Foodtech in India is rising to the top 🍞

In 2021, India's nominal GDP of $3.2 trillion ranked it the 6th largest economy in the world. In the same year, there were 826M users online, 37% of which make online transactions in India, according to Inc42. The  internet users in India are expected to grow 57% to 1.3B by 2030. International and domestic VC investors have been paying attention to the local tech ecosystem to find the next big uear.

With $15B of VC investment since 2016, foodtech is the second most funded industry in India. So, we thought it might be worth diving into the Indian foodtech ecosystem. 

Today, the Indian foodtech ecosystem is worth $54B, 5.9x increase from 2016. India coutns 7 unicorns, including well know companies like Zomato, Swiggy and Cure.fit. All of the unicorns are in food delivery / ecommerce. There are 18 future foodtech unicorns (companies valued between $250M and $1B) in India, but it is unclear how many would cross the billion-dollar mark.

Food delivery startups have accounted for the most VC investment in the country. Last year, food delivery accounted for a whopping 83% (=$4.5B/$5.4B) of total investment. Year-on-year VC investment in Indian food delivery startups droped by 53%, so the share of capital is down to 63%, but still quite significant. VC investment in agritech grew 8.5x between 2016 and 2021 to $558M. This year's VC investment would either match or slightly exceed last years.

The Indian foodtech ecosystem is relatively young. About 68% of the venture-backed startupsare at Series A stage. There are plenty of investment opportunities. Below, we've sorted all foodtech startups in India with Dealroom Signal, a powerful predictive algorithm to discover promising companies.

In foodtech news:

🍖 The alternative protein market under the microscope. The food sector accounts for an astounding 26% of GHG emissions worldwide. However, different alternative protein technologies (from symbio platforms to cellular agriculture) will have different impact, commercial trade-offs. Substantial innovations in alternative proteins have only come to the surface recently. - Melina Sanchez / AENU

🥪 Subway debuts smart fridges to sell pre-made sandwiches. The sandwich franchise has begun to roll out a new line of smart fridges in the US to sell premade Subway sandwiches. The new fridges feature “artificial intelligence and natural language processing” and are restocked daily with sandwiches. The new line of vending machines is a part of the company’s growing focus on non-traditional formats to target “on-the-go” customers. - The Spoon

🛒 Apps for sharing thriftily — from food to tools. Cost of living crisis and inflation drive sign-ups as budgets are squeezed. Websites and apps, such as Olio or Too Good to Go, for food sharing have sprung up in recent years to cater to a growing desire for community-based sharing. - Financial Times

Latest foodtech deals

Select deals from last week:

🇮🇳 The agritech startup CropIn expects to raise $70M as part of its Series D fundraising round, which will be led by a disclosed tech business and foreign venture capital fund. Cropln is building the first global Intelligent agriculture cloud that enables various stakeholders in the agri-ecosystem to leverage digitization and AI.

🇬🇧 ZOE Health, a startup founded by doctors and researchers out of London and Boston, made its name during the pandemic with a popular self-reporting COVID-19 app and this week announced its raised $30M in its latest funding round, valuing the company at $250M.

🇬🇧 Huel, the UK-based maker of vegan, lactose-free, and soya-free nutritional bars, supplements, and meal-replacement shakes has raised $24M in a new funding round at a valuation of $560M.

🇮🇳 Gurugram-based agritech and dairy startup, MoooFarm, has raised $13M in a Series A round led by Aavishkaar Capital. The investment round also saw participation from Accel Partners, Aditya Birla Ventures, Rockstart, Navus Ventures, and Alteria Capital.

Other notable foodtech deals from around the globe: 

🇺🇸 WildType, the US startup promoting the commercialization of cell-cultured salmon meat, raised a $7.5M funding round.

🇺🇸 R.Cup, a company that offers a reusable cup system for live event venues, including touring with popular rocks groups like U2 and the Rolling Stones, has raised roughly $4M in its latest funding round.

🇺🇸 MeliBio, the world’s first company focused on creating honey without bees, has raised a $2M funding round.

Read up on all the latest foodtech deals in Dealroom.co

Tip of the week

🍔 Foodtech Q3 2022 Update

Following a record 2021, foodtech startup funding has continued to cool in Q3 2022.

Q3 saw an 18% recovery in value for public foodtech companies, after prolonged rout since the highs of early 2021 which saw combined public market value down over 65%. Want more insights? Access the full report below.

Dive in

🛒 Top 100 Food Delivery Startups to Watch

🏆 Top 100 Foodtech Startups to Watch

💸 The Fastest-Growing Foodtech Hubs

🌎 Foodtech in Latin America

Ivan Draganov

Senior Innovation Analyst
Dealroom

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