Agriculture has not been immune to the sweeping societal changes of the last two months as everyone adjusts to the Covid-19 virus. Here’s a high-level look at the impact from farm gate to consumer.
Hyperledger Fabric tech allowed the agribiz giants to settle a North America-Southeast Asia transaction that would normally take a month in just five hours.
While Covid-19 has made things worse for SoftBank investees, much of the loss can be ascribed to the already poor performance of companies across the Japanese firm’s portfolio.
Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita – a state-run marketplace linking farmers to consumers – is leveraging tech partnerships to go online for the first time during Covid-19.
For the Canadian startup, traceability and food safety are about finding correlations across the food system – and not just telling a product’s story.
Covid-19 has laid bare the region’s food supply chain problems. Collaboration between government and industry – often tech-based – will be key to solving them.
Trade Me – New Zealand’s answer to eBay – is listing livestock and feed on its auction platform after being registered as an ‘essential service’ provider.
Rebel Foods previously raised $125 million from Coatue, Goldman Sachs, Gojek, and Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick in its Series D round last year. It’s now expanding to Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
The ’30×30 Express’ grant program will fund local agrifood players – including urban farmers – who can increase domestic output of eggs, fish, and leafy vegetables.
This latest investment comes as the e-grocer faces mounting demand for its delivery services from a locked-down India.
The South Korean e-grocer claims to have introduced the first end-to-end e-commerce cold chain in the country, and almost trebled its registered users last year.
The Japanese company was one of the top agrifood investors worldwide last year, and its Vision Fund has backed food and agriculture startups such as Plenty, Zume, and DoorDash.
Swiggy will use the capital to expand beyond its core offering of on-demand food delivery, while Alibaba-aligned archrival Zomato is also securing funds.
The BAT group of companies may have invested less in agrifood startups in 2019 than in previous years – but they’re still betting big on the sector.
Chilibeli’s agent network gives housewives the opportunity to re-sell fresh farm produce in their local communities at competitive prices.
As global venture capital is poised for a downturn, agri-foodtech investors observe the sector’s resilience and creativity amid near-term uncertainty.
With nearly €600k in cash, the investment group plans to make 10 investments before raising $2m-$4m in Q4. It’s also looking for acquisitions of brands that might struggle during the crisis.
Luckin Coffee scored one of China’s top agrifoodtech startup fundings just before its May IPO, while e-grocer MissFresh landed the country’s biggest deal.
TaniHub Group provides e-commerce, logistics, and financing services to Indonesian smallholders, helping them sell their produce to over 120,000 business and retail customers.
Alternative protein had a blockbuster year in 2019, doubling its 2018 funding dollars to $1 billion.
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