On a venture capital investment basis, precision ag and biologicals are the two sectors driving agtech’s growth according to recent research by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The agriculture and bioproducts categories have seen 939% increase in investment over the first quarter of 2013 totaling $135 million, and of all investment in the clean tech sector, these two categories account for 38% of activity. Other sources reiterate these findings. First quarter 2014 data released by i3 shows that food and agriculture asset investments including agtech drew $203 million – a five-year high. Of all the deals, 59% were early-stage investments pointing to higher interest and activity by venture capitalists. Recent high profile agtech investments include Khosla Ventures and Otter Capital investing $15 million into BioConsoritia and BrightFarms closing its Series B round with $7.4 million in commitments.
To receive relevant news stories with summaries provided by GAI Research & Insight, subscribe to Global AgDevelopments, our free weekly enhanced eNews service