Food is among the great invisible fabrics of our lives. It’s the rare thing in this world about which everyone—and I mean everyone—has opinions, loves, and hates.
And that’s what makes foodtech compelling, even if the sector isn’t booming right now. Q4 2024 was a rather limited time for foodtech funding, according to new PitchBook data. Though VCs invested $2.8 billion across 200 foodtech deals in Q4, that marks both a record low deal count and 19% decline from Q3 that same year.
PitchBook’s data paints a picture of a sector filled with some haves, and lots of have-nots. On one hand, annual foodtech investment by VCs in 2024 was up 7.1% year over year, while deal counts fell by a notable 33% year over year. Well-established companies at the top of the food chain (pun, perhaps, intended) still were getting funded throughout last year. Take, for example, Zepto, an India-based grocery delivery startup, whose backers include General Catalyst, Y Combinator Continuity Fund, Mars Growth Capital, and StepStone Group. In 2024 alone, the company raised more than $1 billion across three rounds of funding, the most recent being a $350 million round in November. Consider, also: Marc Lore’s food delivery company Wonder, which raised $950 million throughout 2024 and announced in November that it would acquire Grubhub for $650 million in senior notes and cash.
Additionally, back in May, mushroom-focused alternative protein startup Meati announced it had raised another $100 million in funding, building on its previously-announced 2023 Series C. The company’s backers include Bond, Acre Venture Partners, Revolution Growth, and Derek Jeter. (Mushrooms may be in, but cultivated protein companies seem to have fallen out of favor—in 2024, cultivated meat companies saw a 40% drop in VC backing.)
For early stage companies across foodtech, venture backing has been harder to come by, PitchBook’s data says. At seed and pre-seed, foodtech deal counts are down by 46% from 2023, while early stage deal counts are down by 44% from 2023.
That’s not to say there’s been no early-stage-action. In November, for example, AI packaged goods manufacturing platform Keychain raised a $15 million Series A, led by BoxGroup and including existing investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners and SV Angel. Likewise, Planet A Foods—a company looking to make chocolate without cocoa—raised $30 million in its December Series B, with Burda Principal Investments and Zintinus among its investors.
People have been innovating around food since the beginning of time—the ancient Romans pioneered early fast food establishments, and the first recorded food delivery was in 1889, a pizza to King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy. So, foodtech certainly isn’t going anywhere—we’re always going to be trying to find ways to eat better or faster. But it may take a moment before the space is “so back.”
See you Monday,
Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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