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News for April 30, 2022

Recent Transactions in the Nutrition and Health & Wellness Industry:

Food is medicine for startup Season Health

Season Health is working with health systems to make accessible condition-specific foods that help patients improve. It has raised $34 million in a Series A round of funding led by Andreesen Horowitz . Season Health currently designs specialized meal plans for diabetes and chronic kidney disease patients and facilitates delivery. The company is working with investors to have their services covered by health insurance providers.

 

Gauge Capital is bringing hair care from the Land Down Under to North America

BondiBoost , the Australian haircare brand, has been acquired by Dallas-based private equity firm Gauge Capitol. Operations will remain in Australia, where the brand creates solutions to help solve people’s hair and scalp issues. The brand has seen great success already in the U.K., U.S. (sold at Ulta Beauty and Target) and online. Gauge Capital will support the Australian team as it expands into more global markets, especially as the hair care market is expected to grow and match the size of the makeup market by 2024.

 

Latin America food tech startup gains record funding

Brazilian startup Diferente is ensuring that different ” ugly” foods are not being discarded but instead rescued and brought straight to consumers at a lower price point. Diferente announced a record-setting seed round funding for early food tech startups in Latin America of BRL 24 million. Maya Capital led the funding round, which also saw investments from the likes of Misfits Market founder and CEO , whose brand rescues ” ugly ” produce in North America.

 

The lab is your oyster! Cult Food Science invests in Pearlita

Innovative food science sees whole new worlds of possibility and Cult Food Science is adding to its portfolio Pearlita , a cell-based mollusk company. Cellular agriculture and the incorporation of cultivated cell-based foods into the global food supply chain decrease our reliance on live animals as a source of food. Pearlita’s cultivated oysters from stem cells and bioreactors provide seafood lovers with healthy, nutritious, and richly flavorful oysters.

 

The Honest Kitchen secures $150M in funding to expand on its human-grade pet food

The Honest Kitchen cares about your pet’s health and wants to make sure man’s best friend is getting the same quality ingredients as are found in human food. The Honest Kitchen will use part of the funding towards environmental, social and governance initiatives. The investment will also help expand on innovating new dog and cat food products, manufacturing and marketing.

 

Athletes get a head start investing in Mikuna Protein Powder

Protein powder brand Mikuna Foods raised $5.6 million in seed funding . Among the backers of the seed round were a number of athletes, including professional snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg , professional skateboarder Leticia Bufoni and professional surfer Mick Fanning. Mikuna’splant- based protein comes from chocho , a lupin species native to the Andes Mountains. The new funding will be used to expand manufacturing and explore new products.

 

Series A funding goes swimmingly for lab-grown shrimp producer CellMEAT

CellMeat, a South Korean startup , has secured $8.1 million in Series A funding. Alternative seafood investments saw 92% growth last year, totaling $175 million globally. CellMEAT will use this new round of funding to continue cell-based lab-grown shrimp research and development. CellMEAT will also increase production and begin to cultivate other crustacean seafood such as lobsters and crabs. The aim is for the cultivated shrimps to be commercialized by 2023 for B2B and B2C in Asian countries and , subsequently, the U.S.

 

Move over Styrofoam, TemperPack receives $140M in financing

TemperPack Technology manufactures Cli maCell thermal liners , a nontoxic and recyclable alternative to Styrofoam and expanded polystyrene. These sustainable thermal shipping liners used to ship food, pharmaceutical and other products help reduce waste and carbon emissions. The new equity financing was led by Goldman Sachs and will allow TemperPack to expand manufacturing and become known to more customers.

 

Investments grow upward for Vertical Harvest in Series A funding

Vertical Harvest secured $8.35 million in its Series A funding round led by Nicoya and Raiven Capital. The vertical farming company also saw investments from Mike Krupka, a partner at BainCapital Ventures , and Oatly co-founder Björn Öste . Vertical Harvest produces packaged salads of microgreens, lettuces, tomatoes and edible flowers. The goal of Vertical Harvest is to create a network of local , sustainable farms in urban environments while having an inclusive employment scheme.

 

Investors flocked to plant-based meats in April

Food tech companies inventing meat alternatives seem to be all the rage these days for both startups and venture capital. This makes sense given consumers growing interest in caring for the environment and nutrition. Planetary tapped into an $8 million cash infusion to construct an industrial-scale production facility. This facility will allow its customers to use fermentation technology to speed up the process of creating and scaling alternative proteins. Nowadays, a health-focused scalable plant-based chicken nugget company, closed a $7 million seed round. UPSIDE Foods , an “any species ” cultivated meat company, closed a $400 million Series C funding round. As more food tech companies ar e finishing the development stages , they are beginning to prepare for growth. Realistic plant-based chicken breast makers Umiami use proprietary techniques , and Hafood Scops creates their plant-based chicken from peanuts. The two French and Chinese startups have raised $30 million and $3.5 million, respectively.

 

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