Jessica Pothering, Author at AgFunderNews

Jessica Pothering

xFarm’s Matteo Vanotti on not reinventing the farm data wheel

December 13, 2019

xFarm's partnership-centric approach to farm data helped it secure €3 million in equity funding from Italy’s United Ventures and Switzerland’s TiVenture.

Protifarm raises Series B to scale robot-grown beetle “tofu”

December 12, 2019

The Netherlands-based alt-protein company is one of a small number catching investor interest for farming insects for human consumption rather than for animal feed.

Will Smith-backed Jinx explains why we need “digitally native,” modern dog food

December 4, 2019

Hint: Jinx isn’t really about dogs. It’s about the people who own dogs.

Picnic is betting food will be made by robots in kitchens that don’t exist

November 27, 2019

One could be forgiven for questioning why the world needs a robot that can make 300 pizzas an hour. Clayton Wood, CEO of robot making startup Picnic, often has to answer for that.

Portugal’s Oceano Fresco closes €2.7M Series A to feed Europe native, farmed clams

November 11, 2019

The round, led by Lisbon-based venture capital firm BlueCrow Capital, will be used to develop an off-shore farm to meet local clam demand in Portugal, Spain, France and Italy.

BRIEF: Israel’s Agritask closes $8.5m Series A to advance farm data in frontier markets

November 7, 2019

The InsuResilience Investment Fund led Israel-based Agritask’s Series A funding round for its application in expanding farm and crop insurance to smallholder farmers.

AFN has coffee with… Jasmin Hume, founder of alternative protein startup Shiru

November 7, 2019

Hume met with AFN to discuss how Shiru is leveraging technologies used in therapeutics to make alternative proteins for the food sector.

Spains’s ec2ce raises seed funding to crunch numbers for predictive ag

October 31, 2019

“Producers, especially in high-value crops, have invested a lot in data gathering. They have a lot of data. But they don’t know what to do with it. They need mathematical insights,” Pedro Carrillo, CEO of ec2ce, tells AFN.

Swiss-based Planted secures SFr7m for alternative chicken and pork

October 24, 2019

The company has raised SFr7 million to support entry into other European markets, launch new products and work towards retail distribution at home.

Augmenta raises $2.5m seed round from Hardware Club, Marathon VC

October 8, 2019

The Greek tech startup will use the funds to support commercialization of its real-time device that analyzes crops and manages input application.

Perception is reality: data reveal gender bias in agri-foodtech investing

October 3, 2019

Just 8% of venture capital dollars invested in agri-foodtech in 2018 went to founding teams with at least one female, according to a new report by AgFunder, KK&P and The New Food Economy with support from S2G Ventures.

Renewal Funds eyes earth-friendly food for its C$145m fourth fund

September 30, 2019

The Vancouver-based venture capital firm has raised a further C$145 million to invest in environmental tech and sustainable consumer products, including organic food and alternative protein.

Rockstart reveals first agri-foodtech cohort with €15m to invest in 10 startups

September 18, 2019

The 10 startups yield from Europe, India, and Chile, and will be making the most of the €15 million Rockstart recently raised to invest in them from early through to late stage.

BRIEF: Picterra raises $3.3m to democratize AI-based geospatial mapping

September 17, 2019

The Swiss company's software that can be programmed to identify and map objects in satellite and drone images for a wide range of uses, from precision agriculture to humanitarian aid.

“If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” – how crop tech startups like Lavie Bio chart the market

September 10, 2019

The Tel Aviv-based biologicals startup is leveraging an investment from Corteva to introduce and market a new line of biological crop treatments.

Aker Technologies scores $2.6m for automated crop scouting tech

September 4, 2019

The St. Louis-based company is on a mission to boost precision farming with a remote monitoring and analytics platform that gives growers, retailers and suppliers better in-field insights.

Oxford spin-out MoA is rebooting decades-old science to tackle “herbicide crisis”

August 22, 2019

The startup is hunting for new “modes of action” to kill weeds, which would open up opportunities to develop entirely new classes of herbicides. It has just raised £6.3 million in Series A funding.

Rabobank and Caspian partner to fill the debt gap for India’s agri-foodtech startups

August 12, 2019

Dutch banking giant Rabobank is teaming up with impact investment firm Caspian to lend $2 million to India's agtech startups, which are hot with venture capital firms, but not so much with banks.

Agrosavfe snags €35 million to bring bio-crop protection products to market

August 8, 2019

The Belgium-based company will use the Series C financing round to get its first product, a biofungicide, to market.

Gamaya raises €10.9m Series B led by India’s Mahindra & Mahindra in new partnership strategy

July 25, 2019

Gamaya launched in 2015 to bring high-tech imaging and analytics solutions to industrial-size farms. A new partnership with Indian tractor manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra is going to shift the Swiss company’s focus the other way, to small-scale farms.