GAI News Exclusive: Investor Perspective: The Emergence of Global Agritech Hotspots – New Zealand
by Arama Kukutai – Finistere Ventures Co-Founder & Partner, San Diego New Zealand has long been a major agricultural producer, often lampooned by visitors in the past for having more sheep than people. Today, it is dairy and horticulture that dominate ag and food exports in excess of US$37 billion. Moving up the ranks, technology has
Read moreContributed Content: Four Ways Diligence Protects the Brand
Editor’s note: The below is contributed content. By Jingyi Li Blank, Director at Mintz Group Wesley Batista and his brother Joesley deserved much more scrutiny. In 2017, the CEO and former chairman, respectively, of JBS S.A., in Brazil, one of the world’s largest meat processing companies, entered into a plea bargain with investig
Read moreFrom GAI Gazette: Does ‘Big Money’ Hamper Innovation?
By Michael Helmstetter, CEO and co-founder of TechAccel, as appeared in GAI Gazette, June 2018, Volume 5, Issue 2 The 2015 agtech investment bubble was a master class in the difference between ‘big money’ and ‘smart money’. Big money flows indiscriminately into the ‘Next Big Thing’. While it might fund a lot of startups, it
Read moreHighQuest Comments on Agri/Food Companies Seeking Outside Capital
Greg Mellinger, CEO of HighQuest Group, meets regularly with agricultural and food companies, and the conversation inevitably touches upon the importance of available and strong capital bases. This is especially true for smaller/medium-sized businesses with niche focus or who are competing head-to-head in commodity areas. On the other sid
Read moreBrazilian Farmland – Is the Risk Worth the Reward?
By Michael DeSa, Founder of AGD Consulting, and Monica Ganley, Principal at Quarterra In recent years, Brazil has solidified its role as a global agricultural powerhouse. It has become the world’s largest exporter of soybeans, coffee, and sugar, as well as the second largest overall food producer on the planet. Over the past 15 years, Bra
Read moreExpert Commentary: A Decade in the Farmland Asset Class Evolution
By Jeff Conrad, Managing Principal and President, AgIS Capital LLC Institutional investment in farmland grew significantly over the last decade. This growth started in the more developed U.S. market and spread to emerging markets around the world. During this time, the NCREIF Farmland Index, a recognized property index for U.S. farmland, ex
Read moreExpert Commentary: Emerging From Crisis, Reflections on Brazilian Markets
Brazil has proven to truly be a global agricultural powerhouse; emerging as one of the world’s leading agricultural producers and sought-after trading partners. However, recent years of political uncertainty and financial instability have negatively affected the country’s ag sector both domestically and in international markets. But as
Read moreExpert Commentary: Early-Stage Funding Gap in Agtech and How to Close It
by Brett Morris, Principal for TechAccel Early in 2017 I was approached by several CEOs seeking additional funding for their startup. This is nothing out of the ordinary for venture professionals as we see hundreds of deals come across our desk annually. These conversations, however, were different from the previous year. Most of the ent
Read more15 Minutes With… Deborah Perkins, Global Head of Food & Agribusiness at ING
ING, a global financial institution with more than 52,000 employees and banking services for customers in over 40 countries, today announced the appointment of Deborah Perkins as global head of its new Food & Agribusiness division. Perkins, who will be based in Amsterdam, has been charged with leading the growth and further development
Read moreExpert Commentary: The Fallout of Rescinding the Obama Admin Marijuana Guidelines
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has rescinded guidelines put in place by the Obama Administration that removed marijuana from the list of federal-level drug enforcement priorities. Moving forward, Sessions has expressed that it will now be up to the discretion of each U.S. attorney to decide to what extent issues surrounding marijuana will be l
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