The top three destination countries for agrifoodtech investment remained the same in H1 2021 – but there were a few surprises further down the list.
Foods from the lab, such as cultivated meat, drove a greater amount of early-stage investment in upstream technologies and business models in the first half of 2021.
Indonesia’s TaniHub was the top-funded startup in the category according to AgFunder data, raising $66 million in May.
The category includes cell-cultured meat, plant-based analogs, fermented and fungi-based proteins, functional foods, and other novel ingredients.
Since the start of the year six agtech SPAC deals have been announced – most involving indoor farming or biotech, and all valued at over $1 billion.
M&A activity was concentrated in the US, which hosted over half of all deals – with Europe and Asia Pacific accounting for 19% and 11% respectively.
While mega-deals involving seven Chinese e-Grocery startups accounted for $3.8 billion of H1’s figure, funding to other countries is still on track to outpace 2020 levels, according to the latest data from AgFunder.
The State of the Agrifoodtech Union.
Novel Farming Systems – which includes CEA, aquaculture, and insect production – was the second best-funded agtech category last year, according to AgFunder.
AgFunder’s 2021 Farm Tech Investment Report, released earlier this month, showed that Ag Biotechnology deals increased 58% year-on-year.
