Two foodtech startups, LIVEKINDLY Collective and Plenty Unlimited, announced big cash infusions Wednesday.
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Plant-based food company LIVEKINDLY Collective, based in New York, said it raised $135 million in a venture round to expand its footprint of plant-based alternatives to meat.
Blue Horizon led the round, which also included a syndicate from Asia led by Trustbridge Partners, EQT, Griffith Foods and other existing shareholders. This new round brings total funds raised by the company in 2020 to $335 million.
Proceeds will go toward increasing capacity and accelerating the 2021 U.S. launch of its portfolio brands, including The Fry Family Food Co., LikeMeat and Oumph, as well as develop new products, including plant-based products that mimic the taste and texture of chicken and eggs.
Meanwhile, South San Francisco-based vertical farming company Plenty Unlimited secured $140 million in Series D funding led by existing investor SoftBank Vision Fund.
The round also included new investor, berry producer Driscoll’s. The new investment brings the company’s total fundraising to more than $500 million since its inception in 2014, according to Crunchbase data.
Armed with the new funding, Plenty will move forward on agreements with Albertsons (to sell Plenty’s greens in 431 of its California stores) and Driscoll’s (to grow strawberries in its vertical indoor farm), as well as the development of a new vertical, indoor farm in Compton, California.
The news comes as the agriculture sector attracts more investor dollars. In August, we took an in-depth look at where investor dollars were going and found that in the last two years, venture capitalists invested $4 billion in startups in the agtech space, according to Crunchbase data. As of Aug. 14 of this year, $2.6 billion was awarded.
In addition, other startups raised large rounds this year:
- Urban farming network Infarm raised $170 million in Series C funding in September that it will use for infrastructure, R&D and hiring.
- Agriculture tech startup Pivot Bio raised $100 million in Series C funding in April to scale its microbial nitrogen technology.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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