November 12, 2024

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media

Food and ag asset manager Ceres Partners has tapped a pair of seasoned agriculture and natural resources investors to oversee the firm’s private equity practice. Nick Schupbach and Justin Lott — co-founders of ag and water investment firm Appia Capital Partners — have joined Ceres as managing director and director, respectively, of its private equity division. Schupbach and Lott will help spearhead Ceres’ private equity strategy, including the growth of its existing food and agriculture investments alongside the development of U.S. water resource investment opportunities.

Located in South Bend, Indiana, Ceres Partners oversees a massive $1.7 billion farmland fund. Over the years, Ceres Partners’ management team worked with the Appia Capital co-founders, with chief investment officer Brandon Zick saying that this work dovetails with their existing private equity strategy. Ceres’ private equity portfolio comprises multiple holdings with a focus on agtech, waste and wastewater, indoor ag, specialty beverage, aquaculture and artificial intelligence.

Schupbach became an active investor in water rights after researching them around the time of the Great Financial Crisis. Since then, he has gained extensive experience sourcing and underwriting natural resources investments across water rights, farmland and timber, in addition to an ancillary focus on carbon. Before Appia, he led the natural resources group for the Barings Private Equity/Real Assets team, the successor firm to real asset investor Wood Creek Capital Management.

Lott boasts over two decades of investment experience in both liquid and private markets. He has similarly gained extensive experience in water, agriculture, transportation and other ag-related markets in which has also served on several corporate boards.

Schupbach spent some time with GAI News to share more details about his new role.

1.) GAI News: Can you share about the evolution of your relationship with Ceres Partners?

Schupbach: At Wood Creek Capital Management, I partnered with Ceres in 2011 to build out a farmland portfolio after evaluating close to 50 farmland opportunities and managers. I got to work closely with CIO Brandon Zick and CEO Perry Vieth and was impressed with their character and performance. We’ve kept in touch ever since. In 2024, Justin and I decided that by joining Ceres, we could offer clients exposure to an attractive water opportunity set and help Ceres grow their agricultural private equity business.

2.) GAI News: Will your focus be on water rights, agricultural assets or both?

Schupbach: Water and agriculture go hand-in-hand, and we expect to spend time on both water and Ceres’ agricultural PE strategy with the existing team. Our water network brings new sourcing channels to Ceres’ PE effort and Ceres’ farming network brings new sourcing channels to our water effort. U.S. water supplies, particularly in the Southwest, are under increasing pressure, and we are seeing rapid market development toward a solution. We think this is positive for ag-focused water strategies and a trend that investors should be following.

3.) GAI News: What will be the U.S. geographical focus?

Schupbach: On water, we’re focused on a compelling opportunity set in California and Arizona, where the need for reliable water resources is particularly acute and has recently intensified. We started investing in these markets in 2014, and the need for the kinds of water solutions that we target has grown remarkably since then. Water demand and prices have grown to new highs, and we expect that trend to continue.

GAI News: Thank you for your time, Nick, and congratulations again to both you and Justin for joining Ceres.

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