Morning All,

Before anything else, I want to take a moment to express my deep sadness about the horrific fire that occurred at Wamg Fuk Court in thr Tai Po district of Hong Kong last week and left hundreds dead and many more injured. We have readers from over 100 countries and this newsletter’s focus tends to be fairly broad in geographic scope, so many of you may not know that Green Queen is headquartered in Hong Kong. I was born here, grew up here and am raising my children here. I love this city deeply. It is my home. And my home is hurting. What gives me solace is the outpouring of support of every kind that we have witnessed. Hong Kongers showed up in the most incredible ways. My thoughts and prayers remain with the victims and their families. 💔

I’ve been having informal chats with founders and funders about AI for the past few weeks and here’s what I’ve learned.

While AI is devouring headlines and term sheets in pretty much every tech vertical the world over (last I read, 51% of all VC dollars this year went to AI), in foodtech, the story is more complicated. Foodtech funding has slumped this year, and many founders feel like they’re fighting for oxygen (literally the words of a CEO in a WhatsApp chat this week). At the same time, AI is quietly becoming a horizontal layer across the agri-food chain. It’s getting embedded in everything from crop forecasting and factory optimisation to R&D and retail, rather than being a standalone silver bullet. The result is a split-screen reality: some VCs are talking as if AI will fix food, even as the capital actually reaching deep, hardware-heavy climate solutions remains thin.

There are a few clear themes investors are still backing. There is interest in AI that reduces cost and risk in painfully tight-margin parts of the system: demand and inventory forecasting, dynamic pricing to cut waste, supply chain visibility, and on-farm analytics that boost yields with fewer inputs. On the product side, using machine learning to speed up ingredient discovery, protein and fat design, flavour mapping, and precision nutrition is still getting deal traction. One investor described it as backing solutions that “compress lab timelines and de-risk what gets launched”. Still, the mood is very much ‘do more with less’, rather than ‘here’s millions for your moonshot’. Funders want tools that plug into existing workflows and infrastructure, not science projects that need untold billions and a new regulatory regime.

So how should future food and alt protein founders respond? First, by resisting the urge to tack AI onto everything as a branding exercise, and instead remaining very specific about what kind of intelligence is being built, what data it runs on, and which line items it improves. The startups that stand out now are the ones that treat AI as infrastructure, helping farmers, formulators, or foodservice teams make better, faster decisions, while keeping the core thesis squarely about climate, resilience, and nutrition. Second, by building tools and ingredients that large food and ag players can realistically adopt, integrate, and scale across their existing assets.

The takeaway here is less ‘AI will save foodtech’, and more ‘AI is the new baseline expectation for serious food innovation’. Capital will continue to chase code, but there is still room for founders who can show how that code unlocks real-world change: lower emissions, better farmer margins, healthier diets, and stronger supply chains.

In a funding cycle where everyone is pitching themselves as an AI company, the differentiator may actually be old-fashioned: clear problem definition, credible unit economics, and a tangible plan to move the needle on the food system, not just the next funding round.

-Sonalie

💡 Only On Green Queen

🌱 Industry Insights: Why Edonia is Betting the Farm on Spirulina to Fill the Plant Protein Gap
France’s Edonia turns green spirulina into a brown mince with as much protein as beef and a much smaller environmental footprint than soy. Now, it will be part of 10,000 catering meals, having secured €15 mlilion worth of commercial deals. Could microalgae really be the answer to the protein boom?

❓Op-Ed: Dubai Summit Shows the Future of Food Hinges on Regulatory Sandboxes
Regulatory expert Stephen O’Rourke explains why the global future food industry could learn a thing or two from Dubai’s RegLab model.

✅ Must-Read Headlines

🫛 US pea milk leader Ripple Foods closed a $17 million financing round, taking its total raised to $291 million and going against the investment currents of the industry.
💡It’s set to launch a range of organic plant-based milks to meet the demand for “nutrient-dense, plant-based protein options over ultra-processed alternatives”, and is also hedging its bets on its protein-rich products.

🧫 British tissue engineering company BSF Enterprise, owner of Lab-Grown Leather and cultivated meat firm 3D Bio-Tissues, secured £15 million ($19.8 million) in fresh funding.
💡The financing round is a testament to investors’ interest in cultivated leather, contrary to the waning interest in cultivated meat.

💵 Canadian plant-based protein bar maker Trubar has entered an acquisition agreement with Turkish consumer goods company Eti Gıda in a C$201 million ($143 million) deal.
💡After recording $50 million in revenues 2024, the company already surpassed $49 million in sales in the first nine months of 2025, while cutting its losses by 61% compared to the same period a year ago.

🇳🇱 The Dutch food regulator has temporarily suspended its ban on the labelling of plant-based protein products as ‘mince’, instead opting to wait for EU-level clarity on the subject.
💡The relevant law was published at a time when plant-based alternatives were virtually non-existent, and so almost certainly wasn’t intended to ban the use of the term on these products.

🌟 Fermentation News

🇪🇺 The European Food Safety Authority has published a positive scientific opinion recognising The Protein Brewery’s Fermotein ingredient as safe for use.
💡This marks the penultimate step before it can enter the EU market, as it works to commercialise the fermented protein with its “new customers and partners in Europe”.

🇳🇱 The Netherlands has become the first EU country to approve public tastings of foods derived from novel fermentation processes before they’re cleared for sale.
💡Tastings allow companies’ to improve the taste, texture and other elements of their products; this approval could help speed up their path to market and improve their commercial success.

🍳 Spain’s MOA Foodtech launched a new fermentation-derived ingredient that can reduce egg use in bakery, pastry and pasta formulations.
💡The aim is to provide an alternative to the ongoing price and supply instability of eggs and help manufacturers navigate increasingly complex allergen protocols.

🐈‍⬛ German startup Vegdog has expanded beyond dog food with the launch of microbial-fermented vegan treats for cats.

🚀 Everything Else In Future Food

🥗 Pet owners are increasingly on the hunt for gut-boosting, clean-label food options. For California’s PawCo, salad is the solution.

🫘 To offer better-tasting, more affordable vegan options, Finnish startup Happy Plant Protein unveiled a textured vegetable protein offering made from fava beans.

🥛 Danone announced the launch of Silk Protein, a range of plant-based milks with 13g of complete protein and 3g of fibre per serving. Could this help revive plant-based dairy demand?

🔍 Climate action organisation Project Drawdown launched a new Explorer tool to classify environmental solutions based on their level of impact (or lack thereof).

🐄 Senior officials from some of the UK’s largest food companies have published a memo detailing how the industry’s push towards intensive meat and dairy farming goes against its health and climate goals.

🇬🇧 A new survey by Diffusion reveals that 36% of Brits support the development of precision-fermented foods, while 40% are unsure, and marketing experts say the industry must get ahead of misinformation.

🌱🍔  Future Food Quick Bites 

In our weekly column, Future Food Quick Bites, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Grubby’s vegan Christmas meals, ImpacFat’s cultivated egg yolk, and India’s most vegan-friendly city.

📆 Scene & Heard

🚀 Don’t Miss the First-Ever Gulfood AI

🤖 The first-ever Gulfood AI will put AI, robotics, data, alternative proteins and next-gen packaging side-by-side with investors and buyers hungry for innovation, at scale. It’s happening 26th-30th January; learn more here.

🗽 This year’s HackSummit New York, happening 10th-11th December, will shift the conversation from reductionary approaches, and instead explore plentiness, and the new ways of manufacturing and adapting to a world that continues to grow. Get your ticket here.

🔬 The Foods of the Future: Science and Engineering Approaches GRC is a premier, international scientific conference focused on advancing the frontiers of science through the presentation of cutting-edge and unpublished research, prioritizing time for discussion after each talk and fostering informal interactions among scientists of all career stages. Sign up here.

🌱 Step into the place where the natural and organic movement was born and where its future continues to unfold at Natural Products Expo West on 4th-6th March. For 45 years, Expo West has been the heartbeat of an industry built on innovation, purpose, and connection; find out more here.