Curious about the role of AgriFood tech startups in impact investing? Read on as Devika Balachandran, an associate on Wharton Impact Investing Partners’ Food & Nutrition sector team, discusses the importance of AgriFood Tech in impact investing.
What a start to the year! Today AgFunder releases its Midyear AgTech Investing Report (Free Download) and 2015 has already lived up to expectations. Nearly surpassing investment volumes captured during the whole of 2014, the first half of 2015 brought in $2.06 billion of capital across 228 deals.
Microbiomes are all around us—and even inside us. According to The Human Microbiome Project, tens of trillions of the little cells live on and inside humans. Representing thousands of species, microbiomes outnumber our own cells by roughly 10 to 1.
As we look ahead to the Forbes AgTech Summit later this week, we took a moment to reflect on GAI’s AgTech Week, which took place two weeks ago in San Francisco, to make a few observations on what’s happening in agtech.
Editor’s Note: AgFunderNews recently had the opportunity to speak with The Honorable Joe Gunter, Mayor of Salinas, on the relationship between agriculture and technology both in his home town and around the world.
According to the American Association of Port Authorities, “The United States is served by some 360 commercial ports that provide approximately 3,200 cargo and passenger handling facilities.” Food and farm products, including wheat and wheat flour, corn, soybeans, rice, cotton, and coffee are listed among the leading commodities shipped for domestic and foreign trade through U.S.
As the world population continues to climb, so does the demand for food. With a finite amount of arable land, keeping up on the supply side is a major challenge for farmers located in certain regions of the world.
A new investing and finance rule that will provide more opportunities for startups to attract early-stage capital and more options for investors to get involved in the space took effect last Friday.
Microbial DNA maker Zymergen recently announced a $42M Series A led by Data Collective, with a group of investors participating, including AME Cloud Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurveston, HVF, Innovation Endeavors, Obvious Ventures, True Ventures, and Two Sigma Ventures.
Food retailers have been hot on the trail of new ways to help consumers stock their pantries and refrigerators. Using platforms similar to Amazon, many have turned to the internet to provide shoppers with a digital supermarket and fast delivery.
Following the heals of Delivery Hero’s recent $110M funding announcement, two additional online food delivery companies have announced the close of respective funding deals. Blue Apron, a New York-based meal delivery service, recently sealed a $135M Series D funding deal led by Fidelity Management and Research Company.
Oakland-based food company Back to the Roots announced this morning that it has closed its first funding round to the tune of $2 million. Fund Good Jobs, an Oakland-based organization designed to increase employment opportunities in the region, led the round.
Precision irrigation management provider Hortau announced earlier this week that it has secured $5 million in funding from Advantage Capital Agribusiness Partners (ACAP). ACAP, which holds a Rural Business Investment Company license from the U.S.
Aerobotic Innovations, a drone control and safety application, announced recently that it has partnered with Packet Digital LLC to offer new products that will combine their respective state-of-the-art software and hardware technologies.
Indian investment and holding company Aspada recently announced a $3.3M Series A investment in Delhi-based EM3 AgriServices. EM3 represents one of the first private sector ventures to tackle the field of farm mechanization and technology services.
VitalFields announced recently that it has secured $1.2 million in Series A funding from an international syndicate of investors, including SmartCap, the investment arm of the taxpayer-funded Estonian Development Fund, and an undisclosed large Silicon Valley based investor.
India is currently witnessing the launch of its first Food and Agri-business Accelerator program. Many entities are involved with the accelerator, with the IIMA Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) and a-IDEA, the business incubator at Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s (ICAR) National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) leading the program.
E-commerce giant JD.com announced that it led a $70 million Series C funding in FruitDay, a Chinese-based online retailer providing a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Part of this figure includes participation from prior investors ClearVue and Susquehanna International Group.
On May 19, 2015, Farmers Business Network (FBN) announced that it raised $15 million in funding towards the development of its precision agriculture technologies. The Series B funding round was led by Google Ventures with prior investors Kleiner Perkins and DBL, an impact invest firm, returning.
