AgFunder Network Partners

Category: Opinion

Food Tech Innovators Need to Focus More on Global Nutrition

May 13, 2019

Despite their ingenuity and a commendable focus on sustainability and food loss, entrepreneurs are missing a huge opportunity by not prioritizing nutrition, writes Amy Beaudreault.

We’re only in the second innings of plant-based meats

May 9, 2019

Rob Leclerc, Founding Partner at AgFunder, will be participating in the online conference Virtual Summit on AgTech next week alongside alternative meat leaders such as Ethan Brown from Beyond Meat.

‘We are relentlessly looking for female entrepreneurs, but there aren’t enough’

May 9, 2019

AgFunder and its collaborators KK&P and The New Food Economy are excited to announce that S2G Ventures has become a sponsor of Money Where Our Mouths Are (MWOMA), an investigation into the funding gaps for female entrepreneurs in the agrifood industry.

For Elo Life Systems, Gene Editing is About Giving Consumers Exactly What They Want

May 6, 2019

Elo Life Systems, the food-focused subsidiary of the recently listed gene-editing group Precision Biosciences, is focused on developing food crops with nutritionally-improved characteristics.

Empowering Innovative Businesses to Unseat and Disrupt the Agricultural Giants

April 29, 2019

At last year’s F&A Next conference, Adam Anders, managing partner at Anterra Capital, talked to legendary entrepreneur and principal at Future Shape, Tony Fadell about why investors are being drawn to the sector, and why we need to unseat the giants of the agricultural industry to empower innovation to flourish.

5 Key Quotes from Crop Innovation in Business in Amsterdam

April 24, 2019

Consumers and digitization were at the forefront at the Crop Innovation in Business Conference hosted in Amsterdam this week. The conference is conducted every other year and is in its 18^th year.

USDA Could Help Pave the Way for Farmtech Adoption: Where are you Sonny Perdue?

April 22, 2019

Anyone paying passing attention to the agricultural sector understands that it is in the middle of an “agtech” revolution. But where is the USDA in all of this?

How Agtech Solutions Can Leverage ‘Full Stack Thinking’ to Disrupt Agriculture

April 11, 2019

Agriculture is often referred to as the last bastion of digitization, but what types of technologies will succeed?

Europe’s Gene Editing Regulation Exposes the Messy Relationship Between Science and Politics

April 10, 2019

A lot of the questions surrounding the technology are not really scientific but about what this technology is feeding into: power politics, the changing structure of agriculture and smallholder farmers, and long-term effects.

Inside Insect Farming: Former CEO Reveals Tactics & Trends

April 9, 2019

"I had a front-row seat to the buzz - and the reality. It’s easy to criticize this industry, and the entrepreneurs who drive it forward, for being full of hype. In many cases, that is true; but it’s part of a more complicated reality," writes Sean McDonald.

Global Engineering Group Bühler Wants to Tackle Food Safety with A.I. Talent from Asia

April 8, 2019

Over a quarter of the world population eat food each day that’s been through Bühler equipment in some shape or form. And in some food segments, the market share is even higher with 65% of the world’s grain processed through Bühler products.

FoodBytes! Founder Manuel Gonzalez Talks FoodTech, Deal Flow and New Fund Global RIFF

April 3, 2019

Last month, Manuel Gonzalez announced plans to raise a new foodtech fund called Global RIFF (Revolution in Food Fund). We caught up with him to find out more about the investment model and the food tech categories he's most excited about.

The Economics of Local Vertical and Greenhouse Farming Are Getting Competitive

April 3, 2019

The cost of farming indoors has always been a big question mark around the impactfulness of this farming method on the overall food system; if it's too expensive, it won't be scalable. But Peter Tasgal's research argues that vertical and greenhouse farms are getting competitive with their outdoor peers.

How THRIVE Built 2019’s Most Valuable AgriFood Tech Accelerator

March 27, 2019

THRIVE was voted Most Valuable Accelerator by the AgFunder network. It has built a platform to accelerate agrifood tech startup innovation by partnering with leading organizations and corporates across the agrifood and tech industries.

Abu Dhabi’s $272m AgTech Commitment: Where Is All That Money Going to Go?

March 25, 2019

AgFunderNews contacted Elham Al Qasim, acting CEO of the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), to discuss the ins and outs.

Cultivating Agtech Leadership for Established Row Crop Leaders

March 22, 2019

One of the drags on successful agtech innovation is the under-representation of the producers’ voice, writes the Illinois Soybean Association.

Growing Hemp

March 19, 2019

The wide range of industrial hemp products represent the greatest opportunity for American agricultural markets seen within the past fifty years, writes Jon Vaught.

Reclaiming the Promise of Food for Health

March 14, 2019

The real power to endow people with fundamentally longer, healthier lives resides in the hands of the food industry, writes Jim Flatt.

“Basic Farm Tech Tools Won’t Provide VCs the Exit Returns They Need, So Why Are VCs Still Investing in Them?”

March 13, 2019

Nolan Paul, Partner at Yamaha Motor Ventures and ex-head of R&D Strategy and Emerging Technology at leading produce grower Driscoll's is offering his thoughts on how the agritech sector is developing ahead of his speaking slot at World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in San Francisco next month.

Digital Agtech Spotlight: Intterra is Integrating Farmers, Suppliers, Advisors, Traders, Bankers on 5m Acres

March 8, 2019

Earlier this month, a Russian agtech startup called Intterra entered into a partnership with global agribusiness Syngenta to use its digital platform in Russia, connecting more than 100 farmers across 2 million hectares (nearly 5 million acres) of cropland in 2019.