2018: what has happened – 2019: what to expect
Happy new year!
The start of a new year is always a good time to look back what has happened in the last 12 months and what we can wish to happen next.
First, let’s start with 2018. The year has been great for DigitalFoodLab:
- there is many more of you reading and following our work and we thank you for that. Don’t forget to share it with your co-workers, they can subscribe here.
- we have released great content about the European FoodTech ecosystem which has received great coverage and attention
- we have worked on many projects with great clients, you can learn a bit more here
FoodTech has become even more serious in 2018, which will be a record year in terms of investments with huge rounds (see below). We have seen a definitive tipping point in the way corporates and VCs were looking at the domain. For the later, while FoodTech was mostly a synonym for delivery startups, it is now looked more broadly with interest as a domain with tremendous potential. For corporates, 2018 has been the year were most have understood that their citadel wasn’t impregnable and that “something is happening”.
Here are 3 wishes we can make for 2019’s FoodTech:
- Faster growth for successful startups such as plant-based alternatives to animal products. Take for example the above picture is a Beyond Meat burger taken in a restaurant. What is interesting is that it has been taken in a Paris restaurant in late December and how fast the startup has gone from selling a few patties to being global and filing for IPO.
- New ecosystems which are under construction outside the US (such as India, Israël, France) will continue to grow fast to become regional and even global players
- A lot of new corporates incubators and accelerators with some bringing value above PR to corporates and startups.
Best wishes for 2019!
Matthieu
Big Deals
Swiggy, one of India’s biggest food delivery unicorns announced a huge$1 billion round. It is the biggest deal yet in a FoodTech startup and it clearly put light on India fast-growing scene.
Few weeks ago we talked about Functional drinks using the example of DirtyLemon. The startup just raised $15 million from Coca-Cola to grow faster and expand its range of products.
Top News
Delivery Hero sells its German operations to Takeaway.com: The Berlin-based Delivery Hero has sold its operations in Germany (including Foodora and other delivery businesses) to the Dutch startup Takeaway.com to focus on other markets. It seems that Takeaway had won an expansive domination war on Germany’s delivery market. It also put a (high) price on Delivery Hero Geman’s operations: €930 million paid in cash and shares. This, after the rumours of discussions between Uber Eats and Deliveroo is a clear signal of a trend toward concentration on delivery startups.
Don’t call emerging markets’ startups copycats: Often used to belittle startups inspired by US tech giants, the word copycat should be used with more care. Indeed, it helps create new ecosystems of entrepreneurship in emerging markets (and also in developed countries where entrepreneurs are less deified than in California).
