industry standard. LINK
🌿 A database of 80+ active FoodTech Investors. LINK (use the PW: FutureFood)
🌿 Most Active VCs in FoodTech LINK
A record-shattering $22.3B was invested into the space in 2020, with $17.3B in food tech and $5B in ag tech –– a 35% jump over 2019, with an even bigger leap forecasted for 2021. That’s a 9.6x increase since 2015.
Corporate Venture Capital participation saw a compound annual growth rage (CAGR) of 152% between 2010 and 2020.
$1.6B was 2020’s largest deal size in food & agritech, going to Lineage Logistics for their global network of cold storage facilities. Closer to the consumer, Impossible made history twice with a $500M Series F and $200M Series G just months apart.
Vertical farming was a particularly hot space with major deals in 2020, led by Infarm’s $170M debt + equity raise. But it’s crowded inside, with major raises from competitors like Plenty ($140M) and Gotham Greens ($87M). (Source Foodhack)
🌿 Corporate deep tech survey from Seeqc US. Main reason why corporates invest into deep tech is driven by their competitors (FOMO). LINK
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The views expressed here are my own. All information contained in here has been obtained from publicly available information. While taken from sources believed to be reliable I have not independently verified such information and make no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. For questions simply reply to this email.