Beyond the direct disruption the crop production, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is set to have cascading knock-on effects for global food security and production. Russia is the world’s largest producer and exporter of plant fertilizer. Globally, Russia accounts for 23% of ammonia, 14% of urea, and 21% of potash, as well as 10% of processed phosphate exports, according to The Fertilizer Institute. In Europe, Russia supplies about a third of natural gas which is a main source of input for nitrogen fertilizers.
Globally, there are 154 startups working on smarter, tech-enabled fertilizers production, with a combined enterprise value of $3.0 billion.
Paris-based InnovaFeed is the largest one in the list, focused on both animal and plant nutrition. InnovaFeed’s fertilizer is a byproduct of its insect farm for animal nutrition. This natural and organic fertilizer could be a solution to the bottleneck of scaling Europe’s organic farming.
Florida-based Anuvia Plant Nutrients, the second most valuable company in the list, raised $103 million in Series C funding a month ago. Anuvia develops a more sustainable nutrition for plants. Compared to traditional fertilizers, Anuvia reduces greenhouse gases on production by up to 32%, according to a study in 2019 by Environmental Resources Management.
Third on the list is Boston-based Joyn Bio, working on solutions that decrease the dependence on traditional chemical fertilizers. The company is a joint venture between Ginkgo Bioworks and Leaps by Bayer, one of the most active Corporate VC in foodtech.
🚜 EU to Propose Using 500-Million-Euro Crisis Fund for Farmers via Bloomberg. The crisis fund is meant to help farmers cope with rising energy prices and limited deliveries of key inputs (such as fertilizers). Fallow land would be used to grow protein crops under newly proposed measures.
💨 Instacart's rebrand reflects speedy evolution of grocery delivery via MarketingDive. The grocery delivery startup retained its carrot logo, but changed the color palette and typography. The new branding also places an importance on retail parterships and deliveries beyond groceries in categories such as cosmetics and office supplies.
🧑🍳 JustKitchen and Panasonic to launch contactless food delivery programme via VerdictFoodService. The dark kitchen startups JustKitchen will launch a B2B food delivery program in partnership with Panasonic Taiwan. The new initiative is meant to grow JustKitchen beyond a dark kitchen provider.
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Latest foodtech deals
Select deals from last week:
🇹🇷 Getir, Istanbul-based ultrafast grocery delivery service, became a decacorn following a $768 million Series E funding. The new valuation of $11.7 billion makes Getir the fifth most valuable grocery delivery service globally, ahead of HelloFresh. There are still some doubts about the economics of the ultrafast grocery delivery business model. Gorillas dropped the 10-minute delivery promise. Both Buyk and Fridge No More closed their activities.
🇮🇳 Lucious, a Bengaluru-based fresh meat ecommerce company, extended its Series F from October last year by $150 million. The company's valuation remained at $1.0 billion. This is the latest meground this year in the food and grocery delivery space in India, making the country an important market.
Other notable foodtech deals from around the globe:
🇺🇸 Bear Robotics, a US-based waiter robotics company, raised $81 million. The company's waiter robot "traveled more than 335,000 miles and made more than 28 million deliveries" according to company press releases. The biggest markets of the company are Japan and South Korea, with the US quickly catch up.
🇮🇩 Sayurbox, an Indonesian fresh groceries delivery service, secured $120 million Series C led by Northstar and Alpha JWC Ventures.
🇩🇪 VYTAL, a Cologne-based smart and reusable packaging company, bagged $10 million in early VC funding. There are 17 other startups working on innovative packaging in our food waste landscape.
The fifth VC Investor Prominence is coming up this year! The final ranking will be launching at the end of March, which means there’s a little time to check your fund’s profile, to ensure your portfolio is accurately reflected in the final ranking.
This is Dealroom's weekly Foodtech newsletter. Get more industry-specific intelligence on the evolving world of Foodtech, emerging trends, and game-changing startups. Delivered on Tuesdays.
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