A foodtech rebound? FoodLabs' €105m close – plus 3 fresh funds reshaping the sector

Prominent German entrepreneur and investor Christophe Maire founded FoodLabs in 2016 originally as a unit of Atlantic Labs – an early backer of prominent tech companies such as SoundCloud and GetYourGuide.

In 2021, FoodLabs spun-off from Atlantic, with it's own €100m early-stage foodtech investment vehicle. It has has made a number of notable investments since then including in cultivated meat startup Meatable, mycoprotein company Infinite Roots, and Formo, which makes alt-dairy via precision fermentation.

Now, FoodLabs has closed its third fund at €105m – the fourth largest new impact VC fund of the year. The Berlin-based VC firm will continue to back early-stage startups in food, health, and agriculture.

"We're focusing on backing the engineers of food," a spokesperson for FoodLabs told Impact Loop. "We combine that deep consumer understanding with a focus on deep tech infrastructure.

"We are moving away from "bet-the-factory" risks toward smart pilot lines and industrial partnerships to bridge the gap between lab and shelf," they continued.

The spokesperson declined to dislcose the anchor investors for its third fund, but did say the VC had backing from "leading industrial family offices and strategic corporate partners" including REWE, Henkel, and Bitburger.

A foodtech rebound?

The new fund comes amidst a major shift in the foodtech sector, which many investors say is emerging from its first "hype wave" and going into a new era – where taste and cost parity rule.

“The first wave of plant-based hype has fizzled,” Dr. Nadine Geiser, a specialist agrifood tech investor at World Fund, recently told Impact Loop. “That’s partly because of overpromising and underdelivering on product quality.”

It's with that reality in mind that VCs are now approaching foodtech investments. Here are three new funds that closed that aim to usher in the next wave of agrifood innovation.

Oyster Bay Venture Capital

Hamburg, Germany-based Oyster Bay Venture Capital invests solely in agrifood tech.

“We’re looking for impact driven agtech and food tech companies across the whole value chain – both B2B and B2C,” managing partner Felix Leonhardt recently told Impact Loop.

Its latest, €100m fund has an initial ticket size of €1m-€4m, with “significant” reserves for follow-ons. It mainly targets seed stage and Series A companies. Anchor LPs are the European Investment Fund (EIF) and KfW.

Oyster Bay has made 19 investments from its first fund, including in AirUp, True Gum, and GoodBytz. Most recently, it led UK startup Arda Biomaterials’ €4.5m seed round for a technology that turns beer waste into leather.

Notable exits include Grillido, Lycka, and Oatly – which went public at a $10 billion valuation in 2021.

Maia Ventures

Italy-headquartered Maia Ventures emerged from stealth in October with its first, €55m fund. It plans to back 20–25 early-stage agrifood tech startups in Italy, Europe, and potentially, the US.

The LP mix combines institutional backers – European Investment Fund and CDP Venture Capital – with Italian food corporates and family offices.

Maia targets solutions at the intersection of food, health, and sustainability. It has already made six investments, including in alt-chocolate startup Foreverland.

The fund's founding partners, Andrea Galassi and David Bassani, say that they're also not looking for startups which base their business model on green premiums or regulatory breakthroughs that may not arrive.

“There needs to be another value-add – cost savings, efficiency, scalability,” Galassi told Impact Loop.

Nordic Foodtech VC

Helsinki- Finland-based early-stage investor Nordic Foodtech VC announced the first close of its second fund at €40m back in June. The final target size for the fund is €80m.

The new fund is backed by LPs such as Tesi, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Company, Valio Pension Fund and Heino Group.

Founded in 2019, Nordic Foodtech VC has made 19 investments to date, including in specialty fat producer Melt&Marble and iron-enrichment company Ironic Biotech.

The firm hasn't made any exits to date, something which partner Louise Heiberg attributed to the long time it takes to commercialise foodtech ventures.

At the same time, Heiberg emphasised the importance of reigniting capital flows in the sector.

“A lot of capital is currently stuck," she told Impact Loop. "We need more exits in foodtech so that investors can reinvest in new companies and funds. Foodtech is still a young investment space, and every part of this sector still has a long way to move forward and mature.”

Pictured above: Adrian Friederich, principal at FoodLabs (left); Louise Heiberg, partner at Nordic Foodtech VC; David Bassani, founder Maia Ventures.