German-based drinks technology, air up, has successfully closed its latest funding round having raised over EUR 40 million. This is after completing their Series A fundraise at the beginning of the year. The investment round, led by Five Seasons Ventures (co-led by PepsiCo, Ippen.Media, Oyster Bay), was in part based on the rapid growth trajectory in the German speaking countries and across Europe over the past 12 months.

London-based startup, BEPPS Snacks, are all about their pea, pulse and grain snacks, whilst hero’ing the black eyed pea; the Great Taste Award winning brand is pioneering healthy, plant-based snacks that are loved by the whole family. 2021 sees the announcement of £400,000 investment from early-stage venture capital investors, Ascension Ventures, who seek to back entrepreneurs making healthy eating accessible to all with the ‘Good Food Fund’ (a fund also backed by challenger brand builders, Mission Ventures and Big Society Capital).

Worcestershire-based Sustainable bag-in-box wine brand, When in Rome, has secured £375,000 from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) West Midlands Equity Fund, managed by Midven (part of the Future Planet Capital Group).  Having already secured listings with Waitrose, Ocado and Amazon, the MEIF funding will allow When in Rome to accelerate its growth by upscaling its marketing activities and expanding distribution. The investment also supports three key hires and two contractor roles. 

Turquoise, the UK merchant bank specialising in energy, environment and efficiency, has invested in bio-bean for the Low Carbon Innovation Fund 2 (LCIF2). The investment of £350,000 is part of an overall round of £1.25million.  The round was led by LCIF2 with the participation of 2Enable Partners, Stellar Impact and the Gresham House Renewable Energy venture capital trusts (VCTs). 

OLIO, the community sustainability app, has announced a $43million Series B round to fund its fight against the $1.3trillion of food waste created globally each year.  Founded in London in 2015 by Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One, OLIO has amassed a user base of five million people. The app is used to give away unwanted food and other household items to neighbours, for free, with the aim of reducing waste in the home and helping people to consume more locally and sustainably. 

BurdaPrincipal Investments (BPI), the growth capital arm of media and tech company Hubert Burda Media, has invested in UK-based Oddbox, a platform that is leveraging technology to fight food waste. BPI has invested a total of £16m, comprising a combination of primary and secondary investment. 

Howard Town Brewery has secured a £150,000 funding package from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) East & South East Midlands Debt Finance fund, managed by Maven Capital Partners and backed by the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

Circular economy business CauliBox, which is the UK’s first tech-enabled reusable container scheme has secured £250,000 in a seed funding round led by SFC Capital, with Angel investors. CauliBox provides award-winning, digitally-enabled reusable solutions to disrupt the disposable food packaging market, an industry worth £45 billion a year globally. For its endeavours, CauliBox has been named in the FoodTech 500 and co-founder Josephine Liang was recently named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2021 - ‘Social Impact’ category.

Gresham House Ventures, a specialist growth equity investor providing development capital to innovative consumer, healthcare and services businesses, has agreed the sale of its stake in Pho, the leading Vietnamese restaurant group, on behalf of the Baronsmead VCTs.

Kitche has become a recipient of £68,000 in UK government funding under the Resource Action Fund to help support its important work to ensure no good food goes to waste.  The money has been awarded to Kitche by WRAP, which administers the fund on behalf of DEFRA. The grant is being used to introduce new features to the Kitche app and platform to further drive behaviour change in home kitchens.

Insect-based snack company Small Giants has closed a new investment round of more than £400,000, after raising £130,000 in the first round in March 2020.  The startup, founded by Francesco Majno and Edoardo Imparato, has far exceeded its initial target of £250k, following significant funding from investors.  A sizeable proportion of the investment came from shareholders and partners of iN3 Ventures’ network; an innovation advisory and corporate venture capital company. One of its partners, Mario Rizzola Pasotti, is also now a member of the Small Giants Advisory Board.

Edinburgh’s largest plastic free grocery store, The Refillery, has been nominated for the Food Hero Scotland campaign.