The THRIVE Innovation Summit is held annually in Silicon Valley and each year attracts 250+ agribusiness leaders, investors, agtech and foodtech startups, and California and Midwest growers. The summit is a unique opportunity to meet and hear from our THRIVE Top 50, fifty companies shaping the future of the agriculture supply chain as well as leaders of Fortune 500 food and agriculture corporations implementing these disruptive technologies.
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.
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.
Smart irrigation company CropX has announced a $9 million Series A round led by Innovation Endeavors, Finistere Ventures, GreenSoil Investments. Prior backer OurCrowd also participated in the round. CropX uses wireless sensors and big data to help farmers conserve water used in crop growing operations.
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.
“Farmers everywhere will tell you that weather and water are the biggest issues,” Travis Bayer, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Asilomar Bio. The company recently closed a $3 million Series A round co-lead by Cultivian Sandbox Ventures and Fall Line Capital.
