Agtech venture studio DIAL Ventures this week announced the first close of its Fund II, which will help build the firm’s next round of portfolio companies.
Affiliated with the Purdue Applied Research Institute at Purdue University in Indiana, DIAL Ventures creates companies based on current needs, trends or problems in agriculture.
Unsurprisingly, AI is high on the list of possible focus areas for the next installment of the program, which begins in August.
DIAL Ventures managing director Jarrod Sutton says understanding of what AI tools can do in agricultural settings is still “obscure” for some. At the same time, such tools have a role to play in improving supply chain logistics as well as alleviating things like labor challenges.
“This is a defining moment for our industry to move from talking about AI to actually implementing AI,” he adds.
Sailing through the capital crunch
Like many others, the DIAL team has felt agrifood’s ongoing capital crunch during the fundraising process.
Sutton reckons it may be less of a crunch and more of the “new normal.”
“I have heard ‘no’ more ways than you can possibly imagine,” he says, adding that it’s possible the industry won’t ever return to “the glory” days of 2021, when funding reached a record $54.6 billion. (In 2025, global agrifoodtech funding totaled $16.2 billion.)
For DIAL, however, the current fundraising climate hasn’t stopped momentum, says Sutton. “In 2026, we’ve got some real wind in our sails and a number of corporates actively evaluating, investing, and becoming partners in Fund II.”
Without naming specific entities, he says Fund II backers include a few large corporates spanning agricultural inputs, equipment manufacturing, retail, processing, livestock, and farm operations.
“The fund has a perspective from each of the segments across [agriculture],” says Sutton. “Our ability to convene those voices and have that dialog across the sector, which surfaces key issues, is what makes us a bit unique, and ensures that what we build matters to the industry.”
Fund II also sees the involvement of Nebraska-based agtech investor Grit Road Partners, which will manage the fund as the general partner and also provide input on where to invest.
Grit Road’s own portfolio covers multiple areas of agtech, from grain bin management to animal diagnostics, and includes two DIAL Ventures alumni: land management software company Oaken and labor logistics platform Croft.
“They’re a tremendous partner because of their connectivity inside the agrifood sector and beyond,” says Sutton of the Grit Road team.
‘Not traditional venture investing’
Six innovators participate in each DIAL Ventures cohort, which lasts roughly 18 weeks.
At least half of that time is spent focusing on identifying the most pressing current problems (what DIAL Ventures calls “opportunity areas”) in agriculture. Only after this stage do actual products and business models, and go-to-market strategies get developed.
Past focus areas have included developing climate-smart agriculture tools and exploring food-as-health themes.
The next installment kicks off in August. While the theme is yet to be determined, Sutton hints at some areas under consideration.
For example, reducing input costs is a massive issue right now for farmers, says Sutton.
“There are ways to reduce our dependence on traditional input purchases and ways to be more precise on what to apply, when, and how much. That comes from collection and analysis of data.”
Further downstream, better data and interoperability between various systems along the supply chain are becoming more and more important to enable surety of supply, traceability of goods, and the ability to validate various claims.
This is “not traditional venture investing,” according to Sutton. “Rather, it’s an opportunity for industry partners to help shape and and build the capabilities that will define how agriculture and food operate in the future.”
