Industry & News

French startup Edonia has closed a €15M Series A led by SWEN Blue Ocean 2, Asterion Ventures and EIT Food, with non-dilutive support from Bpifrance and bank financing. Its product, Edo, is a spirulina-based protein grain made by cooking spirulina in oil at a controlled temperature (the patented 'Edonization' process, developed with AgroParisTech). It delivers 27 g protein per 100 g and a ground-meat-like texture with no added flavors or texturizers. About 20 customer contracts worth roughly €30M in pre-orders back the round, and a dedicated production line is planned at an existing shared site in France.

Arla Foods will invest €35M in skyr production at Upahl, Germany, and €28.3M in cottage cheese at Falkenberg, Sweden. Upahl is due to finish in the second half of 2028, and Falkenberg will be upgraded gradually through 2028. Arla cites 33% skyr volume growth in Europe and 25% overall cottage cheese growth, with Denmark and the UK each up 37% and the Netherlands up 38%.

The Biotech Open Platform at Michelin's Cataroux Innovation Park in Clermont-Ferrand, France, is now open to third-party projects. Its investment grew from the €16M announced in June 2024 to €20M. It offers a complete fermentation line of up to 15 m³ plus semi-industrial purification, and works with yeasts, bacteria, microalgae and fungi to develop proteins, enzymes and food ingredients.

Voyage Foods has exited its 1,400+ US retail doors to focus entirely on supplying CPG manufacturers and foodservice with its chickpea-and-rice-hull bean-free coffee and its NextCoa cocoa-free chocolate, made from upcycled wine-industry grape seeds and sunflower kernel flour. The company has raised $94M total, including a $25M USDA loan for its 300,000 sq ft Ohio plant, and already supplies Cargill, which has distributed NextCoa since 2024.

Medici Brands, the owner of high-protein snack brand David Protein, closed a $250 million Series B led by Greenoaks and Valor Equity Partners at a $2.25 billion valuation. Built on a patented alt-fat ingredient called EPG, the two-year-old brand is projecting roughly $300 million in 2026 revenue across 35,000 retail doors including Walmart, Target and Costco, and has already spun the same formulation into candy (HallPass) and chips (Rowdy).

Bauer Group, one of Germany's largest dairy manufacturers, has opened a dedicated plant-based innovation and production center in Wasserburg am Inn, ending five years of sourcing plant-based concentrate externally since launching its range in 2021. The GEA-engineered line mixes and grinds soybeans, separates solids, and thermally inactivates the base before regular production ramps up in August 2026.

Millow's solid-state fermentation process grows mycelium directly on Swedish oats to create a whole-cut meat alternative with 27g of complete protein per 100g, using just 3-4 liters of water per kilogram — a 98% smaller footprint than Swedish beef. The startup, which holds a European patent on its low-water fermentation method, will use the funding to launch in Nordic foodservice kitchens.

Swiss startup Planted is scaling a solid-state fermentation platform — combined with extrusion — that structures soy, rice and rapeseed oil into whole-cut products like steaks, steak bites, cold cuts and pastrami rather than just ground/minced formats. The company is now producing 20-25 tons a day combined across its facilities and is targeting production costs of about $2 per kilogram of finished product.

Mumbai-based Inaara NeoFoods closed a $2.2 million seed round from a group of angel investors and consultants to accelerate its AI-powered 'farm to formulation' platform, which controls every step from raw agricultural inputs to finished plant proteins, fibers, lipids and starches. The closed-loop system aims to turn Indian pulses and chickpeas into functional, high-quality ingredients for food manufacturers.

Plantible Foods secured $35 million in combined debt and equity — including a $25 million USDA-backed loan and $10 million in equity from RA Capital and existing investors — to expand its Eldorado, Texas facility and push annual RuBisCO protein output past 1,000 metric tons by early 2027. A new production strain has already lifted yields by more than 40%, and CEO Tony Martens says customer demand is already outpacing planned capacity.

Lucknow-based Arboreal Bioinnovations closed a ₹23 crore (~$24.2M) Series A led by EAAA Alternatives and Omnivore, with Rainmatter by Zerodha also participating. The startup, which supplies functional ingredients — including its Bioprot/Evo yeast and plant proteins, Pyure low-calorie sweeteners and Cococo cacao ingredients — to over 1,100 manufacturers, will use the capital to expand manufacturing capacity and R&D.

Nestlé filed for a computational optimization method that calculates the exact ratio of different plant proteins needed to hit a perfect PDCAAS score of 1 — algorithmically solving the "limiting amino acid" problem that has long made plant-based diets nutritionally incomplete.

Parma-based Dreamfarm more than doubled its 2025 revenue to roughly €2 million selling almond- and cashew-based dairy-free cheeses (mozzarella, ricotta, stracciatella, cream cheese), all carrying Nutri-Score A. Built on €5 million raised in 2023, the company is now sold across Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France, and plans to launch plant-based mini mozzarella balls (ciliegine) and expand foodservice distribution in 2026 without needing fresh funding.

Suntory Holdings patented a targeted fermentation process that boosts "ethyl tiglate" — a fruity/floral aroma compound nearly absent in conventional green coffee beans — from undetectable levels up to 23 ppm, engineering flavor at the bean level rather than through roasting or blending.

A joint patent from Jimei University and Jiangsu University describes a machine-learning system that models and autonomously adjusts industrial fermentation in real time — tackling the "black box" problem where pH, oxygen, and bacterial growth are so tightly coupled that fermentation has stayed more art than science.

FrieslandCampina patented a process using Lyras UV-C sterilization technology to produce serum protein concentrate for infant formula, cutting energy use versus thermal pasteurization while better preserving heat-sensitive bioactives like immunoglobulins and lactoferrin.

Starbucks was granted a patent for an RFID-tag-based smart display system that tracks drink orders in real time through prep and handoff, aimed at cutting mix-ups and wait times chain-wide — a concrete signal of where in-store food-service automation is heading.