AgFunder Network Partners

Category: Investment News

Brrrief! InspiraFarms closes Series B to roll out solar powered cold storage units across Africa

May 28, 2020

Expanding the cold chain across the African continent is both necessary and hard.

Nestlé enters Asian plant-based protein market with $103m China investment

May 27, 2020

The Swiss multinational plans to build a factory producing plant-based foods in Tianjin, joining a growing list of alt-protein businesses setting up shop in the country.

Insects for animal feed startup Beta Hatch raises $3m Series A1

May 22, 2020

The funding will be used to construct what it describes as the largest mealworm facility for animal feed in North America.

Dole and Boragen team up to stop consumers going bananas over deadly Black Sigatoka disease

May 22, 2020

The world’s banana crop is at risk due to a number of diseases that threaten to wipe it out.

Agri-FoodTech in Europe boomed in 2019, with funding up 70% YoY. What’s in store for 2020?

May 21, 2020

European Agri-FoodTech startups raised $3.4 billion in funding in 2019 across 419 deals, a 70% year-over-year growth, according to AgFunder’s latest research. Looking ahead to

Olam CFO explains how agribusiness is going digital to beat Covid-19

May 19, 2020

Olam set up a “war room” of top execs to tackle Covid-19’s immediate impact on its business. But it’s counting on digitization as a longer term fix.

BREAKING: Sound Agriculture raises $22m Series C to save fertilizer costs and ramp up on-demand plant breeding

May 19, 2020

The startup offers a molecular biology-backed line of crop inputs as well as a platform to rapidly create new seed traits without gene-editing techniques.

SoftBank reports $24bn loss on startup investments, with agrifood performance unclear

May 19, 2020

SoftBank was among the world’s most active investors in the agrifoodtech space last year, according to AgFunder research.

Olam secures $176m financing to foster digital adoption among Asian smallholders

May 17, 2020

The Singapore-based agribusiness became the first-ever recipient of a ‘Digital Loan’ based on Boston Consulting Group’s digital maturity index last year.

GROW launches Singapore Food Bowl to build a resilient, decentralized agrifood system

May 16, 2020

This first-of-its-kind accelerator program brings industry and startups together to build more resilient local agrifood ecosystems in the wake of Covid-19.

AgFunder Digitalk #3: How Covid-19 is accelerating innovation across the food system with S2G Ventures

May 14, 2020

In our third digitalk, S2G exclusively discusses new research, which looks at how the Covid-19 pandemic is impacting global supply chains, and the role that tech can play in creating a more resilient agrifood ecosystem.

The top 20 Ag Biotech deals of 2019

May 13, 2020

Despite a slow down in investment in 2019, Ag Biotech was still one of the top categories for seed funding, and the most active upstream category.

Tencent backs Tim Hortons as China’s tech-driven coffee wars come to a boil

May 12, 2020

The Canadian icon will ramp up its expansion in China and improve its digital capabilities with a helping hand from the Shenzhen-based tech giant.

The Yield bags $7.13m from Yamaha, others in ongoing round; Bosch converts notes

May 11, 2020

The Yield – an AgFunder portfolio company – is “poised to be The Climate Corp of horticulture,” said Yamaha Motor Ventures’ Nolan Paul.

Alibaba invests $6m in Hong Kong plant packaging startup Ecoinno

May 8, 2020

Ecoinno wants to offer a ‘third way’ between traditional, petroleum-based plastics, and bioplastics produced from non-naturally occurring polymers.

EXCLUSIVE: Lemna cultivator DryGro closes $4.7m Series A to sustainably replace soy in livestock feed

May 7, 2020

Duckweed is rich in protein and grows incredibly fast. It can double in biomass every two days.

It’s time to invest in a more resilient agrifood system

May 7, 2020

We’ve kicked the can down the road for too long when it comes to investing in our food system and Covid-19 is revealing its many weaknesses. We can do better.

Hatch 4.0 accelerator is open for innovators who can bring sustainability to aquaculture

May 7, 2020

Hatch is inviting startups to apply for the fourth cohort of its aquaculture-focused program, which has accelerated the likes of Finless Foods and Jala.

How should agtech startups approach exits? 5 tips from AgTech:Acquired webinar

May 6, 2020

Find out where and when exits will come, how startups can get acquisition-ready, and how the landscape is changing with Covid-19.

Strella Biotech scores $3.3m seed round co-led by Yamaha to track ripeness with IoT

May 6, 2020

The early-stage startup wants to help packers, and eventually retailers, better manage their inventories so that consumers never have to suffer overripe fruit again.