Image: Vivera

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.

We launched our 2018 U.S. Food & Beverage Startup Investment Report today, which finds that $1.45 billion dollars was invested across 200 reported deals in 2018. Read the full report here.

Plant-based news continues to make headlines this week – Europe’s leading meat company Vivera Foodgroup has converted its entire product offerings to vegan foods. In addition, Impossible Foods announced its venture into developing vegan fish.

In CPG news, Mondelez has acquired Perfect Snacks for an undisclosed sum. The Canadian government has approved some cannabis-infused products to be sold in grocery stores.

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. Leading European Meat Company Goes 100% Vegan – Live Kindly

Vivera Foodgroup has become one of the first meat companies to remove meat from its lineup in favor of vegan foods. Vivera sells vegan meat across Europe.

2. Impossible Foods Is Exploring Realistic Vegan Fish – Live Kindly

Vegan fish could be next on the cards for plant-based food brand Impossible Foods, the creators of the “bleeding” beef-like Impossible Burger.

3. Mondelēz Acquires Perfect Snacks to Build Out Snacking Portfolio – Nosh

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. In 2018, Perfect Snacks generated $70m in net revenue.

4. Walmart Grocery Is Now Offering a $98 Per Year ‘Delivery Unlimited’ Subscription – TechCrunch 

Walmart is taking aim at Instacart, Target’s Shipt and Amazon Prime Now/Whole Foods with a new grocery delivery subscription service called simply, “Delivery Unlimited.”

5. What Cannabis Edibles on Canadian Shelves Means for the US – Food Dive

Canada will allow some cannabis-infused products — edibles, beverages, topicals and extracts — to be sold in stores in December. Health officials said companies wanting to sell products containing cannabis can apply starting July 15.

6. 2018 U.S. Food & Beverage Startup Investment Report

Over $1.45B was invested across 247 deals in 2018, according to the research in our second annual investment report produced in partnership with Ryan Willams.  Check out the report for a deep dive into the investor and investment trends. We also share a complete list of deals and acquisitions.

7. Domino’s Pizza Plans Robot Deliveries with Self-Driving Minivans in 2019 – Fast Company

Nuro’s self-driving mini delivery vans will ply Houston streets with hot pizzas, as the company already does with grocery orders.

8. Israel: DouxMatok Raises $22M Series B to Commercialize Sugar Reduction Tech – AgFunderNews

BlueRed Partners led the round. The new funding will be used to help DouxMatok commercialize its product.

9. Ikea Is Now the World’s 6th Largest Food Chain, and It’s Testing Delivery to Your Door – Fast Company

The company is currently testing the service in Paris. If the pilot is successful, it may expand to Spain and other European markets.

10. Kroger Begins Construction on $55M Robotic Warehouse for Home Delivery – Cincinnati 

The facility will begin operations in 2021. Kroger and Ocado plan to build 20 similar facilities across America to expand home delivery of groceries.

11. Offering Robot Chefs That Can Serve 5 Million Types of Pizza, France’s Pazzi Raises Over $11M Series A – AgFunderNews

Funding was led by Qualgro. The company will offer concession and license models and seek out partnerships in ghost kitchens.

12. Finland: Finnish Food Delivery App Wolt to Hire 1K After New Funding – Bloomberg

Food delivery startup Wolt Enterprises has landed $130m in new investment to increase its European expansion and fund a hiring spree. The investment was led by Iconiq Capital.

13. Vestaron Closes $40M Series B for Peptide-based Biopesticide with “Proven Modes of Action Unlike Microbials,” says CEO – AgFunderNews

Funding was led by Novo Holdings alongside Anterra Capital, Cultivian Sandbox, Open Prairie Ventures and Pangaea Ventures. It will be used to help the company commercialize its Spear family of products.

14. 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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