AgFunder published their flagship investment report last week; you can download the free report from this link.
At the headline level, 2019 saw $19.8 billion invested across the agri-foodtech sector, a 4.8% decline in dollar value from 2018’s record breaking numbers. While marginally down on the year, it compares favourably to a broader pullback in funding across the venture capital industry as a whole, and proves that 2018's bumper intake for agri-foodtech wasn't an outlier!
The report provides insight to investment trends across the value chain of agriculture & food. Investment in Upstream startups - early stage companies providing innovation closer to the farm - reached new heights in 2019, in contrast to the broader contraction seen in Downstream deals owing largely to increasing domination by the industry’s more 'mature' players.
Not surprisingly, investment in the “Innovative Food” category, made up mostly by alternative protein plays, doubled year-over-year to $1 billion (accounting for 5% of the total investment pie). This was bolstered by Impossible Foods’ $300 million bridge round last Fall, and a 17% overall increase in the number of deals in what has become a very hot sub-sector of the agri-foodtech world.
It's an exciting time to be investing in the agri-foodtech sector. The nearly $20 billion headline number marks a 250% increase over the past five years. More importantly however, it reflects increasing recognition of the need for innovation in how we as a society look at food: from production, to distribution, and ultimately consumption.
In 2019 AgFunder expanded its footprint to Asia with the launch of GROW, the region’s first dedicated agri-foodtech accelerator, based in Singapore. Through the GROW Asia Fund, we are offering accredited individuals and institutions the opportunity to invest in the vision of delivering a more sustainable food system for all.
Interested in the full report? You can check it out here
Keen to meet up with the AgFunder team? Leave a comment below or email kohjiaway@bansea.org and we'll run a sharing session with the AgFunder team.