Five Seasons Ventures, a new European VC focusing on agrifood tech investments has launched its first fund, announcing a first close on €60 million ($74.3m). Backers include Nestlé, the European Investment Fund, Fondo Italiano d’Investimento, Bpifrance, and selected family offices and entrepreneurs.
Omnivore Partners, which calls itself an “impact venture fund” is solely focused on agtech investments in India, and investors (LPs) in the fund were largely impact-minded funds from Europe, India, and the US, demonstrating the growing link between agriculture and impact investing.
The USDA is shuffling its digital tools to catch up with times while Argentina’s government sends millions toward agrifood startups and more in our weekly brief.
Almanac Investments has announced the launch of a $30 million fund that will focus on consumer packaged goods (CPG), experiential retail, and agriculture and hospitality technology companies
It was an exciting year in farm technology, to say the least, with several exits and record deals set and then overtaken by even larger deals just weeks or months later. Check out the standout deals of 2017.
Tortuga AgTech is developing robotic systems for harvesting fresh produce in controlled environments, from indoor hydroponics to greenhouses, starting with strawberries.
The city has companies from all over the globe relocating to take advantage of the wealth of resources at hand, but it also suffers from an exodus of companies that reach a certain point. What makes St. Louis a serious contender for the leading agtech ecosystem?
The fast pace of CapAgro’s portfolio growth caught our attention back in 2015 when the firm made nine investments in 12 months, eight of those in its first three months after the French agrifood tech VC fund was founded.
Acquisitions in restaurant tech keep coming, HelloFresh is undeterred by Blue Apron’s disastrous IPO, new hires, new grants for Danforth, and more in this week’s brief.
The fund raised capital predominantly from institutional investors including university endowments, funds of funds, insurance companies, and asset managers.
There are a number of key areas of opportunity for agrifood tech startups in Europe as the support and resources available
to entrepreneurs increases slowly, write Thomas van den Boezem and Louisa Burwood-Taylor.
The aim of the fund commitments is to support the country’s fledgling agtech startup ecosystem and give university researchers a clear reason to commercialize their work.
3Bar creates yield-boosting biologicals delivered in a unique container that allows the user to activate the microbes just before application, increasing the effectiveness of the product.
The fund will work with various national farm organizations and other partners to identify, enable and accelerate companies with high growth potential in the agtech sector.
Farm management software startups dominate this week’s funding brief, while an alternative dairy and cannabis investment company also raised funding.
Agtech funding in 2016 was a tale of two halves as the number of deals closed increased 10% to 580 due to an uptick in seed stage activity, while investment dollars fell 30% to $3.2bn.
Food companies are launching venture capital funds and other startup investing initiatives to stay relevant and avoid being left behind as innovative food products and services steal market share.
Working with universities and research organizations can be tough, but Copia believes it’s found an effective and scalable solution for agriculture technology investment.
A busy week of fundings includes startups from the biologicals, cannabis, poultry, livestock monitoring, and food delivery sectors.
Sperm sexing technology, hi-tech glasses for drones, and an aerial imagery company working with John Deere make up a very diverse and exciting Ag Industry Brief this week!
