Fast bites
- Global food technology is growing at a rapid pace, and a 9.9% increase by 2030 is expected.
- Investors are looking for cost-saving, scalable solutions to move quickly from the lab to market.
- Artificial intelligence and biotechnology are a hot topic, enabling smarter supply chain, new ingredients and increased efficiency.
- The focus is on circular models and technologies that convert waste into valuable products.
Food tech is a massive market that’s growing quickly. It was worth $172bn globally in 2022 and will continue to grow at an unstoppable 9.9% rate until 2030, according to Grand View Research.
Why is the price so high? Food tech solutions can be expensive to create. The goal of launching a new product is to recoup the development costs and, ideally, make a profit.
Where do startups get their money from? There are a number of options available to them: crowdfunding, grant funding, debt financing or, for those who have deep pockets and a risk-taking appetite, they could bootstrap themselves.
Venture capital is another very popular choice. Investors and start-ups have a mutually-beneficial relationship, whether it is for precision fermentation-derived milk, food robots or cultivated meat. VCs help fund the journey from laboratories to markets, and if a company is successful, investors will benefit.
Food tech trends are no different. What was popular two years ago might be no longer in style. What food technology innovations will be attracting investors in 2025, then?
Innovation powered by AI and digitalisation
It’s no surprise, then, that investors are putting digitalisation and AI innovation at the top of their bucket list.
Erich Sieber is the founder general of PeakBridge, a venture capital company. He believes that technology has a huge potential to transform an industry which is “a little outdated”. Digitalisation is an important one. This includes using AI and smart robotics for supply chain efficiency to cut food waste, as well as helping food giants innovate faster.
Food manufacturers are already putting a lot of effort into this area, using AI to improve food quality and speed new product development.
AI is capable of so many things, including helping identify new proteins and reducing food waste. (Image: Getty/MF3d)
Shivani Oberoi explains that AI can be used to develop new ingredients. We’re looking at companies developing new proteins and enzymes to address industrial or functional challenges.
Biotechnology enables sustainable ingredients
AI is becoming more and more obvious in business. There’s another kind of revolution that is taking place more slowly.
Louise Heiberg is a partner with Nordic Foodtech VC and calls this “invisible revolution”. This umbrella includes technologies such as precision fermentation, new microbes and enzymes, biobased processes, and biobased processes.
Heiberg explains that they all work quietly behind the scenes to make food healthier, tasty, nutritious, and sustainable. They are the backstage orchestra that make the star shine.
This group of technologies based on biosolutions is not only backed by VCs. Novonesis, a supplier of ingredients, estimates that biosolutions can generate EUR133bn worth of economic benefits by 2035 while saving EUR55bn on environmental costs.
New solutions in this space need to have “great biomanufacturability”, stresses the Nordic Foodtech VC partner. They should be robust, scalable and efficient enough to go from the lab to large scale production without losing any of their magic.
The technologies like novel microbes and precision fermentation work quietly behind the scenes. The backstage orchestra that makes the stars shine is what they are.
Louise Heiberg is a partner in Nordic Foodtech VC
Heiberg calls it “circularity”, but Heiberg also uses sustainable ingredients. This is where technologies are used to turn waste and side streams into ingredients of high value. It’s all about creating a resource-efficient, resilient food system.
Enabling Technologies for Industry
Other companies are also keeping an eye out for B2B technologies that use ‘deep technology’. This term covers all the latest tech, including AI, robots, Blockchain, Biotech, and Quantum Computing. Deep tech doesn’t cater directly to consumers or end users.
Food investors are looking for deep tech solutions in food technology, such as robotics. (Image: Getty/Eloi_Omella)
Oberoi, Synthesis Capital’s Oberoi, explains that as technology investors they are interested in solutions that will shape the future of food. The VC company is “particularly excited” by enabling technologies which drive down production costs for alternative foods and bio-based products. She explains that they accelerate the commercialisation timelines, and also “propel” wider consumer adoption.
The key areas for innovation are bioprocess optimization, capex light bioreactor designs, and retrofitting legacy manufacturing infrastructures to increase production without heavy capital expenditure.
Are you interested in the food future?
Future Food Tech – London, 24-25 September, 2025, will bring together a community of global innovators, industry leaders, and investors to explore the future of food technology.
Hear first-hand from cutting-edge startups to FMCGs how food’s future is built today.
On stage, the winner of Global Food Tech Awards EMEA Heat will be also announced. This is a must-see event!