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.

After quintupling its order volume amid the pandemic, Misfits Market has raised $200 million to fuel its continued expansion. Meanwhile in the grocery delivery space, Imperfect Foods made headlines when its grocery delivery workers voted to unionize.

In other news, JBS has acquired Netherlands-based Vivera for $408 million, opening the doors for the meat giant to expand its presence in the European plant-based meat space. PepsiCo has committed to converting the potato farms it works with to regenerative practices–across 7 million acres.

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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 Funding Round Brings Valuation to $1.1B – Bloomberg

The grocery delivery company has raised $200m to expand its area of operation. The pandemic quintupled active customers and order volumes for the company last year.

2. Netherlands: JBS Expands Plant-Based Food Products with Vivera Acquisition – Bloomberg

The meat giant will pay $408m for Vivera, which has three facilities in the Netherlands and a research center. With the acquisition, JBS will also have its own plant-based production in Europe and expand its presence in the meatless space.

3. Grocery Delivery Workers at Imperfect Foods Vote to Unionize – Vice

About 80 delivery drivers unionized at a grocery delivery startup, but the company intends to challenge the results.

4. PepsiCo Is Scaling Up Regenerative Agriculture on 7M Acres of Land – Fast Company

The push will bring new techniques to sequester carbon to nearly all of the company’s agricultural footprint.

5. Oatly Reveals Growing Losses, Revenue in US IPO Filing – Bloomberg

Oatly reported a $60m net loss on $421m revenue in 2020, compared with a loss of $36m on revenue of $204m the previous year.

6. Everything Restaurants Need to Know About the Restaurant Revitalization Fund – Eater

The $28.6b will go fast, so establishments in need of help should gather documents quickly.

7. AB InBev Venture Arm to Help Clara Foods Scale Up Animal-Free Protein – Food Dive

This partnership is the first for ZX Ventures’ new BioBrew division, which will help precision fermentation companies make enough of their products to compete with those from traditional agriculture.

8. Belgium: Deliverect Gobbles Up $65M for a Platform That Streamlines Online and Offline Food Orders – TechCrunch

The startup has built a platform that manages all third party delivery apps and hardware through one seamless app for restaurants, dark kitchens and DTC CPG companies.

9. Plant-Based Seafood Market to Skyrocket, Increasing 13X to $1.3B in Next Decade – Vegconomist

The report also found that plant-based shrimp is to emerge as the most consumed type over coming years.

10. The Bull Case for a $100M New Jersey Deli – Wall Street Journal

Hometown, owner of a single deli in New Jersey, recently attained a market value in excess of $100m, despite booking just over $35k in combined sales over the past two years.

11. Squarespace Files to Go Public Through a Direct Listing – Restaurant Dive

The website-building platform, which has over 3m subscribers including restaurants, makes the move weeks after completing its $415m acquisition of reservation system Tock.

12. China: Luckin Coffee Notches $250M Investment – QSR

Proceeds of the investment will be used to facilitate restructuring and obligations under its settlement with the SEC after being accused of fabricating more than $300m in sales and overstating its revenue by 28%.

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