Source: Misfits Market

Every week we track the business, tech and investment trends in CPG, retail, restaurants, agriculture, cooking and health, so you don’t have to. Here are some of this week’s top headlines.

Online grocers and restaurant tech companies are still riding on the successes they gained from the pandemic. Misfits Market has doubled its value to $2 billion in 5 months, raising a whopping $225 million. Toast is seeking a $16 billion valuation at its IPO, up from the $5 billion valuation it earned before the pandemic.

In the alt protein space, Eat Just has just closed a $97 million round to construct its massive bioreactors and scale production. Beyond Meat has partnered with PepsiCo to launch plant-based products in 2022. The alt seafood sector has attracted more funding within the first 6 months of 2021 than over the entire year in 2020.

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Check out our weekly round-up of last week’s top food startup, tech and innovation news below or peruse the full newsletter here.

1. Misfits Market Nearly Doubles Value to $2B in Five Months – Bloomberg

The startup has raised $225m to add five more states to its distribution as well as prepare for its expansion into dairy, frozen and prepared foods. Unlike other online grocers, the company focuses on suburban and rural markets.

2. Eat Just Raises $97M More to Fund Cultured Meat Production – Bloomberg

Eat Just will use the investment to make the massive bioreactors it needs to scale up output.

3. Alternative Seafood Sector Raised Record $116M in First Half of 2021 – Green Queen

The alt seafood industry has attracted more funding within the first 6 months of 2021 than over the entire year in 2020.

4. PepsiCo Targets Early 2022 to Roll Out Products from Joint Venture with Beyond Meat – CNBC

The partnership gives Beyond a a chance to leverage Pepsi’s production and marketing expertise for new products, while Pepsi can deepen its investment in plant-based categories.

5. Global Food Giants Pour $80M Into Lever VC Alternative Protein Fund – Green Queen

The fund is dedicated to investing in food techs using novel plant-based, cell-based and fermentation technologies to develop sustainable alternatives to animal protein, and currently boasts a portfolio of 19 companies.

6. Amsterdam: Gates Foundation Leads $707M Investment in Dutch E-Grocer Picnic – AFN

Picnic has become a household name in its native Netherlands. It claims it’s able to keep prices on par with brick-and-mortar supermarkets thanks to the efficiencies gained through its vertically integrated ‘own the supply chain’ model.

7. GrubMarket Gobbles Up $120M at a $1B+ Pre-Money Valuation to Take on the Food Supply Chain – TechCrunch

The company is now at a $1b annualized run-rate, having grown revenues 300% over last year. It will now be looking into growing its territory and tech, moving ahead in a market that is largely absent from competitors.

8. Toast Seeks $16B Valuation at IPO After Restaurant Tech Company Helped Eateries Survive Pandemic – CNBC

Toast raised funding at a $5b valuation just before the pandemic and then cut about 50% of its staff as shutdowns forced restaurants to close their doors. Business bounced back quickly as restaurants leaned on tech to survive the crisis.

9. The Largest Meal Kit Company in America Could Be the First to Unionize – Eater

Workers at two HelloFresh factories in California and Colorado are organizing with UNITE HERE, a labor union representing workers in the hotel, food service, manufacturing and other industries.

10. Israel: MeaTech Is Now Churning Out 100% Pure Cultured Chicken Fat – Green Queen

MeaTech has revealed it is now producing 700 grams of cell-based chicken fat biomass in one single production run.

11. Coffee Cells Produced in a Bioreactor Through Cellular Agriculture – Phys

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has successfully produced coffee cells in a bioreactor through cellular agriculture.

12. California’s Farms Face a Reckoning – New York Times

Trimming back on farming in California could be done without serious harm to the state’s economy. While irrigated agriculture used 51% of the state’s water in the drought year of 2015, farms make up just 0.8% of California’s economy.

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