🌱 Botanicals

Top news

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Botanical Gut Health Innovation: Evinature Secures Seed Funding

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• Evinature, an Israeli startup, received seed funding to advance its botanical supplements and tailored protocols for gut health.
• Its clinically backed product, “CurQD,” combines Qing Dai and turmeric root extract, and is already used in over 40 medical centres across the US.

AgFunderNews

Quick news

🧫 Cellular agriculture

• Green Bioactives, a UK-based startup using plant cell culture to produce bioactives, received a £1.09M grant to scale up its biomanufacturing platform for supplying the cosmetics and personal care industries.

🏙️ Vertical farming

Top news

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Breakthrough in Vanilla Cultivation: First Large-Scale Indoor Harvest

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• Vanilla Vida, an Israeli startup, announced it achieved the “world’s first” large-scale indoor vanilla harvest using climate-controlled greenhouses and accelerated post-harvest curing.
• Its system reportedly halves the time from planting to bloom, shortens curing from months to weeks, and boosts vanillin yields.
• It plans to scale with additional greenhouses in Israel and new places.
• Another fundraise is also planned within the coming year to support scaling activities.

AgFunderNews

Other news

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Vertical Farming at a Crossroads: Bankruptcy vs. Smart Scaling

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As the vertical farming sector in the US evolves, recent bankruptcies highlight the challenges of scaling without profitability, while a few startups stand out by focusing on high-value products and automation:

• Benson Hill, which had developed a platform to enhance traits in crops such as soy, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is seeking buyers for certain assets.
• Plenty, a vertical farming startup that raised nearly $1B, also filed for bankruptcy, reflecting ongoing structural challenges in indoor agriculture.
• In contrast, Oishii, known for its premium strawberries, is scaling profitably through automation, acquiring Tortuga’s robotics IP to support its high-margin model.

Quick news

• Nextage, a Japanese startup, developed an AI-powered indoor farming system with integrated sensors to grow premium wasabi, aiming to replicate the expertise of experienced farmers.