Agritech & foodtech 2024

1. There’s mush-room for more mycelium

   Mycelium is the root-like network of strands that underpin mushrooms, which is the fungus’s fruiting body. When grown in labs, its properties can be manipulated to take on different forms and serve different purposes and can be shaped into products by using moulds.

   Already used in household names like vegetarian food brand Quorn, it’s a more palatable technology than novel forms of cultivated meat — which is made by growing meat in a lab from animal cells — for regulators and consumers alike.

   But it’s not just alternative meat that mycelium is taking root in — founders have found ways to use it to provide a sustainable alternative in various applications from luxury fabrics to compostable coffins — and the potential use cases are only growing.

   Investors are also paying attention: startups that use mycelium have raised around $101m across Europe so far this year according to Dealroom, already setting a new record for the sector.

2. Delving into the sea

   With overfishing stripping the ocean of the wildlife required to maintain its ecosystem, the fishing industry has been hit with restrictions and expectations to reduce the impact it has on the ocean. In anticipation of a decline in fish supply, several foodtechs are working on alternatives to the products that could be impacted. They are developing ways to accurately mimic the taste and texture of fish enough to convince consumers.

   The ocean is also a major mitigator of climate change. Technology that boosts the blue bioeconomy and restores the potential hidden under the sea is emerging as an area of interest for specialist VCs like the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund — which could trigger a wave of other climate investors wanting a slice.

3. Bugging out over insects

   There’s a quiet buzz growing around insects, which have a presence across the food sector as an alternative protein, and in the agritech sector as animal feed.

   Cheap and easy to breed en masse, this technology could be set to fly into new spaces. Already, some companies (like Paris-based InnovaFEED and Protix have raised lumps of VC funding to produce more cost-effective alternatives to fish feed, improving the yield and efficiency of farms without stripping the natural environment.

   VCs are not queasy about investing: Protix’s €55m round last year was one of the biggest in agritech/foodtech.

4. Helping farmers go digital

   As vertical farming wilts into the background, centre stage in agritech could be taken up by startups developing software platforms to help farmers manage their crops and livestock more efficiently.

   For example, in April we saw Swiss-Italian company xFarm buy up two smaller agritechs, Greenfield Technologies and SpaceSense. The enlarged company will use satellite data and AI to help farmers and carbon offset companies perform sustainability analyses and emission monitoring.

   Embedding technologies like AI and spatial analysis drones into an age-old industry is a major challenge — but food producers looking to improve yields in the face of increasingly unpredictable climate conditions could increasingly be on the lookout for these relatively low-effort solutions.

5. Limbo for lab meat

   There’s a major regulation-shaped elephant in the room. Currently, lab-grown “cultivated” meat has only been approved for sale to consumers in Singapore, Israel and the US. European regulators are hesitant to take the punt as governments and consumers consider the novel food with caution. Italy went as far as to ban the sale and marketing of cell-cultured meat in December 2023.

   Even in the three markets that are more open to the technology, sentiment is varied: several states in the US are also considering a ban, tightening the option pool of potential markets.

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