June 29, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan -Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Anterra Capital announced the successful first close at $175 million for its second food and agtech fund, Anterra F&A Ventures II.

With a mission to invest and partner with innovators affecting real transformation on the world’s food ecosystem through biotech and digital technologies across crop science, human nutrition, and animal health, Anterra is a research-driven, value-focused specialist investor that brings together the traditional notion of venture investment with an active approach to “venture creation”.

This unique methodology has attracted an aligned cadre of high-profile global investors. Existing investors that continue to support the company through this round include Eight Roads Ventures, backed by Fidelity, and Rabo Investments, the investment arm Rabobank, the largest global food and ag bank out of the Netherlands.

Daniel Auerbach, senior managing partner and global head of Eight Roads Ventures, commented, “Within Food & Ag, Anterra sits at the intersection of life sciences and digital technology and our expanded investment reflects our confidence in Anterra’s mission, leadership and performance for us over the past eight years.”

Joining this pair were new investors Novo Holdings, a leading global life sciences investor based in Denmark; Tattarang, the holding company of Australia’s Forrest family’s private business interests and one of the largest private investment groups in the country; along with other unnamed family offices, sovereign wealth funds, and state-owned investors originating from multiple continents. 

Kartik Dharmadhikari, partner of Novo Growth within Novo Holdings added, “We are excited to partner with Anterra and support the fund’s transformational mission, which is aligned with our investment activity across the biotech space overall, and emphasizes our commitment to investing in innovation within Food & Agriculture.”

Anterra, which has offices in Amsterdam and Boston, noted that while investor interest in the food and ag space is gaining traction, early-stage capital commitments in the space significantly lag behind those in other critical industries.

For example, early-stage investment in the food and ag segment is less than half of that committed to pharma and biotech ($40 billion), and one-fifth of commitments in the software space ($100 billion).

“The food economy is in critical condition, and new digital and biotech solutions are desperately needed in order to support better outcomes for farmers, consumers and the environment,” said Adam Anders, managing partner, Anterra Capital. “With the first close, we continue our mission to sustainably transform our food economy, building on our leadership position as an early-stage investor in markets such as plant and animal health, while actively expanding our investment activity across the food and agriculture value chain.”

– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.