November 26, 2014
Silicon Valley is venturing into the entire food production chain. Since 2009 investments in the sector have grown by 63% per year, and experts are predicting that growth in the ag tech sector regarding the number of new startups and venture capital investments will outpace other technologies in five years. In the third quarter of 2014 venture capitalists and private equity firms invested $269 million into 41 agricultural projects and food startups – a record for the sector, and double the amount invested in the third quarter of 2013 according to Cleantech Group. Investors are not only investing in companies and startups that develop new technologies to increase agricultural production, some of the biggest investors are targeting groups that influence the type of foods that will be produced, such as Farmland LP which purchases farms and converts then into organic pastures to be used by both ranchers and farmers, or San Francisco-based Hampton Creek which raised $23 million earlier in 2014 to fund the study of 6,000 plants to discover plant-based replacements for animal products in popular processed foods. To read further:
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