By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media The Helios Climate, Energy Access, and Resilience (CLEAR) Fund, overseen by African-focused PE firm Helios Investment Partners, has reached its first close after securing $200 million in anchor investments across multiple companies and governments. British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution, committed $20 million to the fund, […]

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media In its maiden engagement with an institutional timberland investment manager, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank Group division, has committed $50 million to jumpstart BTG Pactual’s Timberland Investment Group (TIG) Latin American reforestation strategy. The announcement was made at a signing ceremony in São Paulo, Brazil, where […]

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media This summer, Grounded Capital, a San Francisco-based SEC-registered investment advisor, has made back-to-back investments to support sustainable food production in the United States. These included a $22.5 million investment into Lotus Foods coupled with a new equity investment into the Straus Family Creamery in June and July, respectively. Grounded […]

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media Leaf Agriculture, an agtech behind a unified application programming interface (API) for food and agriculture, has announced the close of an $11.3 million Series A round. The fundraising, spearheaded by Spero Ventures, included participation from Leaf’s current roster of backers. As part of the investment, Leaf welcomed Spero Ventures […]

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media Applied Carbon, a Houston, Texas-based agtech startup whose automated machines convert ag crop waste into biochar for carbon sequestration, has attracted $21.5 million in a Series A round for its biochar technology. Led by TO VC, the round extended to multiple participants, including Congruent Ventures, Grantham Foundation, Microsoft Climate […]

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media InnerPlant, a Davis, California-based farmer-first seed-technology startup, has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by an alliance of large North American farmers spearheaded by Coutts Agro, an ag operator and investor. Other participants in the round included Systemiq Capital, Deere & Company and Bison Ventures, […]

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media Natural Ventures, an impact-driven investment firm with offices in the UAE and the Netherlands, has announced the first close of its inaugural fund with $100 million in commitments. The fund’s roster of anchor investors includes Germany’s Helm AG, Swiss-based family office Chemovarteq and a strategic UAE investor amid a […]

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media Monarch Tractor, a Livermore, a California-based startup behind the first 100 percent electric, autonomous smart tractor on the planet, dubbed MK-V, has raised $133 million in a Series C round. The fundraising, which according to the company is the biggest of its kind in agricultural robotics history, was co-led […]

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media Australia-based Atlantic salmon producer Huon Aquaculture, which is 100 percent backed by Brazilian food giant JBS, has committed to invest A$110 million (US$71.8 million) to bolster land-based salmon production at its Whale Point site in southern Tasmania. Huon, Australia’s No. 2 salmon producer and the pioneer of aquaculture and […]

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media Farmland LP, a California-based investment firm dedicated to transforming conventional farmland into sustainable organic farms, has announced the acquisition of three properties in Northern California’s Sacramento Delta across 2,625 acres for a combined price tag of $35.6 million. The farms, all three of which are currently planted with almonds, […]

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media Manna Tree Partners, a global private equity firm based in Vail, Colorado, and focused on nutrition, has taken a controlling interest in Verde Farms, a Woburn, Massachusetts, company that produces 100 percent grass-fed and pasture-raised beef. As a follow on to a minority $15 million stake taken in 2020, […]

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media Consolidation is afoot in Australia’s water entitlement market. In its second acquisition in a matter of weeks, ASX-listed Regal Partners has announced it will take a 40 percent stake in Argyle Group, which invests in a diverse portfolio of water entitlements, combining two of the country’s biggest asset managers […]