Florentia | Issue 67
Happy Monday and welcome back to Florentia.
Florentia is a blog that showcases innovations and opportunities across our food, health, and environmental systems. In particular, Florentia focuses on topics at the intersection of food and other industries (healthcare, energy, manufacturing, etc).
Florentia is structured in two parts: (1) bi-weekly Monday newsletters with news, perspectives, funding announcements, interviews, and more from around the industry and (2) periodic Sunday deep dives into pressing topics.
You’re reading Monday newsletter #67. Let’s dive in.
Content I’ve Enjoyed the Last Two Weeks 🧬 🌳 🧱
AlphaFold is five years old — these charts show how it revolutionized science [Nature]
Most of the conversation around AI in biology is based on ‘what ifs.’ But five years, 240 million predicted structures, and one Nobel Prize later, AlphaFold has moved the conversation from speculation to revolution.
Nature recently highlighted a comprehensive breakdown of AlphaFold’s influence, and the numbers speak for themselves. From dominating the Protein Data Bank to fueling a surge in AI-driven drug discovery, the data confirms that the structural biology revolution is well underway. Take a look at the evidence:
AlphaFold2 Has Had an Incredible Impact on the Scientific Community (and it continues growing), Measured by Citations
While most ‘viral’ scientific breakthroughs see interest wane over time, AlphaFold’s influence is accelerating. The seminal 2021 paper has amassed nearly 40,000 citations, proving that for thousands of researchers, this AI has become as essential as the pipette.
Scientists Who Use AlphaFold2 are Demonstrably More Productive:
Researchers using the tool submitted approximately 50% more protein structures to the Protein Data Bank (PDB) than their non-using peers; outperforming even those using other frontier AI methods.
AlphaFold2 Find Applicability Across a Swath of Applications:
The data highlights a massive uptake in ‘computation-heavy’ disciplines, particularly in drug discovery and protein engineering.
Overall: Fun data that makes me hopeful for the future. As we continue to see advances across biological foundation models, there’s only more room for accelerated advancement. A clear call to build/invest in this space!
Kerry to sell its Sweet Ingredients Portfolio to Advent International’s portfolio company, IRCA [Advent International]
Admittedly this isn’t “news“, but I was waiting in line at a St. Louis deli with Advent’s integration team and struck up a conversation (wonderful Italian people!). It sent me down a rabbit hole on this specialty ingredient roll-up. Maybe this could be the topic of a long-form post down the road.
Basically, the short story here:
In July 2022, Advent International acquired IRCA from Carlyle for $1.1B. IRCA was a high-quality Italian asset in the European market (strong product-market fit in the regional artisanal creams, chocolates, and fillings), but it wasn’t globally scaled. Advent wanted to turn regional champion into a global platform.
The Kerry Group assets are the international expansion add-on for this strategy. In 2023, just after buying IRCA, Advent acquired the Kerry Group’s “Sweet Ingredients” division for €500 million to give them a US operational footprint. The Kerry deal provided four operational US facilities, including sites in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, and California.
With specialty giants like Givaudan, Novonesis, and McCormick consistently trading at 10x+ EV/Revenue multiples, the logic is: if you can build a platform of that caliber, the market will pay a premium for it. There is definitely more to come with this story, but it is already shaping up to be a fascinating one to track.
Some other pieces on it:
Advent International to acquire leading artisanal food ingredients company IRCA from Carlyle
CVC Credit supports the acquisition of IRCA by Advent International
Some Other Interesting Reads (hover for link) 🥗 📦 🦾
US Soybeans Set for First Shipment to China since May: Cargo vessels are en route to load the first U.S. soybean and sorghum shipments to China since spring, signaling a restart of ag trade flows. [FarmPolicy]
Trump cut tariffs on these five foods. It’s too late to stop price hikes: The Trump administration’s eased tariffs to curb grocery prices, but economists warn that “sticky” pricing and supply chain constraints might stay the problem. [The Washington Post]
Circana dims 2026 food and beverage outlook: Circana has lowered its 2026 outlook for the food and beverage sector, projecting reduced growth of 2% to 4% with tariffs, supply chain costs, and weak consumer confidence as dominant headwinds. [Circana]
Americans are worried about grocery prices again, and they’re making changes: Grocery prices continue to rise despite campaign pledges, stressing over half of Americans according to a new AP poll. Tariffs and supply issues are keeping staples expensive, forcing consumers to cut spending and eat at home. [AP]
San Francisco Sues Ultraprocessed Food Companies: San Francisco filed a landmark lawsuit against 10 major food companies, accusing them of deceptively marketing ultraprocessed foods and driving up public health costs. Similar logic to the tobacco lawsuits here. [NYT]
The food industry must face up to nature-related risk: Former Tesco CEO warns that UK supermarkets are failing to meet 2030 environmental goals, risking supply chain collapse. He urges boards to treat nature loss as an immediate commercial threat. [FT Opinion]
Trump Set to Unveil $12 Billion Aid for Farmers Hit by Trade War: The Trump administration plans to unveil a $12 billion aid package for farmers, offering one-time payments to be distributed by February 2026. The move echoes first-term trade war relief as growers face stalling Chinese purchases and rising costs. [Bloomberg]
Cava Keeps No-Discounting Stance as Restaurant Deals Abound: Cava is refusing to offer discounts even as sales slow and competitors like McDonald’s and Chipotle roll out deals to lure cost-conscious diners. The Mediterranean chain maintains that price cuts hurt long-term brand values. [WSJ]
Finance & Transactions 🏦 💵
Mars Receives Final Regulatory Approval and Moves to Close Acquisition of Kellanova (12.08.2025)
Anheuser-Busch acquires majority stake in BeatBox for $490M (12.05.2025)
Ripple Raises $17m For Product Expansion (12.03.2025)
AriZona buys California facility from Manna Beverages (12.03.2025)
That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading. Be a friend, tell a friend.
See you in two weeks! 👋