October 25, 2015

In June of this year, Global AgInvesting’s Sarah Day Levesque interviewed GreenSoil Investments co-founder and managing partner, Gideon Soesman about the firm’s capital raise for the first close on its third ag and food tech fund. Click here to read the interview in its entirety.

The fund has since made its first investments in the sector, backing root cultivation technology firm Rootility. Much of the overall investment focus in plant development is concentrated on the portion of the plant above ground, however Rootility’s technology focuses on the root of crop plants resulting in a significant increase in yields.

“The company had a big project in California and managed to grow the same tomato with the same size and the same color but with 20% higher yields, and sometimes even 70% and 80% higher, says Mr. Soesman in a company press release.  “You could also use this platform to grow cucumbers, melons, and other produce.”

“We’d like to see ourselves with a significant minority stake: 15-40% is our sweet spot, Mr. Soesman told Global AgInvesting’s Ms. Day Levesque in regard to the firm’s investment strategy. “We always take a board seat and we want to help the company by being actively involved, leveraging our advisory boards with really fantastic people out of the food and ag industry in Israel and out of academics in Israel and Europe. We also want to leverage the network we have built over the past four years – whether it is with other funds in North America that may want to do a follow on investment or with strategic corporates that may want to cooperate with the start-ups or whether it is strategic corporates that may want to buy the company. That network and our own active involvement is really helping companies to achieve their goals and create more value.”

GreenSoil Invesetments has also backed Tipa, which produces perishable food packaging.

“When you go the market and buy an orange, you eat and throw away the peel without thinking about it and six months later the peel is gone, says Seosman. “But that’s not what happens when you buy an energy bar, a bag of Muesli, or potato chips. There are whole mountains of that stuff around the world. What Tipa does is develop food packaging that’ll mimic the orange peel.”