Image source: Upside Foods

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. This month’s newsletter is sponsored by Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).

Upside Foods has raised the largest funding round to date in the cultivated meat space. A whopping $400 million will allow it to build a commercial-scale manufacturing facility with an annual capacity of tens of millions of pounds of cultured meat.

As web3 further permeates into the world of F&B, it holds promise of improving upon existing dynamics and being leveraged for good. Andrea Hernandez discusses empowering “consumer communes,” non-fungible tastings and the cannabis market after dark in her newsletter, Snaxshot.

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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. Upside Foods Gets $400M Investment for Commercial-Scale Facility – Food Dive

The largest single funding round in the cultivated meat space to date included money from Tyson, Cargill and Givaudan, and will help the company bring cell-based animal products to market.

2. Community Packaged Goods – Snaxshot

As web3 further permeates into the world of F&B, it holds promise of improving upon existing dynamics and being leveraged for good. Andrea Hernandez discusses empowering “consumer communes,” non-fungible tastings and the cannabis market after dark.

3. Starbucks Is Having an Identity Crisis. Can Howard Schultz Fix It? – Wall Street Journal

The former CEO is back for his third stint running the coffee giant. But the company is in a very different place than when he left it.

4. 2022 AgFunder AgriFoodTech Investment Report – AFN

Venture capital investors pumped $51.7b into agrifood technologies in 2021; an 85% increase over 2020. Agrifoodtech sectors that took off in response to the Covid-19 pandemic not only remained the most popular investment categories; they exploded with new deals.

5. Thank God, the Era of Goop-Style Snacks Is Ending – Bon Appetit

These are the scams, the stars and the shifts that are defining the meals we eat between meals, according to Snaxshot writer Andrea Hernández.

6. Motif FoodWorks Hits Back at Impossible Foods in Heme Patent Spat – AFN

Motif FoodWorks has petitioned the US Patent & Trademark Office to revoke the patent at the center of the dispute.

7. Chipotle Hopes New $50M Fund Will Continue Its ‘Technological Transformation’ – AFN

Cultivate Next, the new fund, will invest in early-stage restaurant tech startups developing solutions that enhance both guest and employee experiences.

8. Netherlands: Just Eat Takeaway Is Exploring a Sale of Grubhub Barely a Year After Buying the Company – CNBC 

The company bought the US food delivery platform for $7.3b barely a year ago. It’s faced calls from a prominent activist investor to sell Grubhub and refocus on Europe.

9. Netherlands: Land-Based The Kingfish Company Signs Up to $81M Debt Facility – Intrafish

Financing will allow for further development in the United States and Europe.

10. Leonardo DiCaprio Backed Climate Fund Regeneration.VC Closes $45M to Bring Sustainability Across Omnichannel – Forbes

The firm has so far closed six regenerative agriculture-focused deals, including Cruz Foam that uses shellfish waste to create styrofoam alternative, and CleanO2 which converts industrial emissions into fertilizers.

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