Cargill and Continental Grain Company completed their acquisition of Sanderson Farms. Cargill, a global food corporation, and Continental Grain Co, a global investor in the food and agribusiness industry, have merged Sanderson Farms with Continental’s subsidiary, Wayne Farms. The newly named business, Wayne-Sanderson Farms, will be one of the country’s largest chicken producers.

reuters.com

Trimble, an industrial technology company, announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Bilberry, a French technology company specializing in selective spraying systems for sustainable farming. Bilberry applies AI technology that identifies a wide variety of weed species in real time for a broad range of crop types. Trimble provides technology solutions across the agricultural supply chain and plans to integrate both companies’ technologies to create new selective spraying systems for farmers worldwide.

nasdaq.com

Gotham Greens, a U.S.-based indoor farming operation, secured $310 million in Series E funding. The round was led by bmO Impact Investment Fund and Ares Management, with participation from Commonfund, RockCreek, Kimco Realty Corporation, Manna Tree Partners, and The Silverman Group. The Company has greenhouse farms in several states across the U.S. and aims to make its produce “within a day’s drive from our greenhouses to 90% of consumers across the U.S.” The Company plans to use the funding to expand its greenhouse facilities. Gotham also recently acquired the Virginia-based indoor leafy green grower FreshH2O Growers, Inc.

agfundernews.com

Source Global, a sustainable drinking water technology company, raised $130 million in equity financing co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Drawdown Fund. The Company’s patented Source Hydropanels create drinking water using sunlight and air by using the sun to draw pure water vapor out of the air and convert it into mineralized drinking water. The Company plans to use the capital to accelerate innovation in advanced renewable water technologies.

foodbev.com

Taranis, an Israeli-based crop intelligence provider, raised $40 million in Series D funding that was led by Inven Capital. The Company’s platform leverages leaf-level imagery and is powered by machine learning from a dataset of over 200 million AI-data points. Taranis intends to use the funding to further penetrate current markets and expand into new ones. The Company claims to have delivered millions of actionable insights to ag advisors and growers in the most recent growing season.

calcalistech.com

Spread, a Japan-based vertical farming operation, raised $30 Million in its Series A round. Spread focuses on sustainably grown produce for city dwellers in highly populated areas to reduce transport time and deliver fresher produce. The Company plans to use the funding to develop its automated vertical farm, slated to be operational in 2024. Spread claims to have sold more than 90 million packs of its vertically grown lettuce over the last fifteen years.

greenqueen.com

Vegrow, an India-based B2B agtech marketplace for fruits, raised $25 million in its Series B round led by Prosus Ventures, a Netherlands-based global venture firm. Vegrow uses a range of tech solutions such as grading, packaging, logistics, and sales as a service to farmers, along with crop advisory. According to Vegrow, it has grown 15x in the past year, with a gross margin of about 20%. The Company claims to have a presence in more than 100 cities and helped around 20,000 farmers reach the market.

inc42.com

Milk Moovement, a Halifax-based startup that provides cloud-based dairy supply chain software, closed on a $20 million Series A funding round that was led by VMG Catalyst. The Company created a modernized dairy software for the raw milk supply chain that is an alternative to the industry’s old ways of tracking pen-and-paper data through outdated legacy systems. Milk Moovement plans to use the funding to expand its team of 55 employees and further develop its software. The Company claims to have a network of 2,500 dairy farms and manages 30 billion pounds of raw milk each year.

huddle.today

Fieldless Farms, an Ottowa-based agtech startup, raised a $17.5 million Series A round led by Forage Capital Partners, with participation from Farm Credit Canada and the Business Development Bank of Canada. The Company uses indoor farming technology to produce leafy greens year-round. Its controlled environment agriculture technology creates an ideal climate for growing produce throughout the year. Fieldless plans to use the funding to expand its facility tenfold.

betakit.com

Elco, an urban farm producer of exotic mushrooms, microgreens, and baby herbs, raised $4.8 million in funding from Noshaq, Investsud Bois, GoGreen Capital, and private investors. The Company uses organic waste from breweries and industrial bakeries to produce quality substrates for its operations. In 2021, the Company claimed to have produced 330 tons of substrate while recycling 23 tons of brewery and bread waste.

techfundingnews.com

Shaka Harry, an Indian-based plant-based meat brand, has raised $2 million in a Seed funding round led by Better Bite Ventures, Blue Horizon, and Panthera Peak, among others. The Company claims to be a fast-growing vegan meat and snack brand in South Asia that outperforms its competitors in taste. Shaka Harry plans to use the funding to help the brand move from inline sales into retail spaces as well as expand its R&D.

greenqueen.com

Agreena, which mints, verifies, and sells carbon certificates from regenerative ag farmers, has agreed to acquire UK-based remote-sensing startup Hummingbird Technologies. Hummingbird, whose investors include SALIC, BASF, and TELUS, merges data science with regenerative agriculture as it uses AI and low-orbit satellite imagery to automatically recognize and report on-farm regenerative agriculture practices. Agreena plans to channel financial and commercial resources into further developing Hummingbird’s MRV technology, which it intends to bring in-house and use to strengthen the validity of its carbon credits.

agfundernews.com

Grinkgo Bioworks, a biotechnology company, acquired Zymergen, a biotech and cell engineering company, for $300 million in an all-stock transaction. Both companies have worked on developing products for the food and agriculture industries but have recently moved into healthcare. Grinkgo plans to integrate Zymergen’s automation, software, data science tools, and biological assets and fill staffing gaps at the Company. This has been Grinkgo’s largest acquisition to date.

agfundernews.com

Meati, a Boulder, Colorado-based meat alternative producer, secured $150 Million in Series C funding to accelerate the production of its products. Meati produces whole-cut meat alternatives made from mushroom root using its proprietary process that enables it to make whole-cut meat analogs. Alongside increasing output, Meati plans to use the funding to break ground on a new production facility to increase its production capacity.

agfundernews.com

Enko, a Connecticut-based crop protection startup, raised $70 million in its Series C round. The round was led by Australian agrochemicals company, Nufarm. Enko uses machine-learning based discovery technology and predictive analysis to find new “modes of action” for treating and protecting crops. The funding will go towards advancing the company’s product pipeline and expanding its technology platform.

agfundernews.com

PatternAg, Inc., an agtech and genomics company, secured a $35 million funding round led by Conti Ventures and joined by Bidra Innovations. Pattern has a metagenomics platform that provides data-driven, evidence-based, long-term predictions about crop risks and nutrient deficiencies at scale in row crops. The Company claims that the biological analytics can boost farmers’ profits by $60+ per acre by increasing yields and controlling input costs. Pattern plans to use the funding to expand its intellectual property portfolio by growing its databases to improve its computational platform.

globenewswire.com

Vive Crop Protection, a Canadian crop protection developer, closed a $26 million Series C round led by Emmertech, with participation from the Cibus fund, and existing investors. Vive uses its patented ‘Allosperse’ technology to create crop protection products that increase crop yields and reduce the environmental impact of applying crop protection. The Company has seven products in the market that have reportedly been used on over 2 million farmland acres. Vive plans to use the funding to accelerate its commercial deployment of its product portfolio into new North American markets.

agfundernews.com

Aqua-Yield, a U.S.-based nontechnology company, closed a $23 million Series A round led by Larry H. Miller Company, with participation from Penny Newman Grain Company and JH Partners. The Company uses its nanoliquid technology to increase plants’ absorption of other liquid inputs such as fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. The Company says that its products can help farmers reduce the number of inputs without compromising crop yields. Aqua-Yield intends to use the funding to support the growth of its nanoliquid products.

agfundernews.com

String Bio, an India-based biotech startup, raised $20 million in funding from Woodside Energy Group, Ankur Capital, Dare Ventures, Redstart, and Zenfold Ventures. The Company leverages advances in biology, fermentation technology, chemistry, and process engineering to convert the energy in methane into diverse value-added products. Products enabled by String’s platform range from protein ingredients for nutrition to products for biodegradable polymers.

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Micropep, a French startup developing crop protection products based on small peptides, closed its Series A+ round for $8.84 million. The Company’s first product is a biofungicide and will seek regulatory approval as it continues to develop its second product, a bioherbicide. The funding is expected to be used to expand into the United States, scale production, and improve formulation.

agfundernews.com

Ucrop.it, an Argentina-based agtech company that tracks farmers’ sustainable practices on its blockchain-enabled platform, announced the close of a pre-series A funding round of $3.1 million. The deal was led by Yugen Partners in New York, with participation from The Yield Lab LATAM, Closed Loop Partners, Harris Investment Group, Glocal, and several family offices. The Company’s platform tracks farmers’ adoption of more sustainable practices and connects them to downstream buyers interested in sustainably grown products. The funding will be used for regional expansion, building new value-chain alliances, and platform upgrades.

agfundernews.com

Big Mountain Foods, a British Colombia-based company that offers vegetable-forward products received $1.4 million in Canadian federal funding. The Company plans to use the funding to increase production capacity of its locally-source, whole-food alternative proteins. Big Mountain says the funds will also help commercialize a new soy-free, chickpea-based tofu.

huddle.today