Jessica Pothering, Author at AgFunderNews

Jessica Pothering

EXCLUSIVE: Colorado’s Meati secures $28m for whole-cut alternative meats

October 29, 2020

It’s developing a line of alternative meat products made from the protein-rich ‘root’ networks of fungi.

Soil testing startup Krishitantra secures $1m seed capital from Omnivore, NABVentures

October 8, 2020

The funding will enable the Indian startup to take its rapid soil testing kit and analytics services to the country’s 130 million smallholder farmers.

“No alternative”: India embraces a meat-based future, and other 2030 food trends

August 27, 2020

India will be home to more than 1.4 billion people by 2030. Unlike consumers in Europe and the US, they’ll be looking to eat more meat – not less.

Dealmaking during Covid-19: Upstream and eGrocery win in AgFunder’s 2020 Mid-Year Investment Review

August 18, 2020

Agrifoodtech startups and investors are plugging away in 2020 as if we weren’t all caught in the midst of a global pandemic. Well, almost.

Covid-19 pivot locks in $4m for Italian delivery platform Soplaya

July 16, 2020

Few startups can say they’ve had an easy time fundraising this year. But Soplaya says the round it just closed was fast and painless, all things considered.

Gates Foundation leads crop protection startup Enko’s $45 million Series B round

June 26, 2020

The Woburn, Mass.-based startup uses pharmaceutical discovery techniques to advance promising modes of action for fighting crop pests.

Clean Crop Technologies raises $3m to curb post-harvest food waste

June 10, 2020

Prime Impact Fund led the company’s seed round to support its safe, chemical-free approach to killing crop mold and toxins.

Earth Day: In Africa, agtech is Earth tech, even during a health crisis

April 22, 2020

Agtech adoption in Africa is limited. But where new technologies are gaining traction, there is often a clear connection to climate impact.

Amid Covid-19, the Gulf region commits $200m to safeguard its food security with agtech

April 15, 2020

Kuwait’s Wafra and UAE’s Abu Dhabi Investment Office have both made commitments to develop agtech in their countries, but are taking different approaches.

EXCLUSIVE: Fulcrum Global Capital closes $36m agrifoodtech fund and four investments

March 12, 2020

Fulcrum raised the fund from a pool of high net worth investors to support early-stage upstream agriculture technologies in animal health, precision agriculture, food safety, and supply chain logistics

The role of impact investors in early stage agtech investing

February 26, 2020

Mission-driven investment firms are writing early stage checks to companies that aim to replicate, improve, and restore natural growing environments.

AgroSustain aims to curb food waste with time-release biologicals

January 23, 2020

The Swiss company has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from California-based Agroecology Capital, an agtech venture capital firm.

BRIEF: Rockstart closes additional €3m for first agrifood cohort

January 16, 2020

The new funding follows Rockstart AgriFood’s September announcement that it had raised its first €15 million and invested in 10 startups.

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.