Alternative Protein

A Southeast Asian sovereign wealth fund has come onboard for ABC Impact Fund II, as ABC Impact Fund I nears full deployment.

USDA approval for Upside Foods and Good Meat was a significant milestone for an industry that has a long way to go before it appears on a supermarket shelf near you.

‘Anti-scientific and anti-Italian’ cultured meat was prohibited from being sold by lawmakers in Italy, a rare setback for what has seemed to be a steady rise in interest in the sector.

The French private equity firm’s chilled food platform, The Compleat Food Group, has added another British start-up to its stable.

Land-based aquaculture investments, debt-for-nature swaps and DFI-backed investments are on an upward trajectory but the scale of capital needed remains daunting.

The start-up is also pursing regulatory approval for its beef product in Switzerland.

Participants at the Future Food-Tech Alternative Proteins conference in New York drew encouragement from the USDA's approval of cultivated chicken while examining challenges and opportunities across a diverse set of markets.

The venture capital investor raised its debut $50m vehicle during the pandemic and hit its fundraising target in May 2021.

Chief executive Lionel Kambeitz says Above Foods will look to partner with large-scale regenerative operations developed in Saskatchewan, amid regional restrictions on institutional farmland investment.

The firm closed Anterra FA Ventures II in February 2022 but the vehicle is still only 30% deployed because the firm correctly judged the agtech market to be overpriced – now it's ready to go shopping.