Bill Gates Invests in Soil, CVS Starts Selling CBD Products + More

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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.

Despite regulatory uncertainty around CBD as a food additive, CVS has announced the addition of CBD topicals in 8 states, paving the way for growth in the nascent industry.

Major investments in the foodtech sector this week include Singapore’s $535 million investment in areas such as robotics and cultured meat. McDonalds has made its largest acquisition of in 20 years — it has swalled Dynamic Yield for $300 million to create a more customizable drive-thru. Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures is backing a number of creative solutions that are aiming to reduce the amount of emissions caused by agriculture, which currently represent a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions.

And finally, crowdfunding platform PieShell it is shutting down as of today. We thank founder and CEO Cheryl Clements for her tireless dedication to supporting food entrepreneurs, and wish her the best on her next adventure.

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

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1. CVS Has Started Selling Cannabis-Based Products in 8 States – CNBC

The pharmacy chain says the products include topicals such as creams, sprays, roll-ons, lotions and salves.

2. With a Lack of Investors, PieShell to Close – Nosh 

The food and beverage crowdfunding platform PieShell it is shutting down as of March 28. It is remaining open to allow its two final campaigns – Steiner’s and one to support ex-Pilotworks employees, which has raised close to $180k – to complete their fundraising goals.

3. We Should Discuss Soil As Much As We Talk About Coal – Gates Notes

Nearly a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture.

4. Singapore Backs Lab-Grown Meat, Robots in $535M Push – Bloomberg

Singapore will invest $535m under a current plan to transform its economy into one that relies more on fields such as research and on companies that create new markets and jobs. Investments will focus on digital tech, cell therapy and food innovation.

5. McDonald’s Is Acquiring Dynamic Yield to Create a More Customized Drive-Thru – TechCrunch

McDonald’s is announcing an agreement to acquire personalization company Dynamic Yield. Financial terms were not disclosed, but a source states the deal is more than $300m. This is the fast food chain’s largest acquisition in 20 years.

6. A Company Growing Protein on Trees Raises $20M Series D – AgFunder

Investment was led by Evans Properties, The Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust and a group of Florida agricultural family offices. TerViva will use fresh funding to deliver 200k pongamia trees in the coming two years.

7. Warren Takes Aim at Farm Programs That Brought You ‘Got Milk?’ – Bloomberg

As part of her presidential platform, Elizabeth Warren is not just taking on big agriculture corporations like Bayer AG and Tyson Foods Inc. She’s also going after checkoff programs, which do marketing campaigns for commodities.

8. Consumer Giants Double Down on Venture Capital – Wall Street Journal

In 2018, food and beverage companies invested more than $1b in startups, up from $460m the previous year. They now back one-third of all venture-capital deals in the sector globally by values, up from just 5% at the start of the decade.

9. India: SoftBank Vision Fund Leads $413M Investment in Delhivery – VCCircle

The company will use fresh capital to expand its operations to 20k pin code areas from 15k during the April-June quarter. It will also use funds to grow its e-commerce market share and expand its end-to-end supply chain platform.

10. Keatz, a European ‘Cloud Kitchen’ Startup, Raises Further €12M – TechCrunch

Backing the round are existing investors Project A Ventures, Atlantic Food Labs, UStart, K Fund and JME Ventures, which are joined by RTP Global. Funding will be used to further expand its roll-out of cloud kitchens across Europe.

11. McDonald’s Halts Lobbying Against Minimum Wage Hikes – Politico

McDonald’s boosted congressional Democrats’ efforts to hike the minimum wage by telling the NRA that it will no longer participate in lobby efforts against minimum wage hikes at the federal, state or local level.

12. Women, Women of Color & Gender Non-Conforming Innovator Database

We created this open-source list to increase representation, support and investment in women, women of color & gender-nonconforming innovators in food. Join the list & help us spread the word using #womxninfood

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