The recipients of the fifth round of funding from the UK government’s Agri-Tech Catalyst fund have been announced. Twenty-four agtech projects, with the goal of solving the most challenging agriculture problems, have been awarded shares of this round’s £16 million. Launched in 2014 with a £70 million investment under the UK’s Agri-Tech Strategy, the Agri-Tech […]
Bio agtech firm, Indigo, announced it has closed on a $100 million Series C led by Alaska Permanent Fund and including Flagship Ventures, members of the company’s board and management, and other unnamed previous investors. Indigo, which was originally created within Flagship’s in-house incubator, VentureLabs, is working to answer the need of feeding a booming […]
After announcing three strategic partnerships within a week’s time, Monsanto has now announced that it is partnering with Microsoft with the goal of investing in Brazilian agtech startups, reports Fortune. Monsanto will commit up to 300 million reais (US$92 million) to an investment fund that will be managed by Microsoft, and which will consider and […]
Venture capital fund 500 Startups and early stage investor East Ventures have invested an undisclosed amount in Indonesian agtech startup, iGrow. Founded in 2014 by Jim Oklahoma, Muhaimin Iqbal, and Andreas Senjaya , iGrow, which has been described as, “Farmville for real life”, is a large scale micro-financing platform. Urban investors invest a small amount […]
Global AgInvesting’s AgTech Week event, held last week in San Francisco, brought together more than 250 stakeholders, including innovators and investors, in the agtech space to share insights and build relationships to move solutions forward. One of the biggest themes of the week was the growing opportunity in plant biology. Coverage of the topic included […]
Global financial services provider and leading agriculture, food, and beverage investment bank, Rabobank, has partnered with San Francisco-based technology campus, RocketSpace to launch Terra, an accelerator dedicated to the agtech and food industries. “Companies around the world are responding to an industry that must adapt to tremendous change, from new consumer preferences on one end to […]
Topcon Positioning Group (TPG), manufacturer of precise positioning products and solutions, announced the creation of the Topcon Agriculture Group. The newly launched unit will be used by the company to integrate and connect its precision agriculture activities into one platform to better serve its aftermarket and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers. In conjunction with the launch, the […]
Benson Hill is bringing cloud biology to agriculture. In May, the Durham, North Carolina and St. Louis, Missouri-based start-up announced the launch of CropOS, a platform to help companies access more efficient tools to increase the rate of innovation in the plant biology space. CropOS, a “cognitive engine” designed to embolden plant genomics research with […]
Agriculture and food giant, Land O’Lakes has partnered with Techstars to launch Startup Next Food & Tech, a pre-accelerator program for innovative food and agtech startups, reports Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Land O’Lakes will provide mentors, and will host the part-time program from its TractorWorks Building at its North Loop offices, while Brett Brohl, a […]
Israel-based global precision irrigation firm, Netafim, has officially opened its first production plant in China. Located in Yinchuan, capital of the northwest Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (Ningxia), the facility will employ Netafim’s state-of-the-art smart irrigation technology to produce a range of precision irrigation solutions from drip lines to full-operation solutions. With less than 200 mm of […]
