August 22, 2017

Content contributed by: Fondo de Capitalización e Inversión del Sector Rural (FOCIR)

The Technical Committee of the Capitalization and Investment Fund for the Rural Sector (FOCIR for its Spanish acronym) on August 18 had its Third Ordinary Session where the participation of FOCIR, as a Limited Partner (LP) in three Mexican venture capital (VC) funds focused on AgriTech, was authorized.

During the session, Luis Alberto Ibarra, managing director at FOCIR, highlighted that even though Mexican institutions, both governmental and non-governmental, have played an important role in financing agribusiness research projects, there is still a significant gap for these research projects to become viable and profitable to private equity and venture capital funds. 

To narrow this gap, FOCIR is advancing  the development of the Mexican AgriTech ecosystem by investing in three VC funds: InnovaCamp Food-Agrobusiness Ventures, Euno Capital, and Ercus-Abaco. All of which are highly experienced in private equity, and capable of adding value and strengthening corporate governance to the projects invested.

The investment amount authorized by the Technical Committee of FOCIR was US$4.1 million, which will release an additional estimated  US$39.5 million, by combining public and private resources in the new venture capital funds. This sum will allow for the financing of approximately 40 projects in the AgriTech and agribusiness sectors.

With these actions, FOCIR seeks to strengthen the Mexican agro-food value chain, taking advantage of technological innovations to achieve more efficient, sustainable, and productive processes.