Foodtech's Venture Correction Is Getting Worse. Liquid Death and GrubMarket Are Down 48% and 33%
Two heavily funded food-tech companies, Liquid Death and GrubMarket, are seeing their private-market valuations fall sharply below the prices investors assigned them in recent funding rounds, according to data from Forge Global.
Liquid Death, the canned beverage brand, is now valued at about $722 million based on Forge’s latest indicative price of $6.64 a share as of Sept. 3. That is roughly 48% below the company’s $1.4 billion valuation from its March 2024 funding round, when it raised about $68 million at $12.87 a share.
The markdown erases roughly three years of valuation gains. Liquid Death was valued at about $705 million in 2022, $1 billion in 2023 and $1.4 billion in its 2024 Series F-1, according to Forge data — putting Forge’s current indicative price back near the company’s 2022 level.
GrubMarket is also trading below its latest private-market valuation. Forge puts the food-supply-chain company at about $3.04 billion, based on an indicative price of $18 a share. That is roughly 33% below the $4.55 billion post-money valuation GrubMarket secured in its February 2026 Series H, when it raised $50 million at $26.92 a share.
The markdown is particularly notable for GrubMarket because the company raised fresh capital at its $4.55 billion valuation only about seven months ago. Its valuation had climbed from $2.19 billion in 2022 to $3.5 billion in its March 2025 Series G before reaching the latest $4.55 billion mark, according to Forge data.
Foodtech Funding Is Still Falling
The declines come as foodtech venture funding continues to retreat from its pandemic-era peak.
Foodtech startups raised $3.6 billion across 359 deals in the first half of 2026, according to PitchBook’s H1 2026 Foodtech Report. At that pace, full-year funding would reach roughly $7.2 billion, below the $8.5 billion raised in 2025 and far below the $49.5 billion peak in 2021.
Deal activity is falling as well. The 359 deals recorded in the first half put the sector on pace for roughly 720 rounds this year, down from 918 in 2025. PitchBook said the correction that began three years ago has yet to find a floor in either capital or deal volume.
The slowdown became more pronounced in the second quarter, when foodtech companies raised $1.4 billion across 164 deals, compared with $2.2 billion across 195 deals in the first quarter.
At the same time, investors are writing bigger checks into fewer companies. Median deal size reached a record $4.3 million in H1 2026, roughly double its $2.2 million level in 2022, as investors concentrate capital later in the startup life cycle.
PitchBook’s data also points to a shift in what investors want from foodtech companies.
Rather than primarily backing businesses attempting to reinvent food itself, investors are increasingly looking toward technologies that can improve the industry’s existing operations, including supply chains, logistics, and automation.
For investors who bought into the latest rounds, the question is whether these lower secondary-market prices represent a temporary liquidity discount or a more fundamental reset in what private-market buyers are willing to pay.
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