๐บ๐ธย ๐ฆย A unicorn no more: Jokr, a US-based quick-commerce startup, raised $50M at a valuation of $800M (previously, it was valued at $1.3B). Interestingly, the startup is now only active in Latin America, even if initially its operations were in the US. It shows how complicated the model of quick grocery deliveries can be in developed economies (where salaries are high while groceries donโt cost much).
๐ฉ๐ช๐งพ Plan A, a German startup raised $27M for its carbon accounting platform. Unlike other players in this space (Carbon Cloud, Planet FWDโฆ), Plan A is industry agnostic and serves clients as different as KFC and BMW. It is also moving to monitor metrics continuously. Many players have launched carbon accounting platforms over the past few years, each with different angles. Now, they are growing super fast, as is the interest from large companies. We expect a phase of consolidation and maybe of questioning on using all this data to arrive sooner rather than later.
๐ฉ๐ชย ๐พ Mammaly, a German startup, raised โฌ14M for pet supplements. It is capitalising on the burgeoning European pet wellness space.
๐ฎ๐ฑย ๐๏ธ UBQ Materials, an Israeli startup, raised $70M to transform household waste into bio-based thermoplastic. Packaging is one of the parts of the food value chain that has long been the least invested by startups. We are pretty excited to see more investments and innovation here, notably on alternatives to fossil fuel-based plastic.
๐ฌ๐ญย ๐งโ๐พ Complete Farmer, a Ghanaian startup, raised $10.4M for its agricultural marketplace. It connects farmers to global trade, introducing more sustainable practices and new corps.
๐บ๐ฌ๐ฐ Emata, a Ugandan startup, raised $2.4M for its financial services to farmers. The startup lends farmers money and provides them with digital tools to set up their e-commerce operations.
๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ง Treetoscope, an Israeli startup, raised $7M for its precision irrigation management platform.
๐บ๐ธย ๐คซย Mondelฤz is shutting down brands it created in its SnackFutures division. Instead, it will now focus on already established startups. It shows how complicated it can be for a leading company to create and grow new brands. Selling products to thousands of consumers is highly complex when your core expertise reaches millions (and bridging the gap between both worlds is almost impossible). It seems then more straightforward to acquire startups that are big enough to be scaled with the firepower of such companies.
๐ฎ๐ช๐ Micron Agritech, an Irish startup, raised โฌ2.7M for its AI-powered testing kit to reduce the overuse of anti-parasite treatment in animals.
๐ย ๐ย Several large food and restaurant companies, including McDonald’s, have failed to make significant progress in their goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the past 6 to 8 years. This growth in emissions is often linked to an increase in the business size. However, this data does not help to see how companies will reach their net zero claims by 2040 or 2050.
