In March 2021, Five Seasons Ventures and Dealroom released their annual State of European Food Tech, highlighting what is new in the Food Tech space based on 2020’s data.
Five Seasons Ventures, based in France, is the first Venture Capital fund in Europe solely focused on investing in early stage food technology companies, aiming for a healthier, more sustainable and more efficient food system. Some of the startups they invested in are La Fourche, Butternut Box, Just Spices, among several others.
Dealroom, based in the Netherlands, is a global data & analytics platform, providing intelligence about startups, innovation, venture capital investment and entire tech ecosystems. The company’s software and data are trusted by top-tier venture capital firms, world-class corporates and leading tech hubs.
The report contains four parts and includes an impressive amount of graphs to help visualize relevant information.
The pandemic effect
The first two sections explore how 2020 drove radical changes in consumer behavior due to the pandemic. Resulting in, for example, the accelerated adoption of meal and grocery deliveries. E-grocery companies have seen astounding growth in 2020, as ordering online became a necessity. The pandemic also concretized models such as meal kits companies and virtual/dark kitchens can work. It also highlighted inefficiencies in the food supply chain and raised awareness for a healthier and sustainable food system.
Each section comes with a variety of graphs and informative documents. For example, one is about the European food tech unicorns’ worth with its biggest players. Plus, the new generation of food tech innovators, a short interview with the e-grocery retailer La Fourche, and much more.
How the move to digital distribution affected the food value chain
Food production and transformation is catching up with consumer-facing foodtech and while
B2B food companies may take longer to develop compared to B2C, there is still a huge growth opportunity to explore. The pandemic brought to light inefficiencies in the food supply chain and the need for new technology solutions. Thus leading to investments in supply chain automation. Funding of indoor and vertical farming is growing, as well as for insect production and food waste management.
The following graph, extracted from the report, displays the biggest players in the foodtech supply chain. A clear gap shows in primary production unicorns.
Other supporting graphs and documents in this section include B2B growth opportunity, the increase in investment in farming robotics and automation, and a short interview with the indoor farming startup Infarm, among others.
The report ends with 3 tables stating which funds are investing in which foodtech startups, and what big food companies are betting on.
This is a very interesting and informative report and we encourage you to download it here.
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