July 18, 2016

St. Louis-based agtech accelerator, The Yield Lab, is launching a new location in Galway, Ireland.

Launched in 2014 by Cultivation Capital, the accelerator announced its intentions while on a European tour with a group of St. Louis startup leaders looking to recruit entrepreneurs and innovators to St. Louis.

“We chose Galway because it is similar to St. Louis in proximity to vast agricultural production and innovation, especially in livestock,” said Matt Plummer, executive director of The Yield Lab, reports the St. Louis Business Journal. “It also provides our current St. Louis investments with a beachhead to new markets and alternative sources of capital.

The accelerator plans to operate in Galway much as it does in the U.S., with the accelerator committing €100,000 ($110,670) to between four and six startups per year.

Agtech investments have been gaining significant traction, reaching a record $4.6 billion in 2015 and almost doubling the $2.36 billion invested the year before, according to AgFunder. This expansion into Ireland will give The Yield Lab the ability to leverage the potential for growth in the space in order to strengthen its position as a global leader in agtech funding, and to create a platform from which to gain access to new markets and capital.

Since its launch, the Yield Lab has invested more than $1.1 million in 11 global startups. These selected companies have since raised an additional $15 million in pursuant funding.

Agtech Sister Cities

At first glance, Ireland might seem a dubious choice for expansion. However, given Ireland’s rich pool of tech talent and its low rate of tech adoption in its farming industry, the country has indeed been seeing its own boom in agtech innovation.

Ireland’s Independent notes, “Insiders suggest the global agtech industry may be about to enjoy the agrarian equivalent of a dot.com boom – with Ireland located at the epicentre [sic] of it.”

Similar to what has been evolving in Silicon Valley, Ireland has seen venture capital increasingly flow into agtech. Known as the “Gateway to the Boyne Valley,” the Irish city of Drogheda is home to some of the most prominent agri-food companies in Europe and has been a ‘sister city’ to Salinas since 2012. Moving forward, both cities plan to strengthen their partnership working toward achieving their strategic goals.

“The long-standing relationship between Salinas and Drogheda will be improved, and the co-operation between both Innovation Centres [sic] and regions, offers a great opportunity to further cement the strong partnership, and take a leading role in a rapidly-expanding sector,” said Dennis Donahue, former mayor of Salinas, according to WGInnovation.

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Lynda Kiernan