Food tech startups continue to raise money around the world, and the first half of this week has already seen a bunch of funding news:
Olio, a UK-based food waste startup, raised a $6 million Series A round led by Octopus Ventures. Taking a hyperlocal approach, Olio’s platform lets people and business list unwanted or surplus food online for other people in those neighborhoods to choose from and pick up. Olio is part of a burgeoning U.K. food waste fighting scene that includes Winnow and Too Good to Go. The company has raised $8.2 million to date.
Over in China, on-demand coffee delivery company Luckin Coffee just closed a $200 million Series A round from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, China’s Legend Capital, Joy Capital, and Centurium Capital. According to China Money Network, Luckin is combining offline and online retail modes to reach as many consumers as possible. This new funding values Luckin at $1 billion, creating one highly caffeinated unicorn.
Spinning the globe once more we land on Bahrain, where regional restaurant reservation platform, Eat, raised an undisclosed sum from Middle East Venture Partners. According to Entrepreneur, Eat has raised $3.4 million to date. Eat’s service allows restaurants to accept online reservations. The startup has customers in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and has generated “$250 million worth of orders for restaurants.”
And finally, for startups on the hunt for money, IEEE reports that early stage robotics companies can get up to $2 million dollars from Toyota AI Ventures and Toyota Research Institute for work “improving mobile manipulation technology for assistive robots that can help people in and around the home.” This isn’t strictly food tech per se, but work towards helping people put delicate and oddly shaped groceries away in the kitchen would certainly fall into this category.
Are you a startup that just got or is about to announce funding? Tell us all about it!
