Editor’s note: Sofía Ramírez is an adjunct partner at AgFunder. Gonzalo Perez is founding partner at Arpegio, an agrifood-focused VC firm based in Santiago, Chile. AgFunder is AFN’s parent company.
The third quarter of 2020 has ended and more LatAm agrifoodtech records have been broken. In September alone, more than $400 million was invested in three Latin American agriculture and foodtech startups. Colombian all-purpose delivery app Rappi landed $300 million from investors like Sequoia Capital and SoftBank; plant-based food company NotCo announced a Chile record-breaking $85 million Series C round; and Brazil’s Fazenda Futuro secured $21 million in Series B funding to take its plant-based burgers, meatballs, and sausages to Europe and the US.
To put this in perspective, in just one month the region doubled the $200 million agrifoodtech investment it totaled in 2019. This growth in total capital deployed has been coupled with an impressive growth in the number of deals.
In order to help the global industry navigate this growing market, we are launching the first edition of our LatAm Agrifoodtech Market Map: a high-level visual landscape of the Latin American agrifoodtech startup ecosystem.
You can download a high-resolution version of the market map here.
Over a thousand startups across the region and in all stages of development were considered. We selected 78 companies based on their growth success, total capital raised from professional investors, and recognition from key industry players. We did not include publicly listed companies.
The market map covers the entire value chain, from farm inputs to consumer-facing solutions, leaving out only animal-related verticals.
If you are interested in LatAm agrifoodtech, join our regional conversation here
The most represented country is Brazil with 26 startups, followed by Argentina (18); Chile (15); Mexico (8); Colombia (6); Peru (2); and one each from Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Uruguay.
Companies featured include:
| Agrofy (Argentina) | Online agribusiness marketplace for machinery, inputs, tools, crops, cattle, insurance, loans, farmlands, jobs, and vehicles |
| AgroSmart (Brazil) | Smart farming software that allows remote monitoring of agricultural data for automation |
| Cornershop (Chile) | On-demand grocery delivery service |
| Fazenda Futuro (Brazil) | GMO-free and gluten-free plant-based meat alternative |
| Jüsto (Mexico) | Delivery-only grocery store chain [an AgFunder portfolio company] |
| NotCo (Chile) | Food-tech company that produces plant-based meat and dairy substitutes |
| Polynatural (Chile) | Natural, plant-based spray coating that extends produce shelf life |
| Rappi (Colombia) | All-purpose delivery app for consumer goods including meals and groceries |
| RobinFood (Colombia) | Cloud restaurant with the purpose of making good, affordable food available for everyone |
| Solinftec (Brazil) | Digital platform aimed at increasing machinery efficiency on the farm [an AgFunder portfolio company] |
Going forward we will publish other maps that examine in greater detail specific verticals in the industry, as well as country-specific ecosystem maps. Many compelling startups have been left out of this first version and if that’s you, no matter your stage, make sure we have you in our sights by leaving us your information here.
Special thanks go to Alex Stephan from SP Ventures, Camila Petignat from YL-Latam, Bernardo Milesi from Glocal, the team at IDB Lab, Endeavor, and FoodTechExpo for their help; as well as to Liquid for assisting us with the design and illustration and of the map.
Investors looking for more information on investment opportunities in agrifoodtech can get in touch with Arpegio and AgFunder here.
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